From the airport to a golf course, museum gala and private mansions, activists confronted the extreme wealth driving global warming, and the challenges facing grassroots organizations that stand up to billionaires.
By Keerti Gopal, Inside Climate News
Sophie Shepherd has always described herself as a “rule follower,” but days before her 22nd birthday, she chose to face arrest in the middle of a Long Island driveway. Under a blazing hot July sun, two police officers sawed through the PVC pipes that connected her arms to the 13 other protesters blocking the entrance to a private airport.
“What I love about direct action is you’re actually getting in people’s faces and disrupting their way of life,” Shepherd said. “That push is what’s necessary to change the temperature in the room.”
Last month, Shepherd and around forty other climate activists from New York City and Long Island descended on the East Hampton Town Airport to heat up the conversation on how the super rich drive global warming.
As police separated and arrested the demonstrators blocking the driveway, other activists in the group surrounded them carrying plastic pitchforks and posters that read “tax the rich.” Their bright red t-shirts read, “billionaires, what are you saving up for, hell?” above a graphic of cash burning. A five-year-old holding a pitchfork and a homemade poster started a chant: “stop private jets, stop funding oil!” Behind them, in the distance, sat a few rows of private planes and helicopters.
The airport blockade was only the first of eight actions that weekend organized by New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Planet over Profit and Sunrise Movement NYC. In addition to shutting down the airport—for which Shepherd and 13 other protesters were arrested—the activists marched for a wealth tax with leaders from the Shinnecock Indigenous nation, crashed an exclusive golf course, stormed a museum gala, demonstrated outside the private homes of a Citibank chairman and a private equity billionaire and stirred up climate conversations at two high-end restaurants.
The racially and socioeconomically diverse coalition of activists sought to draw attention to the disproportionate role the ultra-wealthy play in filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses, advocate for a wealth tax to fund climate justice initiatives and pressure top fossil fuel beneficiaries to stop funding climate-warming activities. During their weekend together, the activists also grappled with what it takes to win lasting change in a stubborn world.
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