As Temperature Records Fall, the Summer of Heat on Wall Street Is Warming Up

It’s not even July yet, but already the world is on fire. Over the last few weeks, more than 1,300 Hajj pilgrims died due to heat sickness. In Greece, the Acropolis shuttered after several tourists succumbed in the heat. The highest June temperature ever reliably recorded on the continent of Africa occurred in Egypt. In Mexico, hundreds of howler monkeys have perished. In the United States, multiple heat records were broken.

As we learn to live in this hotter, harsher world it’s critical to remember that these are not natural disasters. These heatwaves have been inflicted upon us by a relatively small number of people: fossil fuel executives and the politicians and corporations that have done their bidding over the past half a century.

It seems appropriate, then, that, as the world bakes, more than 100 climate groups are running an aptly named new campaign: the Summer of Heat on Wall Street, a campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience against the banks, investors, and insurance companies that are propping up the oil and gas industry.

Citi workers might not like the fact that we’re engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at their headquarters, but they should like the fact that their company is directly complicit in the heatwaves killing people around the world even less.

Since the campaign launched on June 10, some 184 arrests have been made at the headquarters of the world’s largest funder of fossil fuel expansion: Citibank.

During the campaign’s first week, activists (including myself) blockaded every entrance to Citi’s HQ with 150+ people, signs, and banners. On Tuesday, youth groups led the way, blocking the doors while dressed as orcas. On Wednesday, it was the turn of the scientists, including Dr. Sandra Steingraber and Dr. Peter Kalmus, who led a teach-in at the HQ and delivered a letter to Citi’s CEO from 750+ climate scientists. On Thursday, elders blockaded the headquarters with 50+ rocking chairs.

The following week, youth-led climate groups organized a “Climate Justice Means Free Palestine” rally, which turned into a brief occupation of Citi’s headquarters as young people called out both Citi’s role in the atrocities in Gaza and fossil fuels. On Friday, students and other young people blockaded Citi’s HQ with four 15-foot long pipelines that spelled out: Citibank Stop Funding Death.

I don’t know if it was because of the record-breaking heat, or because it was the seventh protest at the headquarters in 10 business days, but Citi employees were much more irascible on Friday than at previous actions. One middle-aged man violently pushed a young student. Another kicked a climate defender in the shin. When one climate defender pointed out that hundreds of people have died in the recent extreme heat, she was told by a Citi worker to “take a Xanax.”

Citi workers might not like the fact that we’re engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at their headquarters, but they should like the fact that their company is directly complicit in the heatwaves killing people around the world even less.

And so, no matter how angry Citi workers get, or how often we are arrested, we will not let up. This Friday, we’re gearing up for the largest Summer of Heat action so far: the Gulf South Rising, Fossil Banks Sinking March and Mass Civil Disobedience.

We’ll be joined at the action by 130 organizers from communities in the Gulf South directly impacted by the dozens of new fossil fuel projects that are currently slated for the coastlines of Texas and Louisiana, who have traveled to New York to tell Citibank and other Wall Street companies to stop bankrolling the companies polluting their communities.

On Friday, we’ll meet at Zuccotti Park. The choice of location is intentional. In 2011, a few dozen activists arrived with tents at Zuccotti Park and helped spark Occupy Wall Street, a global movement that quickly spread to more than 1,500 cities around the world. From Zuccotti, we will march on the headquarters of Citibank, where more than 100 people will engage in nonviolent civil disobedience by blocking the doors to Citi’s headquarters once again.

Repeatedly blockading the headquarters of a bank may seem like a drastic action, but as the deadly heat currently scorching the world reminds us: The fight to end the fossil fuel industry could not be more important. And as history reminds us, civil disobedience has been a critical strategy for social movements throughout history―and so I hope to see you there on Friday.