Global voices demand Climate Action
Mass peaceful protests rocked cities across the world over the weekend, demanding leadership end the fossil fuel era.
Climate action groups gathered to hold demonstrations worldwide from Friday through Sunday. In New York, a series of actions targeted institutions with ties to the fossil fuel industry, where over 100 arrests were made.
On Sunday, thousands marched ahead of the UN Climate Ambition Summit to call on Biden and world leaders to finally phase out oil, coal, and gas.
Indigenous leaders from Canada came to New York to challenge Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (@KKR_co) co-founder and billionaire Henry Kravis, demanding divestment from the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline endangering their sovereign land, water & air.
KKR’s head of security “appreciated their position,” but clearly not enough to grant them the dignity of an in-person meeting with the man who is driving the ongoing destruction of their territory and the harassment and arrest of their people.
While @RBC is the primary *bank* behind CGL, @KKR_co (one of the largest private equity firms in the world) is a majority stakeholder in the pipeline, owning a whopping 65% of the toxic money-pit.
On September 17, NDN Collective joined thousands of Indigenous relatives, allies, and climate justice organizers at the March to #EndFossilFuels in Lenape territories to demand that @potus take immediate action to phase out fossil fuels on public lands and waters.
In one strike in Quezon City in the Philippines, activists lay in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in protest, and held signs demanding fossil fuels — from coal to natural gas — be phased out. Outside the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources office in Jakarta, Indonesia, protesters held signs calling for end to dirty fuels and greenwashing as police officers looked on.
In Sweden, climate activists gathered in front of Parliament, just next to the Royal Palace where Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf was celebrating his 50th anniversary on the throne. Their chants about “climate justice” could be heard in the palace courtyard as the king watched the changing of the guard during the golden jubilee celebrations.
Today in New York by the group Climate Defiance:
Breaking: we are shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is a climate criminal. He must be brought to justice. Today we stand in the pouring rain, arm-in-arm with dozens of partners, to do so.
Respect us or expect us.
These protests are nothing short of historic. I am deeply moved to see the power of community and organization come together to be loud in the face of extractive industry authoritarianism. There is so much more to come.