POTSDAM – A Potsdam man and St. Lawrence University undergraduate walked 100 miles, from Camp David, to Washington D.C., to support climate change.

David Smith joined other activists in the walk, to urge President Obama to enact his climate change policy by rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline.

Smith joined the activist group “Walk for Our Grandchildren” as an opportunity to be part of the change he wishes to see in the world.

The walk began July 19 at Camp David with twenty-five thru walkers. The dedicated environmental activists slept on a civil war battlefield, hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail, and walked along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

The walk ended July 27 with a couple hundred walkers marching down 16th street to a rally in Lafayette Park, Washington D.C.

In a release regarding the event, smith said he participated in the walk” to better himself and make it known throughout the community that climate change is knocking on everyone’s doorstep.”

Smith, who is studying Environmental Studies and Geology is a strong opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Smith said the Keystone XL pipeline is a 1,179 mile long pipeline spanning from Alberta, Canada to the Coast of Texas.

Smith and other opponents of the Keystone XL project say the pipeline will transport oil that is not for American consumption, and raise oil prices in Midwest. He also claims Alberta Tar Sands, where the oil will be harvested, releases more carbon dioxide than any other form of oil in extracting processes. He said the tar sands are linked to cancers in First Nations people in Alberta.

“The amount of jobs proposed from the project are a couple thousand rather than original proposed hundred thousand, and oil companies are uncertain how to clean up this type of bitumen oil-like substance, if spills do occur,” Smith said in an emailed release.

Smith said the walk was successful by raising awareness throughout surrounding communities, in which walkers joined local environmental groups to protest a natural gas compressor station in Myersville, MD, and pushed the council of supervisors in Leesburg, Va. to enact their energy plan passed a few years ago.

He said the walk also received plenty of media attention when conducting a nonviolent civil disobedience action at the headquarters of Environmental Resource Management (ERM).