‼️BREAKING‼️ We disrupted polluter in chief, Gretchen Watkins, the president of Shell, at Columbia University this morning. While Columbia is home to some of the most distinguished scientists in the world, Columbia chose to platform fossil fuel CEOs at their climate and energy forums.
Even as Columbia claims to be unbiased, they are simultaneously funded by the same corporations that have spent DECADES weaponizing disinformation to sow doubt within the world surrounding the legitimacy of the climate crisis.
There will be no spewing of bullshit on our watch >:)
On Thursday protesters chanted: ‘Off fossil finance!’ and held a banner reading: ‘Fed Is Burning: Money, Futures, Planet’
The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, was escorted out of an event Thursday afternoon after a group of climate protesters briefly took the stage before he was due to give a speech. He took the stage after a 15-minute delay.
At the Economic Club of New York, protesters stormed the stage holding a banner that read “Fed Is Burning: Money, Futures, Planet” and chanting “Off fossil finance!” Powell, who was on stage, briefly left the event before returning to deliver his speech as planned. Security officials cleared protesters from the room.
The protesters were with climate activist group Climate Defiance, which focuses on disruptive direct action through strikes, blockades and mass occupation to raise awareness about fossil fuels.
More than a hundred protesters with the group interrupted the White House Correspondents Dinner in May, blocking multiple entrances and forcing attendees to maneuver through a dense crowd.
Earlier this month, activists disrupted an event featuring the US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg. Activists sat onstage, linking arms, and spoke to the crowd about deepwater drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico. Protesters chanted: “No new drilling, keep your promise!” and audience members were eventually asked to leave the room as police tried to clear the protesters.
In less than a year, Climate Defiance has drawn the admiration of activists and the ire of government leaders and CEOs. It may be a sign of
Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:
The Wellesley Rotary Club was having a perfectly ordinary country club dinner on Thursday, Jan. 25, until about 18 climate activists hopped on stage and started talking about fossil fuels.
“Brian Moynihan is one of the top five funders of fossil fuels causing the climate crisis,” Izzi Graj said to the crowd, before turning to event speaker and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. Other demonstrators crowded around the stage silently unfurled one banner reading “Bank of Atrocities,” with the Bank of America logo and another reading “Business as Usual is a Climate Disaster.”
“Brian, you’re killing us, and turning a blind eye to devastating suffering,” Graj said to Moynihan, voice raised to combat groans from the crowd that had paid $100 a head to attend the event, and wasn’t interested in hearing how Bank of America was ranked one of the top five global financiers of fossil fuels in Banking on Climate Chaos’ latest report. Since the Wellesley action, Bank of America has also backtracked on prior commitments to stop financing coal.
But Climate Defiance, whose members in attendance had also purchased tickets for the event, was determined to make sure the audience couldn’t ignore that reality. The youth-led direct action organization born last March has a laser-focused mission: to use disruptive, strictly non-violent direct actions to speed the end of U.S. reliance on fossil fuels. It’s part of a growing ecosystem of climate organizations that are using direct action to try to increase the political urgency to act on climate change, and get power players and the American public to respond to the science that shows meeting global climate goals requires a phase-out of fossil fuel use. It enters the scene following groups like Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for the Future and the Sunrise Movement—climate action-oriented organizations that have made waves nationally and globally.
But even among peer organizations, Climate Defiance stands out for its tactic of birddogging the prominent people it targets and its rapid rise to notoriety. Since its inception last spring, the group has made frequent headlines and racked up millions of social media views, pursuing heavy hitters like Vice President Kamala Harris, White House national climate advisor Ali Zaidi, Senator Joe Manchin, Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods and President Joe Biden.
Most recently, the group—alongside partner organization Planet Over Profit—confronted former CIA director David Petraeus at a book talk in New York City on Friday, criticizing his firm’s involvement with the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada and the excessive force and surveillance tactics used against pipeline opponents by Canadian police. Petraeus is chairman of the Global Institute at private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, which is a majority stakeholder in the project.
The group is unusually well-funded for a scrappy activist organization, and has a penchant for attracting influential friends, from members of Congress to Hollywood stars.
Most of Climate Defiance’s actions follow the same simple formula executed in Wellesley: go to a fancy event with powerful, important people, loudly and visibly call them out for their fossil fuel ties and then post a video of the action on the internet. Respectability is not on the group’s list of priorities.
"We shut him down so hard," Climate Activists Swarm Joe Manchin at Diner
"Climate Defiance believes Manchin is “the single-largest recipient of oil and gas money.” “He chairs the Senate Energy Committee and uses this role to protect his personal coal company. He earns more income from this coal company than he does from his senate salary. It shows,” they said.
READ MORE "We shut him down so hard," Climate Activists Swarm Joe Manchin at Diner (msn.com)
Climate Defiance, a group of guerrilla activists, stages viral encounters with politicians and businessmen they say are complicit in global
Excerpt from this story from Rolling Stone:
ON THURSDAY, FRESH off a major policy victory, organizers and activists from Climate Defiance confronted Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan at an event at a country club in his home town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Moynihan was there to participate in a fireside chat about the economy and the finance industry. A Rolling Stone reporter was there to document the action.
As soon as Moynihan started speaking, he was surrounded by protesters from the climate group. An activist loudly demanded that the CEO commit to stop financing fossil fuels; behind him, activists unfurled several banners, including one that read “Bank of Atrocities.” Soon, they started shouting: “Off fossil fuels, Brian! Off fossil fuels!”
Bank of America has been identified as one of the top four financiers of fossil fuels globally. From 2016 to 2022, Bank of America was responsible for nearly $280 billion in fossil-fuel financing — with projects stretching from the Arctic to the Amazon, and partnerships with oil companies Occidental and ExxonMobil, according to a report commissioned by the Sierra Club and other prominent environmental groups.
The Rotary Club crowd did not want to hear about Bank of America’s financing of fossil fuels. The audience loudly booed. Some in the crowd got violent. Two audience members ripped a banner away from the activists, causing one of them to fall. One of those audience members shoved a Climate Defiance staffer who was attempting to de-escalate. An older man tried to hit that same staffer with his cane; he subsequently appeared to hit a woman staffing the Rotary Club event with his cane as she walked by, perhaps under the impression she was part of the climate action (she was not). A man pushed another activist down to the ground twice.
Skeptics may question the value of the confrontational, direct actions from Climate Defiance. The climate group uses nonviolent, disruptive protest to popularize its unyielding demands for action to address global warming — targeting politicians, civic leaders, and corporate titans whom they consider complicit in promoting, or profiting from, the fossil fuel industries that are destroying our livable climate.
The guerrilla tactics of Climate Defiance turn quiet gatherings of the rich and the powerful — fundraisers, roundtables, and fireside chats that otherwise might proceed with little notice — into viral, video confrontations that travel widely on social media, racking up millions of views. The people in the room are often not necessarily the intended audience — clicks and media coverage are top-of-mind — though there’s growing evidence that some officials targeted in Climate Defiance’s actions are listening.
The group claimed what may be its largest victory to date on Wednesday, with The New York Times reporting that the Biden administration will pause a decision on whether to approve CP2, a liquid natural-gas export terminal that would be the largest in the United States, capable of moving up to 20 million tons of year to the global market.
“This is monumental — this shows the power of direct action,” says Greenberg, 30. He underscores that his group held multiple actions targeting top Department of Energy officials over natural gas exports and CP2, and “heavily emphasized” the project in meetings with the Biden administration.
