Photography by Rachael Warriner
By Francesca Furey
One year ago, Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg tearfully warned the audience of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: Our house is on fire. Following her passionate, compelling speech, thousands—young and old—rallied together to push world leaders to fight climate change.
One of those inspired by Thunberg and the subsequent youth climate strikes was actress Jane Fonda. By October 2019, she had moved to Washington D.C. to lead weekly demonstrations about the climate crisis at Capitol Hill—known as Fire Drill Fridays.
With speakers tackling topics including the Green New Deal, food justice, banking and the fossil fuel industries, Fire Drill Fridays attracted activists, scientists, indigenous peoples, public figures and politicians. Many people, including celebrities such as Ted Danson, Martin Sheen and Joaquin Phoenix, and Fonda herself were arrested throughout the four-month demonstration.
On January 10, the last scheduled Washington D.C.-based Fire Drill Friday (Fonda returned to Los Angeles, where the protests will resume on February 7th) was attended by an estimated 500 people, including a contingency of 13 people from Philadelphia.
Jane Fonda
actress and founder of Fire Drill Fridays:
“[W]hy are the big Wall Street banks and other international financial institutions still helping [fossil fuel companies] drill and frack and mine and process and export? It’s called suicide investing—it’s insane.”
Naomi Klein
author of “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal”:
“The arsonists are in charge in Washington, they’re in charge of the banks, they’re certainly in charge at the fossil fuel companies. And so, it takes a movement. It takes individuals trusting their gut, trusting their hearts, that actually we know what’s right. And then we have to find each other, because this isn’t something that we’re gonna solve as individuals. This is something that we are going to solve as a movement.”
Ta’Sina Sapa Win Smith
Lakota environmental and social justice grassroots activist:
“[W]hen [worker camps] are constructed, the rates of missing and murdered indigenous people skyrocket and drugs become bountiful and I see this as no coincidence.”
Bill McKibben
author, environmentalist and founder of 350.org:
“If banks like Chase Bank stopped funding the fossil fuel industry, they could not go on building pipelines … when we look at those pictures from Australia, yes, we see the absolute horror of people whose lives are turned upside down and animals that are killed and ecosystems that are wiped out, but we also see fully visible in those flames the dollar signs that led to that conflagration.”
Martin Sheen
actor:
“The Irish tell the story of a man who arrives at the gates of heaven and asks to be let in. St. Peter says, “Of course. Just show us your scars.” The man says, “I have no scars.” St. Peter says, “What a pity. Was there nothing worth fighting for?”
Joaquin Phoenix
actor:
“Something I think isn’t often times talked about in the environmental movement or in the conversation about climate change, is that the meat and dairy industry is the third leading cause of climate change. I think sometimes we wonder what can we do in this fight against climate change and there’s something that you can do today right now and tomorrow, by making a choice about what you consume.”
Kat Taylor
CEO and co-founder of Beneficial State Bank:
“Since the Paris Agreement in 2016, leadership at Chase Bank alone has financed nearly $200 billion of fossil fuel development … but remember, these are our deposits we don’t have to tolerate the banks using them to destroy our planet.
Tara Houska
tribal attorney and co-founder of Not Your Mascot:
“We have so much power they pull out their tanks when we stand unarmed in front of their machines because they are afraid of us. They use water cannons and attack dogs when we say no with our bodies because they are afraid of us. They kill land defenders in the Global South that are unarmed protecting their forests protecting their territories because they are afraid of us. We can build the world we want and we can demand this one changes at the same time.”
