Escalated moral protest is the heart of Sunrise NYC.

Occupy Park Avenue: Tax the Rich for a GND

Sunrise NYC, along with coalition partners Extinction Rebellion and New York Communities for Change, occupied Park Avenue from Monday, October 24th, 2022 to Saturday the 29th. This coordinated campaign brought media attention to the billionaires and corporations most culpable for funding the climate crisis. The actions also commemorated the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, in which 48 New Yorkers lost their lives and thousands lost their homes. Many affected continue to struggle with economic impacts and emotional and physical trauma today.

Over 49 climate activists were arrested during Occupy Park Avenue week, standing up for climate justice and speaking out against billionaire greed.

Learn about our week of actions:

Monday - “The View” Disruption targeting the lack of climate coverage on ABC News. Three activists interrupted an interview with Ted Cruz, shouting “cover climate now!” and underlining the fact that ABC News spent less than 6 hours covering climate in all of 2021.

Tuesday - Park Avenue road block calling on Governor Hochul to tax the rich for a Green New Deal in NY. We calculated that, with only a 5% tax increase on the wealthiest 1% in New York, the state could raise $10 billion per year to fund a transition to green housing for all. Our ‘dollar bill’ banners highlighted the fact that the climate crisis and the inequality crisis are linked, and they can be solved together.

Wednesday - We occupied the lobby of BlackRock, the headquarters of the world’s largest asset manager, managing $10 trillion in funds total, with $85 billion invested in coal. We poured coal down the escalators to call out their greenwashing and lack of action.

Thursday - We demonstrated outside the Upper East Side luxury apartment building where CEO of Blackstone Stephen Schwarzman resides. Through our ‘zombie dinner party’ and thrown soup, we aimed to highlight the nefarious role that Schwarzman and his private equity company played in creating the housing crisis, fueling the deforestation of the Amazon, and deepening wealth inequality.

Friday - Activists blocked a section of Park Avenue outside of the JPMorgan Chase headquarters.

Saturday - After a spirited week of actions, the coalition orgs convened for one final march and rally on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy making landfall in New York. 

#BanPrivateJets Day of Action

On Thursday, November 10th, 2022, members of Sunrise NYC, New York Communities for Change, and Extinction Rebellion blocked traffic at the entrance to Teterboro airport in northern New Jersey as part of Scientist Rebellion’s coordinated day of action against private jets.

Roughly 20 climate activists blocked the entrance to New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport Thursday morning, delaying the takeoff of 35 private jet flights over a period of two and a half hours by preventing aviation staff and uber-wealthy clientele from accessing the airport.

The climate impact of billionaires has come under increased scrutiny in the past month, after a recent study produced by Oxfam indicated that 1 billionaire emits 1 million times more greenhouse gases than the average person. Furthermore, the investments of 125 of the world's richest billionaires have a cumulative carbon footprint equal to the entire nation of France.

Frequent fliers into this North Jersey private airport include the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Elon Musk, and Taylor Swift — as well as a wide range of less famous billionaires and multimillionaire CEOs. In the first week of November alone, Kim Kardashian made three round trips from a private airport in Los Angeles to Teterboro.

While our movement typically focuses on systemic change rather than individual lifestyle choices, the lifestyle choices of the ultra-wealthy are in this case so far removed from everyday Americans and so disproportionate in their impact that they indicate a systemic problem. The $28 billion private jet industry is a potent symbol of a world where billionaires are unaccountable to everyday people, and willing to pollute the planet at exorbitant rates in order to avoid contact with the rest of us.

The Teterboro shutdown was part of a global movement to ban private jets and included actions in Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Milan and Stockholm.

Schumer: Drop the Dirty Pipeline Deal

On Thursday, August 18th, 2022, shortly after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Sunrise NYC, Food and Water Watch, and No North Brooklyn Pipeline hosted a rally outside Senator Schumer’s office in midtown Manhattan demanding that he drop the backroom handshake deal he made with Manchin regarding “Permitting Reform” that month.

This so-called Permitting Reform draft text was bottom-lined by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and would have functionally gutted the ability of frontline communities to fight back against new fossil fuel infrastructure in their hometowns, while guaranteeing the swift completion of Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline. The side deal was not part of the Inflation Reduction Act, but rather a private negotiation between Schumer and Manchin, without any input from other representatives.

12 activists were arrested while blocking the entrance to his office building, urging him to drop the Manchin side deal. As of November, climate activists across the country successfully joined forces with progressive politicians and forced Manchin to drop the Pipeline Side Deal from a Continuing Resolution to fund the government due to insufficient support.