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climate defiance
As Smoke Returns to NY Skies, Climate Activists Disrupt Zeldin Event in the Hamptons
"Mr. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is making it impossible for us to regulate these life-threatening emissions," one activist said.
Jul 27, 2025
As smoke from Canadian wildfires triggered an air quality alert for New York City and Long Island on Sunday, activists with Climate Defiance disrupted a speech by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Hamptons.
The disruption came four days after reports emerged that Zeldin's EPA was set to repeal the 2009 "endangerment finding" that greenhouse gas emissions "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations." It is this finding that has given the EPA the authority to regulate climate emissions under the Clean Air Act.
"We are in a climate crisis largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels," the first activist to disrupt the speech said, according to video footage shared by Climate Defiance. "And Mr. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is making it impossible for us to regulate these life-threatening emissions."
Zeldin's speech took place at the Global Breakfast Forum, held at The Hamptons Synagogue.
"What are you going to say to your children when the Hamptons are underwater?"
Several of the young Jewish activists who disrupted the speech referenced their faith.
"The Torah commands us to be stewards of the Earth, not the oil industry," one activist said.
The audience largely responded with boos and jeers, and one attacked two of the activists with a chair, according to Climate Defiance video footage.
However, the Climate Defiance activists emphasized that Zeldin and the pro-fossil fuel Trump administration were the forces that would ultimately disrupt life and community in the Hamptons.
"History is going to remember you as a monster," one yelled out to Zeldin.
Another said: "Lee Zeldin, you have taken half of a million dollars from fossil fuels. What are you going to say to your children when the Hamptons are underwater?"
The disrupters also referenced Project 2025 and the broader Trump administration. According to the Project 2025 Tracker, Zeldin's EPA has achieved 57% of the Heritage Foundation road map's objectives.
"Lee Zeldin is carrying out the plans of Project 2025 and fossil fuels to a T," one said. "Your orange overlord does not care about any of you. All of you will be suffering from the rising seas and the worsening climate crisis."
A member of Extinction Rebellion NYC, who assisted with the protest, said in a statement: "Heritage has long been helmed by fossil fuel interests like Koch Industries, which has done some of the heaviest lifting to make sure nothing is done on climate change in the U.S. The majority of these wishes have been executed by Zeldin himself, and through Trump, who asked for $1 billion from oil companies in a dinner at Mar-a-Lago during his campaign. His Big, Beautiful Bill is a wish list directly penned in Project 2025. And when we hit 4°C of warming this century, we will know the true cost of these deadly practices."
Protesters also referenced the repeal of the endangerment finding, climate-fueled extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, and the smoke pollution clouding the region as Zeldin spoke.
"There is smoke in the air for another summer," one said. "This is only going to get worse and worse."
Both New York City Emergency Management and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued Air Quality Health Advisories through 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday as smoke poured into the region from Canadian wildfires. Air quality was listed as "unhealthy for sensitive groups," and at 11:00 am Eastern Time on Sunday, New York City had the eighth worst air quality of any city on Earth.
The smoke recalled the thick orange haze that blanketed New York and other parts of the Northeast during the record-breaking Canadian wildfire season of 2023. The climate crisis makes wildfires more frequent and extreme.
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'Words Fail': WMO Report Finds CO2 Accumulating at Record Levels
"The report is very clear: This crisis is driven by the profit-driven production of coal, oil, and gas," one climate advocacy group said.
Oct 29, 2024
Climate-heating carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere more rapidly than at any time since humans evolved.
That's just one of the alarming findings from the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released Monday, which found that all three main greenhouse gases reached record atmospheric levels in 2023.
"Words fail," the group Climate Defiance wrote on social media in response to the news.
"Greenhouse gas pollution at these levels will guarantee a human and economic trainwreck for every country, without exception."
Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 hit 420.0 parts per million (ppm) in 2023, an increase of 151% since the Industrial Revolution and a level not seen since 3 to 5 million years ago, when global temperatures was 2-3°C hotter than today and sea levels were 10-20 meters higher. Methane hit 1,934 parts per billion (ppb)—or 265% higher than preindustrial levels—and nitrous oxide rose to 336.9 ppb, 125% of pre-1750 levels.
"Another year. Another record," WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a statement. "This should set alarm bells ringing among decision-makers. We are clearly off track to meet the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and aiming for 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. These are more than just statistics. Every part per million and every fraction of a degree temperature increase has a real impact on our lives and our planet."
Carbon dioxide rose by 2.3 ppm in 2023. While that was higher than the 2022 increase, it was lower than in 2019-2021. However, on a longer-term scale, atmospheric CO2 rose by 11.4% in the past 10 years, a record increase during human existence. The burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of this increase.
"The report is very clear: This crisis is driven by the profit-driven production of coal, oil, and gas," Climate Defiance wrote. "Because of these fuels, planet-heating pollution levels have gone up by 51.5%—since 1990 alone."
However, 2023's CO2 increases were also caused by forest fires—including a record-breaking fire season in Canada—as well as a possible reduction in the ability of Earth's natural carbon sinks to absorb the greenhouse gas. While vegetation-related CO2 emissions are partially influenced by natural cycles—El Niño years like 2023 are drier and tend to see more fires—they could also be a sign of dangerous feedback loops.
"The Bulletin warns that we face a potential vicious cycle," said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. "Natural climate variability plays a big role in carbon cycle. But in the near future, climate change itself could cause ecosystems to become larger sources of greenhouse gases."
"Wildfires could release more carbon emissions into the atmosphere, whilst the warmer ocean might absorb less CO2. Consequently, more CO2 could stay in the atmosphere to accelerate global warming," Barrett explained. "These climate feedbacks are critical concerns to human society."
The report also said that even if emissions were to cease rapidly, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means that the current rise in temperatures would linger for decades.
The rise in methane is also a concern. While it increased less in 2023 than in 2022, it hit a record-high increase over the last five years, and some of this could be due to climate feedback loops such as the melting of the Arctic permafrost or greater emissions from wetlands and other natural ecosystems as temperatures rise.
As Climate Defiance noted, WMO's graph showing the rise of methane appears to move from a linear to an exponential progression as it approaches 2023.
"It could literally be the graph that defines human history," Climate Defiance wrote.
"The most infuriating part is it didn't have to be this way," the group continued. "Had we started taking action in the 1970s—when the threat became clear—we could have easily stopped the crisis by now. Instead we gorged ourselves on SUVs and McMansions as politicians dithered and delayed."
The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is one of several annual reports released ahead of United Nations climate conferences; this year, world leaders are scheduled to gather in Baku, Azerbaijan starting on November 11 for COP29. The Bulletin comes alongside other reports finding that national policies are not on track to reduce emissions in line with the Paris agreement temperature goals.
Last week, the U.N. Emissions Gap Report concluded that current policies put the world on course for as much as 3.1°C of warming. Also on Monday, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) released its 2024 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Synthesis Report, in which it assesses the commitments that different nations have made to reduce emissions under the Paris agreement.
It found that current NDCs would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2.6% of 2019 levels by 2030, a far cry from the 43% needed to have a chance at limiting global heating to 1.5°C by 2100 and preventing ever-worsening climate impacts.
"Greenhouse gas pollution at these levels will guarantee a human and economic trainwreck for every country, without exception," U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in a statement of the current 2030 trajectory.
"Today's NDC Synthesis Report must be a turning point, ending the era of inadequacy and sparking a new age of acceleration, with much bolder new national climate plans from every country due next year," Stiell said. "The report's findings are stark but not surprising—current national climate plans fall miles short of what's needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy, and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country."
"By contrast," Stiell continued, "much bolder new national climate plans can not only avert climate chaos—done well, they can be transformational for people and prosperity in every nation."
Climate Defiance also called for renewed ambition.
"It is not too late," the group said. "There is still a small window of opportunity. Together, we will unite to stop our own demise. We will rise. We will defy all odds. There is no alternative."
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'You Cannot In Fact Do Both': Biden Slammed for Bragging About Oil Production
"No you cannot 'do both.' That would be like sending 50,000 tons of lethal weapons to a brutal, murderous regime and then telling them you 'want a cease-fire,'" said Climate Defiance.
Sep 03, 2024
Climate campaigners this week rebuked recent claims by U.S. President Joe Biden—and Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee—that the United States can simultaneously increase fossil fuel production and transition to a clean energy future.
On Saturday, Biden
boasted on social media that "on my watch, we've responsibly increased our oil production to meet our immediate needs—without delaying or deferring our transition to clean energy."
"We're America," the president added. "We can do both."
In a simultaneous swipe at the Biden administration's climate record and support for Israel's annihilation of Gaza, the direct action group Climate Defiance
retorted: "No you cannot 'do both.' That would be like sending 50,000 tons of lethal weapons to a brutal, murderous regime and then telling them you 'want a cease-fire.'"
Other climate groups and experts have also challenged Biden's position in recent days.
Climate scientist Peter Kalmus
said on social media, "This is horrifying."
Fridays for Future USA
contended, "You cannot in fact do both."
"You can't expand fossil fuels on Monday, expand renewables on Tuesday, and call it climate action on Wednesday," the youth-led movement added. "Do better."
Noting that Harris has also claimed that "we can do both," author and professor Genevieve Guenther
asserted: "'We can do both' is apparently the climate and energy messaging on which the Harris campaign has settled. (Harris used the identical phrase in her CNN interview.) I understand it as a message that meets the moment. But it's not true, and I hope they don't believe it."
Despite lofty rhetoric and campaign pledges to center climate action—including by stopping new fossil fuel drilling on public lands—Biden
oversaw the approval of more new permits for drilling on public land during his first two years in office than former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican nominee, did in 2017 and 2018.
The Biden administration has also
held fossil fuel lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and has approved the highly controversial Willow project, Mountain Valley Pipeline, and increased liquefied natural gas production and export before pausing LNG exports earlier this year.
Despite the pause—which campaigners are
urging the Biden administration to make permanent—the president has also overseen what climate defenders have called a "staggering" LNG expansion, including Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass 2 export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana and more than a dozen other projects that, if all completed, would make U.S. exported LNG emissions higher than the European Union's combined greenhouse gas footprint.
Biden also
drew ridicule last year after he said he has "practically" declared a climate emergency—a longtime demand of activists. The president's claim came during a speech touting the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocates hundreds of billions of dollars for climate-mitigating investments but also includes policies that anger green groups.
Climate campaigners widely agree that a Harris administration would be far preferable to one led by the climate science-denying Trump, one of whose mottos is "Drill, Baby, Drill." During his first term, Trump rolled back numerous climate-focused regulations and aggressively expanded U.S. fossil fuel production. Biden has reversed some of Trump's most impactful attacks on climate and environmental protections.
In April, Trump
reportedly told fossil fuel executives that a $1 billion investment in his campaign would be a great deal for them due to all the taxes and regulations they would avoid under his administration.
Meanwhile, Harris is widely expected to continue many of Biden's climate and energy policies, including embracing fracked methane gas, which she once said she wanted to ban.
In another "we can do both" moment, Harris told CNN last week that "what I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking."
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Disrupting Punchbowl News Event, Climate Advocates Say Exxon 'Should Have No Place at the DNC'
"Instead of fossil fuel profits, Democrats must prioritize making the world a healthier, more equitable place," said DNC member RL Miller, who disrupted the event declaring "Exxon lied and people died."
Aug 21, 2024
Climate campaigners on Wednesday called out and even disrupted a Punchbowl News event on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago because it was sponsored by fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil.
"Companies like Exxon should have no place at the DNC," said Sunrise Movement communications director Stevie O'Hanlon in a statement. "Exxon has spent decades misleading the public about the climate crisis and buying off politicians. If the Democratic Party wants to be taken seriously by our generation on climate change, they need to walk the talk."
Oil Change U.S. political director Collin Rees pointed out that "no major oil and gas company is pledging to do the bare minimum to prevent climate chaos."
"Fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil are moving in the opposite direction of the Democratic Party, whose platform is clear on the need to end public money for oil and gas production," he continued. "ExxonMobil continues to invest billions in new oil and gas, all while spreading misinformation and lobbying against meaningful climate policies. Exxon should have no platform at the DNC."
Rees joined DNC member RL Miller of California and Climate Defiance in disrupting the Wednesday event. Video shows that as Miller was escorted out by men who appeared to be security, she explained that "I am here because Exxon lied and people died."
"We call on party leaders and attendees to end the involvement of fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil in the political process."
Congressional, journalistic, and scholarly research has exposed how ExxonMobil knew decades ago that fossil fuels would drive climate chaos but continued to cash in on their products anyway while spreading disinformation. The company is included in various climate liability lawsuits and some Democrats on Capitol Hill have recently demanded a federal probe.
Ahead of the Wednesday action, Miller, the political director of Climate Hawks Vote, highlighted the close ties between the fossil fuel industry and the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump—who earlier this year told a room of Big Oil executives that he would roll back the Biden-Harris administration's climate policies if they invested just $1 billion into getting him elected.
"ExxonMobil and Donald Trump have already committed to each other—so why is the company sneaking around the DNC?" she asked. "We call on party leaders and attendees to end the involvement of fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil in the political process."
Miller specifically directed pressure at the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris—who has broad support from the climate movement—and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has also been welcomed by green groups, despite his record on the Line 3 pipeline and Indigenous-led opposition to it.
"Instead, our government must deliver clean, affordable energy that is tailored to our communities, supports workers to transition to new jobs, and helps regions that have been deliberately sacrificed to toxic pollution and climate chaos," she said. "Instead of fossil fuel profits, Democrats must prioritize making the world a healthier, more equitable place and electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable."
The Punchbowl event featured a "pop-up conversation" with Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) and Vijay Swarup, ExxonMobil's senior director climate strategy and technology. The daylong event also had an appearance by Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and other sponsors included Duke Energy.
In response to the news outlet sharing a photo from the event on social media, Miller said: "Yeah. That's what I disrupted and I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
"The DNC is devoted to solving the climate crisis, not propping up DINOs like Lizzie Fletcher," she added, using the shorthand for "Democrat in name only."
Climate Defiance blasted Fletcher—first elected in 2018—in a series of posts, highlighting that she has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fossil fuel industry during her career.
"Lizzie co-chairs the Natural Gas Caucus, and, since that isn't enough, also belongs to the Oil and Gas Caucus as well. She literally cannot get enough of her fossil fuels," Climate Defiance said.
"Lizzie's voting record is garbo. Utter garbo," the group continued. "She voted AGAINST the bill cracking down on Big Oil's price gouging. She voted AGAINST a bill requiring companies to merely disclose their climate risk. She voted AGAINST the bill protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
Kate Aronoff, a climate reporter at The New Republic, took aim at Punchbowl—which has previously faced criticism for allowing fossil fuel interests to buy advertising in its newsletter—with a sarcastic response to the social media post.
The event came just two days after the Democratic Party platform was finalized. Lukas Ross, deputy climate and energy director at Friends of the Earth Action, pointed out Wednesday that "the DNC platform rightly calls for the repeal of $110 billion in fossil fuel subsidies that have lined Big Oil's pockets for decades."
"Dinosaurs like ExxonMobil are scared of losing their precious tax loopholes under a Harris administration," he said, nodding to revelations from a Greenpeace reporter posing as a corporate recruiter while speaking with an Exxon leader in 2021. "Any fossil fuel company looking to peddle influence in Chicago should be shown the door."
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Genocide Is Not a Game: Congressional Baseball and War Crimes in Gaza
Why did we protest this national pastime? Because the systematic murder and starvation of Palestinians by Israel cannot continue with our silent complicity.
Jun 19, 2024
During last week’s Congressional Baseball Game, dozens of us in the crowd conveyed urgent messages to stop funding Israel’s genocide of Palestinian and to address the escalating climate emergency.
We were met by the disproportionate level of force from hundreds of police across multiple jurisdictions who encircled and followed us around. Activists with Climate Defiance entered the field and were plowed down forcefully by police officers and arrested.
In our seats, we stood with signs, flags, some just wearing kuffiyehs, chanting “Free Palestine” and “Genocide is not a game.” Despite the legality and common practice of cheering and displaying signs at baseball games, we were swiftly ejected by swarms of police officers.
Juxtaposed to our ejection and policing of our rights to freedom of speech, police unsurprisingly, did nothing to address the egregious and blatantly racist verbal abuse laced with profanity being hurled at us. In one instance, an entire section of the crowd erupted in a “fu** you terrorists” chants. Meanwhile, others in the stadium freely displayed their political messages without facing any consequences.
Our aim was to deliver a clear message to members of Congress, who were indulging in a photo-op game amid multiple crises they are directly responsible for through billions in funding to Israel and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
Since October, Congress have allocated billions more of our tax dollars to Israel, facilitating the genocide of over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza while also displacing and starving millions of Palestinians.
The U.S. Pentagon is the largest institutional polluter in the world. Israel has also used white phosphorus and other weapons from the United States to destroy the local environment, facilitating the death of the local habitat. Each U.S. bomb tested, manufactured, transferred, and dropped exacerbates the climate crisis, intertwining Palestine’s plight with climate justice.
More bombs were dropped in the first 100 days of the US-Israel genocide in Gaza than in all of World War II combined.
Despite the majority of Americans wanting a ceasefire in Gaza (including the majority of republican voters), despite the majority of nation-states deploring Israel’s war crimes in Palestine, despite the highest court of the world releasing arrest warrants for crimes against humanity to Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, the U.S. is continuing to aid and empower Israel’s ethnic cleansing. Almost every congressperson who played that night voted to sanction the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
The annual Congressional Baseball game is sponsored by a long list of companies profiting off of the Israeli and U.S. atrocities in Palestine, including: Boeing, RTX (formerly Raytheon), Caterpillar, Chevron, Amazon, Google.
It’s not a coincidence that while arms dealers are reaping historic highs in stock prices and earnings, members of Congress are lining their pockets with checks from Israeli lobbying groups. Particularly AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Council.
The baseball game is technically a fundraiser for groups like the Boys and Girls Club, Nationals Philanthropies, and the Washington Literacy Center. It is paradoxical that Congress raises trivial amounts for education while channeling billions of tax dollars into weapons shipments used to indiscriminately murder Palestinians.
Activists across the U.S are demanding an end to all aid to Israel and a reinvestment of those funds into our community needs such as housing, healthcare, and education. Our actions at the game were driven by a profound sense of urgency and justice.
The systematic murder and starvation of Palestinians by Israel cannot continue with our silent complicity. We must persist in demanding accountability from our elected officials. We demand that funds from warfare be redirected to vital community needs and to address the world’s common enemy, the climate crisis.
We stand in solidarity with Palestinians and all others who are fighting for their lives and dignity. The struggle for justice in Palestine is not just their fight; it is a global cause that calls for our unwavering support and action.
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'Catastrophic': Biden Admin Approves Largest Offshore Oil Export Terminal
"Nothing about this project is in alignment with Biden's climate and environmental justice goals," said one campaigner.
Apr 15, 2024
Climate action groups are vehemently rejecting the Biden administration's claim that the approval of a new offshore oil terminal—planned to be the largest in the U.S.—is in the "national interest," after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the project had met several federal requirements and could begin operations by 2027.
The agency's Maritime Administration said last week that Enterprise Product Partners, a Houston-based pipeline company, had been granted a deepwater port license to build the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) near Freeport, Texas following a five-year federal review process.
The federal government determined the $1.8 billion terminal project had undergone sufficient environmental impact reviews and would overall benefit the country—even as it was projected by the Sierra Club, which has fought SPOT for several years, to emit greenhouse gases equivalent to those of nearly 90 coal-fired power plants.
"The evidence is clear that SPOT would be catastrophic to the climate, wildlife, and frontline communities of the Gulf," said Devorah Ancel, senior attorney with the Sierra Club. "It threatens the future existence of the endangered Rice's whale with a population of less than fifty, and its ozone pollution would compromise the health of thousands of Gulf residents who have endured decades of fossil fuel industry pollution. Make no mistake, SPOT is not in the national interest."
The project is expected to include two pipelines that would carry crude oil to the deepwater port each day, enabling the export of 2 million barrels of crude oil, loaded onto two supertankers at once, daily.
"Nothing about this project is in alignment with Biden's climate and environmental justice goals," said Kelsey Crane, senior policy advocate at Earthworks. "The communities that will be impacted by SPOT have once again been ignored and will be forced to live with the threat of more oil spills, explosions, and pollution. The best way to protect the public and the climate from the harms of oil is to keep it in the ground."
Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. manager at Oil Change International, noted that the project has been approved despite the International Energy Agency's clear assessment in 2021 that "all new investments in oil and gas projects must stop if the world is going to reach its climate goals," including limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C.
"The Biden administration's decision to approve the Sea Port Oil Terminal is a grave mistake. This approval will only harm local communities and ecosystems, and lead to even more devastating impacts of the climate crisis," said Rosenbluth. "The U.S. is already the largest producer of oil and gas and has the largest expansion plans globally. Instead of continuing this legacy of harm by approving fossil fuel projects, President Biden should be listening to the science and the masses of his constituents calling for an end to fossil fuels."
The direct action group Climate Defiance expressed doubt that the approval of SPOT will help Biden win over any voters as the 2024 election approaches.
Nine in 10 Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents told Pew Research Center last year that they believe the U.S. should prioritize developing renewable energy sources—and two-thirds of Republican voters under age 30 agreed.
"This project would be the single-largest oil export terminal in the U.S." said the group. "We are being boiled alive here, literally burned to death by 'moderate' politicians who see fit to torch us in the name of quarterly profits. How can we live like this? How can this go on?"
Last year was the hottest on record, and the first three months of 2024 have each broken records for high global temperatures. Scientists found last year that climate disasters including wildfires in Canada and extreme heat in Europe were made far more likely by fossil-fueled planetary heating.
Local organizers in Texas condemned the Biden administration's decision to ignore campaigners who have warned of the danger SPOT poses to marine habitats as well as people who live in the area where two crude oil pipelines have now been given final approval to run.
"We continue to struggle to see why Biden and [Transportation Secretary Pete] Buttigieg prefer to protect the corporate profits of billion-dollar oil giants like Enbridge and Enterprise over the hardcore objections of the people who would have to live with the consequences of pipelines criss-crossing our beaches," said Trevor Carroll, Brazoria County lead organizer with Texas Campaign for the Environment. "If you care about environmental justice and the climate, you just can't support a monstrosity like SPOT. The local community and the global climate justice movement are continuing to fight... This is not over."
Melanie Oldham, director of Better Brazoria, said SPOT will be "an oil spill waiting to happen that would not only lower property value, but harm our local ecosystems, ecotourism, beaches, recreation, and kill marine life like the endangered Rice's whale and Kemp's Ridley sea turtles."
"Those of us residents, beachgoers, and voters that have for the past four years opposed the SPOT offshore terminal and pipelines are very disappointed with the approval of the project license," said Oldham. "President Biden has again broken promises to protect frontline communities in Surfside and Freeport."
The administration's approval came three months after the White House announced it was delaying consideration of new gas export terminals, and the same day the federal government said fossil fuel companies will have to pay higher royalties in order to drill on federal lands.
But those climate actions paired with the SPOT approval amount only to "flip flopping," said Climate Defiance.
"It is not enough that the administration stopped new gas exports if they are going to back stab us with this death-sentence decision now," said the group. "This is not us being 'ungrateful.' This is the science. The pure, unvarnished, science."
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‘Five-Alarm Fire’ as Global Temps Breach 2°C Threshold
While scientists were quick to point out that this was just a daily anomaly, not a permanent shift, it is a "canary in the coalmine" that "underscores the urgency of tackling greenhouse gas emissions."
Nov 20, 2023
Global temperatures surpassed 2°C above preindustrial levels for the first time Friday, according to preliminary data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' ERA5 data set showed global surface air temperatures rising 2.07°C above the 1850-1900 average on Friday and 2.06°C above that average on Saturday, the service said.
"This is a five-alarm fire for humanity," the group Climate Defiance tweeted in response to the figures.
In the 2015 Paris agreement, world leaders set out to keep warming to "well-below" 2°C above preindustrial levels. Allowing warming to breach that point increases several climate risks, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): 2°C of warming compared with 1.5°C would raise sea levels by an additional 0.1 meters by 2100, destroy 99% of coral reefs instead of 70% to 90%, and expose several hundred million more people to poverty and climate-related hazards by 2050.
Friday's 2°C breach was first noted by Copernicus Climate Change Service deputy director Samantha Burgess on social media Sunday. She said the day was also 1.17°C above the 1991-2020 average, making it the warmest November 17 on record.
Scientists were quick to point out that this doesn't mean global heating has breached the 2°C threshold long-term.
"The 1.5°C and 2°C warming thresholds have been defined in terms of the trend line," University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Manntweeted. "Not individual years, let alone months, weeks, or days (the shorter the time period, the larger the random fluctuations). Those who imply otherwise are misleading you."
Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading in the U.K., told CNN that it was "entirely expected that single days will surpass 2°C above preindustrial well before the actual 2°C target is breached over many years."
"We are blowing past warning signs with wild abandon. We are approaching the precipice and flooring the gas."
That said, the reading was a "canary in the coalmine" that "underscores the urgency of tackling greenhouse gas emissions," Allan said.
It also comes in a year of dropping canaries: The 12 months from November 2022 to October 2023 were the 12 hottest on record, according to a Climate Central analysis. 2023 saw the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer on record, the hottest month in July, and is likely to be the hottest year not just since record-keeping began, but in the last 125,000 years. And it's not just numbers. The record-breaking temperatures fueled deadly heatwaves, wildfires, and floods around the world.
"The indicators are flashing red," Climate Defiance wrote. "The planet's vital signs are clear. Humanity is on life support. With the El Niño cycle just beginning, this 2°C breach sadly represents not a climax but a small taste of what is to come."
"This is happening faster than expected," the group continued. "We are blowing past warning signs with wild abandon. We are approaching the precipice and flooring the gas. This is madness. Utter madness."
The 2°C breach comes a little less than two weeks from the start of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates. A recent report from U.N. Climate Change found that national plans were still incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C and that world leaders must take "bold strides forward" at the conference "to get on track." More than 650 scientists have signed a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to back a fossil-fuel phaseout at the talks.
"It's just one day (so far) above 2°C, but it highlights again that the world is approaching the limits set out by the Paris Agreement," IPCC scientist Ed Hawkins tweeted. "We already have many of the solutions to rapidly reduce emissions and halt the rise in global temperatures. We just need to choose to use them."
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114 Climate Defenders Arrested While Blocking Entry to NY Federal Reserve
The activist group Climate Defiance asked: "Why are we getting handcuffed while people who literally torch the planet get celebrated for their 'civility' and their 'moderation'?"
Sep 18, 2023
A day after tens of thousands of climate activists marched through Manhattan's Upper East Side demanding an end to oil, gas, and coal production, thousands more demonstrators hit the streets of Lower Manhattan Monday, where more than 100 people were arrested while surrounding the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to protest fossil fuel financing.
Protesters chanted slogans like "No oil, no gas, fossil fuels can kiss my ass" and "We need clean air, not another billionaire" as they marched from Zuccotti Park—ground zero of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement—to pre-selected sites in the Financial District. Witnesses said many of the activists attempted to reach the New York Stock Exchange but were blocked by police.
"We're here to wake up the regulators who are asleep at the wheel as they continue to let Wall Street lead us into ANOTHER financial crash with their fossil fuel financing," the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition explained on social media.
Local and national media reported New York Police Department (NYPD) officers arrested 114 protesters and charged them with civil disobedience Monday after they blocked entrances to the Fed building. Most of those arrested were expected to be booked and released.
"I'm being arrested for exercising my First Amendment right to protest because Joe Manchin is putting a 300-mile-long pipeline through my home state of West Virginia and President [Joe] Biden allowed him to do it for nothing in return," explained Climate Defiance organizer Rylee Haught on social media, referring to the right-wing Democratic senator and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
As she was led away by an NYPD officer, a tearful Haught said Biden "sold us out."
"He promised to end drilling on federal lands, and he's selling out Appalachia's future for profit," she added.
Responding to the "block-long" line of arrestees, Climate Defiance asked: "Why are we getting handcuffed while people who literally torch the planet get celebrated for their 'civility' and their 'moderation'?"
Alicé Nascimento of New York Communities for Change told WABC that the protests—which are part of Climate Week and are timed to coincide with this week's United Nations Climate Ambition Summit—are "our last resort."
"We're bringing the crisis to their doorstep and this is what it looks like," said Nascimento.
As they have at similar demonstrations, protesters called on Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency. Some had a message for the president and his administration.
"We hold the power of the people, the power you need to win this election," 17-year-old Brooklynite Emma Buretta of the youth-led protest group Fridays for Future told WABC. "If you want to win in 2024, if you do not want the blood of my generation to be on your hands, end fossil fuels."
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'There's No Economy on a Dead Planet': Activists Blockade HQ of Oil Financier Citibank
"Citi is the world's second-largest financier of fossil fuels," noted one group taking part in the protest. "How do these people sleep at night? How?"
Sep 14, 2023
Declaring a #ClimateShutdown, hundreds of activists blockaded the entrances of Citibank's Lower Manhattan headquarters Thursday morning to demand that the financial giant end fossil fuel financing and stop greenwashing its record of planet-heating investments.
"We're shutting down Citibank, the world's second-largest funder of fossil fuels," the activist group Stop the Money Pipeline explained on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. "Citi says it's a climate leader, but it's also the main financier of oil expansion in the Amazon."
Jay Waxse of Climate Defiance told Common Dreams that 25 activists were arrested at the protest, including two of the group's organizers.
Citibank is "torching the planet," said Waxse, "so the least we can do is disrupt business as usual."
" Workers were talking. Executives were reeling," Waxse added. "Citi must change their ways, or we'll be back."
Another group, Climate Defiance, said sources informed it that "every door in the Citibank HQ has been shuttered" and that "the bank just went into lockdown over the climate protest."
"Thousands of bankers are now getting turned away, angry and confused," the group added, posting photos supporting its claim.
According to a report published earlier this month by a coalition of green groups, JPMorgan Chase ($434.2 billion), Citibank ($332.9 billion), Wells Fargo ($318.2 billion), and Bank of America ($281.2 billion) have been the world's biggest fossil fuel financiers since the Paris climate agreement took effect in 2016. Those four banks alone accounted for 28% of all identified fossil fuel financing in 2022.
Groups participating in or supporting Thursday's direct action include Oil & Gas Action Network, Stop the Money Pipeline, Climate Defiance, Climate Organizing Hub, Climate Defenders, Youth Climate Finance Alliance, and New York Communities for Change.
"Since the Paris agreement was adopted, Wall Street banks have provided $1.4 trillion to the fossil fuel industry," Stop the Money Pipeline's website explains. "Big asset managers are the world's largest investors in coal, oil, and gas. Insurance companies provide insurance for new fossil fuel projects without which they could not be built."
"The fossil fuel corporations driving the climate crisis depend on this support of the financial sector," the group added. "That's why we're pushing banks, insurance companies, and asset managers to end fossil financing. If we stop the flow of money, we stop the flow of oil."
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'Terrifying': Hong Kong's Heaviest Rainfall on Record Brings Deadly Flooding
Between 11 pm Thursday and midnight Friday local time, the Hong Kong Observatory recorded more than 6.2 inches of rain, the most rain in an hour since 1884.
Sep 08, 2023
The heaviest rainfall in 140 years brought deadly flooding to Hong Kong Friday.
The deluge killed two, injured more than 140, flooded streets and tunnels, and shuttered schools and the stock market.
"I've never seen scenes like this before. Even during previous typhoons, it was never this severe," Connie Cheung, a 65-year-old assistant nurse, told Reuters. "It's quite terrifying."
Between 11 pm Thursday and midnight Friday local time, the Hong Kong Observatory recorded more than 6.2 inches of rain, according to CNN. That's the most rain in an hour since 1884, when record-keeping started. The deluge prompted the weather agency to announce a "black" rainstorm warning—the highest possible.
"Hong Kong is experiencing a once-in-a-century torrential rainstorm, and 'extreme conditions' have made the situation serious in many districts," chief executive John Lee wrote on Facebook during the storm.
The rain came from once-typhoon Haikui, which made landfall in Fujian, China, Tuesday, Reuters reported. While it has since weakened to a tropical depression, it continues to dump rain while moving slowly. The climate crisis, caused mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, is making tropical storms more extreme, as Al Jazeera noted. At the same time, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture—at a rate of 7% per 1.8°F of warming. The Hong Kong deluge comes days after Greece experienced its wettest 24-hours on record, as one official said.
"This is fast becoming the new normal," the activist group Climate Defiance wrote on the site formerly known as Twitter. "How is this normal? How can this go on?"
The storm killed at least two people, whom police found floating in flood waters, as The Associated Press reported. The fire department helped 110 people evacuate.
Rain flooded streets and subway stations, stranding commuters including professor Stuart Hargreaves, who told CNN he had to sleep in his car after the roads became "impassible."
"Water was coming over the hood of the car and I thought it was going to flood the engine," he said.
Hargreaves found a safe place to park for the night, and said when he drove home the streets were full of debris from flooding and landslides. Schools were closed Friday "due to extreme conditions," and authorities also urged workers not to go into the office, as Al Jazeera reported.
"I have instructed all government departments to race against time, concentrate firepower on the aftermath work, and repair the affected roads and community facilities as soon as possible."
The remnants of Haikui also brought extreme rainfall to southern China, where Shenzhen recorded a record 18.4 inches of rain, and more than 11,000 were evacuated from Meizhou in Guangdong province, as AP reported. In Shenzhen, schools were also closed, as well as some offices and subway stations, according to Reuters. Schools were closed or delayed in 10 Guangdong districts. Beijing also warned several of its neighborhoods to prepare for heavy flooding through Saturday, AP said.
In Hong Kong, the government began recovery efforts.
"I have instructed all government departments to race against time, concentrate firepower on the aftermath work, and repair the affected roads and community facilities as soon as possible," Lee wrote on Facebook.
However, some residents of Hong Kong expressed concerns online that the territory had not been prepared for the inundation, and Greenpeace East Asia raised questions about the city's ability to adapt to the climate crisis, noting that the storm overflowed the city's drainage system and that the city did not take advantage of its emergency alert systems.
"Greenpeace Hong Kong urges the government to study the impacts of climate change, identify high-risk areas, create long-term response strategies, improve emergency response capabilities, and propel the development of renewable energy and energy conservation measures," the group wrote on social media.
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