Extinction Rebellion Stages 'Die-In' at Iconic Wall Street Bull Statue

Protestors in New York City expressed their dismay with the government's and big businesses' slow response to the climate crisis by pouring fake blood on themselves and the iconic charging bull statue near Wall Street on Monday. Nearly 100 people were arrested in New York as part of Extinction Rebellion's worldwide two weeks of climate protests, according to the New York New York Daily News.
Around the statue, protestors laid on the ground, pretending to be dead from the climate crisis. "Drowned in attic," read one cardboard gravestone next to a protester playing dead; another read, "Couldn't Outrun Wildfire," as The New York Times reported.
"With our striking visuals, you know, like funeral and death and devastation and blood and gore, we are instilling that instinctive sense of fear," one protester said to CBS New York. "We want that sense of fear to be associated with the climate crisis to show that this is urgent."
Protests in 60 cities around the world started at 10 a.m. local time, per the Extinction Rebellion's website. That is when the protest started in lower Manhattan. At 10:30, three people poured fake blood on the charging bull statue, as one protestor stood atop the 11-foot tall statue and waved a neon green Extinction Rebellion flag, as was posted on Twitter by reporters and onlookers.
One of the people who poured fake blood on the statue was a 24-year-old student from Columbia University who was arrested. The other two fled and were not caught, according to the New York Daily News.
The British-based activist group was founded last year, but has found a groundswell of support in London, across Europe and in Australia, where protestors have brought traffic to a halt and temporarily shut down business as usual to draw attention to the climate crisis. However, the group has not found similar traction in the U.S. and has failed to garner the street muscle it has flexed in the UK, according to The New York Times.
The Times also reported that the group hopes to build momentum in America by forming a presence around landmarks and disrupting traffic. New York seems the ideal place to gain a foothold. The city council declared a climate emergency, the state set the nation's most ambitious climate target earlier this summer, and the city has a liberal population coupled with a growing youth climate movement. Furthermore, rising sea levels threaten the city.
"There will be broad disruption of business as usual," said a New York-based Extinction Rebellion spokesman to The Guardian. "Frankly we don't have time to wait for an opportune moment. Climate breakdown is under way and we can't afford to wait."
In addition to protesting in front of the charging bull statue, the die-in was staged in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street, a center of the global financial system that the group blames for the continued use of fossil fuels, was an obvious target, according to The New York Times.
The protestors asserted that dramatic means are now necessary. "The democratic means no longer work," said Kyle Pritz, a protestor. "We have called our congresspeople, we have voted, we have marched in the streets. Nothing is working."
In the end, 93 people were arrested as part of the protests, mostly on civil disobedience charges, according to a police spokesman, as Gothamist reported. The arrests included 26 people who were detained near the bull; 8 people arrested by the Stock Exchange; and 59 who were arrested by Broadway and Pine Street.
Demonstrations around the world have taken place in the UK, Germany, Spain, Austria, France, New Zealand and several other nations. Protesters in London shut down Lambeth Bridge, Whitehall, the Mall and major central London roads, according to CNBC. More than 135 people were arrested there, while more than 100 were arrested in Amsterdam where protestors blocked the streets, as USA Today reported.
.@EcoWatch - "Is Earth F**ked?", Brad Werner. "Not if... people... [fight] back in a movement reminiscent of the Civil Rights... struggle...", @orosane.
— Extinction Rebellion ⌛️ (@ExtinctionR) November 13, 2018
Rebel for life with the #ExtinctionRebellion on #RebellionDay on Saturday 🙏:https://t.co/7vvjXlRluahttps://t.co/Yngif0LvaI
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Wisdom the mōlī, or Laysan albatross, is the oldest wild bird known to science at the age of at least 70. She is also, as of February 1, a new mother.
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Comparing rime ice and glaze ice shows how each changes the texture of the blade. Gao, Liu and Hu, 2021, CC BY-ND
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While traditional investment in the ocean technology sector has been tentative, growth in Israeli maritime innovations has been exponential in the last few years, and environmental concern has come to the forefront.
theDOCK aims to innovate the Israeli maritime sector. Pexels
<p>The UN hopes that new investments in ocean science and technology will help turn the tide for the oceans. As such, this year kicked off the <a href="https://www.oceandecade.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)</a> to galvanize massive support for the blue economy.</p><p>According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the "sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem," <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019338255#b0245" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Science Direct</a> reported. It represents this new sector for investments and innovations that work in tandem with the oceans rather than in exploitation of them.</p><p>As recently as Aug. 2020, <a href="https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/esg-investors-slow-make-waves-25tn-ocean-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> noted that ESG Investors, those looking to invest in opportunities that have a positive impact in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, have been interested in "blue finance" but slow to invest.</p><p>"It is a hugely under-invested economic opportunity that is crucial to the way we have to address living on one planet," Simon Dent, director of blue investments at Mirova Natural Capital, told Reuters.</p><p>Even with slow investment, the blue economy is still expected to expand at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030, Reuters reported. It already contributes $2.5tn a year in economic output, the report noted.</p><p>Current, upward <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/-innovation-blue-economy-2646147405.html" target="_self">shifts in blue economy investments are being driven by innovation</a>, a trend the UN hopes will continue globally for the benefit of all oceans and people.</p><p>In Israel, this push has successfully translated into investment in and innovation of global ports, shipping, logistics and offshore sectors. The "Startup Nation," as Israel is often called, has seen its maritime tech ecosystem grow "significantly" in recent years and expects that growth to "accelerate dramatically," <a href="https://itrade.gov.il/belgium-english/how-israel-is-becoming-a-port-of-call-for-maritime-innovation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iTrade</a> reported.</p><p>Driving this wave of momentum has been rising Israeli venture capital hub <a href="https://www.thedockinnovation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">theDOCK</a>. Founded by Israeli Navy veterans in 2017, theDOCK works with early-stage companies in the maritime space to bring their solutions to market. The hub's pioneering efforts ignited Israel's maritime technology sector, and now, with their new fund, theDOCK is motivating these high-tech solutions to also address ESG criteria.</p><p>"While ESG has always been on theDOCK's agenda, this theme has become even more of a priority," Nir Gartzman, theDOCK's managing partner, told EcoWatch. "80 percent of the startups in our portfolio (for theDOCK's Navigator II fund) will have a primary or secondary contribution to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria."</p><p>In a company presentation, theDOCK called contribution to the ESG agenda a "hot discussion topic" for traditional players in the space and their boards, many of whom are looking to adopt new technologies with a positive impact on the planet. The focus is on reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, the presentation outlines. As such, theDOCK also explicitly screens candidate investments by ESG criteria as well.</p><p>Within the maritime space, environmental innovations could include measures like increased fuel and energy efficiency, better monitoring of potential pollution sources, improved waste and air emissions management and processing of marine debris/trash into reusable materials, theDOCK's presentation noted.</p>theDOCK team includes (left to right) Michal Hendel-Sufa, Head of Alliances, Noa Schuman, CMO, Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and Hannan Carmeli, Co-Founder & Managing Partner. Dudu Koren
<p>theDOCK's own portfolio includes companies like Orca AI, which uses an intelligent collision avoidance system to reduce the probability of oil or fuel spills, AiDock, which eliminates the use of paper by automating the customs clearance process, and DockTech, which uses depth "crowdsourcing" data to map riverbeds in real-time and optimize cargo loading, thereby reducing trips and fuel usage while also avoiding groundings.</p><p>"Oceans are a big opportunity primarily because they are just that – big!" theDOCK's Chief Marketing Officer Noa Schuman summarized. "As such, the magnitude of their criticality to the global ecosystem, the magnitude of pollution risk and the steps needed to overcome those challenges – are all huge."</p><p>There is hope that this wave of interest and investment in environmentally-positive maritime technologies will accelerate the blue economy and ESG investing even further, in Israel and beyond.</p>- 14 Countries Commit to Ocean Sustainability Initiative - EcoWatch ›
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