Chamber of Commerce Fuels Climate Chaos
Contact: xrdc_press@unitedrebellion.com
Climate activists give facelift to U.S. Chamber of Commerce to highlight its obstruction of President Biden’s last-chance climate bill
October 14, 2021, Washington D.C. -- Peaceful protestors from Extinction Rebellion (XR) climbed and then sprayed fake oil over the facade of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C, taking the climate fight to the headquarters of one of the world’s worst climate criminals.
The protest is part of one of the largest climate actions in the capital’s history - a week of climate-focused non-violent civil disobedience that led to the arrest of more than 600 people.
On Thursday afternoon, rebels with XR scaled the building and then used fire extinguishers filled with fake, non-toxic oil to redecorate the front of the Chamber’s headquarters. They demanded that the Chamber's business members quit an organization that is actively trying to kill President Biden’s last-chance climate bill. Protesters hung signs from the building reading “Welcome to the Chamber of Climate Chaos” and “Your Business Costs the Earth.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent decades denying climate change, is currently sabotaging our nation’s best shot at stopping climate catastrophe. Run by the leaders of big business, including major oil companies, the Chamber is spending millions of dollars promoting false solutions while lobbying to kill President Biden’s social safety net and climate plan bill so that it can protect the extremely damaging financial interests of its members.
“XR is calling on member companies to abandon this planet-destroying organization and stand with citizens fighting for our species’ only home. These members must quit an organization that puts corporate wealth over people’s health and destroys life on earth in the process,” said Reilly Polka, a spokesperson for XR.
Companies like Facebook, Microsoft, United Airlines, and FedEx have made pledges to reduce their environmental impact, yet they remain members of a Chamber lobbying to defeat last-chance climate legislation.
XR takes the Chamber’s acts of sabotage seriously because the science tells us we are way off track to keep global warming at or below 2 degrees Celsius - the point at which catastrophic climate change becomes inevitable.
Unless climate change is stopped, rising seas will eradicate nation states, wipe out major coastal cities and put the lives of hundreds of millions of people in extreme danger. Without urgent action, rising seas will permanently flood the land and homes of more than 150 million people by mid century. The climate crisis will also continue to bring more extreme weather, fires, and food and water shortages, hurting marginalized communities the most. There is now a very real threat of societal collapse.
With the upcoming budget reconciliation bill, Congress has what may be the very last opportunity to pass the life-saving green legislation we need to avoid the worst of the crisis.
Today's action is part of the People versus Fossil Fuels week of mass non-violent civil disobedience calling on President Biden to declare a climate and ecological emergency, which is also XR's first demand.
About Extinction Rebellion
Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate & ecological crisis, including the sixth mass extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices if rapid action is not taken.
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.