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VIDEO: Rockefeller Center 'Die In' Sets Stage For Intensifying Climate Change 'Rebellion'
By
Claire Lampen
Published Jan 29, 2019
Modified Jan 29, 2019
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Jenn Hsu / Gothamist
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By
Claire Lampen
Published Jan 29, 2019
Modified Jan 29, 2019
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Extinction Rebellion NYC, a local branch of the international climate justice protest group, took part in the country's first day of coordinated day of action over the weekend, staging a die-in at Rockefeller Center's skating rink in Manhattan. Saturday's action was, in the words of the group, "Rebellion Day 1."
Positioning themselves in the shape of the group's logo—an hour glass—the activists issued a reminder that time is running out on climate change, and an environmental emergency looms large. Police say they arrested nine protesters in total, charging eight with disorderly conduct and one with reckless endangerment for scaling the golden Prometheus statue to hang a banner. That protester was Gregory Schwedock, a lead organizer of Extinction Rebellion NYC who seems not to regret his decision to climb.
"I saw the statue, how close it was, and ... I was like, 'You know, I think I could really easily jump onto there,'" Schwedock told Gothamist. He could hear NYPD officers yelling at him to get down, he added, but ignored them. When he pulled the final knot tight on his banner and heard the cheer from the assembled crowd, Schwedock said he knew that "from that moment on it was like, no matter what happens, this was a success."
The protest was the culmination of a march stretching from the Plaza Hotel down Fifth Avenue (hitting Trump Tower along the way) and part of a national day of action for Extinction Rebellion U.S.: The group originally launched in the UK in October, and gained widespread media attention when it closed five London bridges with a demonstration in November. It has reportedly spawned over 200 satellite groups worldwide, all with the intention of forcing global governments to acknowledge "the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency," per the group's website, and to make legislators enact "binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025" while also reducing global consumption.
In the U.S., where the federal government continues to deny scientific realities at the same time as it dismantles pre-existing efforts at climate protection, that goal feels especially urgent. And Schwedock hopes the public action will attract more people to the cause.
"You only need three-and-a-half percent of the U.S. population out there in the streets—not even getting arrested, necessarily—but three-and-a-half percent of the population, supported by others that are out there in the streets, to have a successful change," Schwedock said. "No movement has ever failed if they've had those numbers."
Saturday's die-in was a momentum-builder for a larger, international rebellion slated to begin April 15: "This is not a one-off march—we will keep going for as long as we have to, shutting down cities day after day until our demands are met," the Facebook event reads. Through civil disobedience and peaceful protest, of course.
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