On Aug. 23, four members of the youth-led group Climate Defiance locked down and blocked the driveway leading to the Federal Reserve Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This symposium is the world’s preeminent gathering of central bankers, where the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, delivers his annual address. The Fed’s job is to maintain the health of the U.S. financial system, but Climate Defiance calls Powell a “climate criminal” for not reining in financial support for the fossil fuel industry.
The four activists engaged in civil disobedience were threatened with death, choked and otherwise abused. After blocking the entrance for about an hour, they were arrested and held in jail for 36 hours. They face four misdemeanor charges.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with one of the four, Ethan Wright, about his experience and why he risked arrest in Wyoming, one of the nation’s most conservative states. He has been most active with the New York City-based group, Planet Over Profit, that has engaged in nonviolent direct action at the Summer of Heat protest campaign on Wall Street, targeting Citibank as the leading investor in new fossil fuel development since the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.
ETHAN WRIGHT: We were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We were there because Jerome Powell gives his yearly keynote speech at this economic symposium which a lot of federal regulators and world economists attend this conference. And he gives this keynote speech basically about the future of the world’s economy. Jerome Powell is in a very powerful position where, if he wanted to, he could end fossil fuels literally tomorrow – he could end the funding of fossil fuels. So, we were there to disrupt his speech.
MELINDA TUHUS: Let me stop you for a second. How could he do that? How could he end fossil fuels tomorrow?
ETHAN WRIGHT: He’s the chair of the Federal Reserve, so he has a lot of power in terms of federal regulations.
MELINDA TUHUS: So he could determine that maybe funding fossil fuels was too risky for banks to undertake? Is that what you mean?
ETHAN WRIGHT: Yeah, exactly. So, we were there to interrupt his speech. To do that we decided to put ourselves in lock boxes along the driveway to the Jackson Hole Lodge, which is this fancy lodge where he was giving his speech. We blocked the driveway to that for about an hour before the police arrested us.
MELINDA TUHUS: And I’m just going to explain, because this is radio, when you said you were in lock boxes. I saw a photo where you were spread across the road – four young people – and you had your arms in these tubes, these lock boxes, and that’s how you were able to block the road. So, what happened after you were there for an hour and the police came?
ETHAN WRIGHT: I think it was the second cop car to pull up. They came from behind us because they were assigned to the symposium. We had cones a good 50 feet away from us to help slow traffic so we weren’t in danger of getting hit by any cars. But the second cop car drove straight through those cones and stopped like two feet away from us. We were talking about this later on when we were in jail, we were like, oh yeah, we just weren’t going to move. This is where we’re going to get hit by a car, because he was driving at the speed that we thought we were going to get hit by him, and he kind of slammed on his brakes like two feet behind us.
In particular one officer got out and he was a very aggressive officer, I’d say. He attempted to drag me off the road. He had this weird grip on me where he was choking me, so that was very interesting. He was unable to, after about half an hour, there ended up being about 15 officers there. They decided then to pick us all up at the same time since we were attached to each other and drag us off the driveway.
MELINDA TUHUS: I can’t remember who said this, but some promoter of nonviolent direct action said that those of us who believe in peace should be as willing to take risks for what we believe in as soldiers do in a war – you know, we have to be very committed and dedicated. And it seems like there are definitely risks involved – physical risks; you’re a young person so I don’t know what this means for your future, if there might be a problem in the future getting jobs. You’re risking a lot, so, why do you do it?
ETHAN WRIGHT: I do it because I have the ability to … I have six little brothers, and I want to see a future that they can grow up in and live and love the world in, and right now we’re not gonna have that and that makes me sad and angry and so many emotions that I can’t just sit by and do nothing about it.
For more information, visit Climate Defiance’s website at www.climatedefiance.org.
For the best listening experience and to never miss an episode, subscribe to Between The Lines on your favorite podcast app or platform.
Or subscribe to our Between The Lines and Counterpoint Weekly Summary.
