Climate activists made headlines after they blocked a road leading to the Burning Man festival. The situation caused a stalemate that stretched for several kilometers on a major Nevada road until a group of Tribal Rangers successfully broke up the demonstration by driving a truck through the blockade, per Breitbart.
#WATCH | Nevada Rangers charge into a roadblock set up by climate protesters on the road that leads to the Burning Man music festival. An officer then points his gun at the activists and arrests one of them.
Environmental activists demanded that Burning Man ban private jets and… pic.twitter.com/Jif6CtTaUn
— VOZ (@Voz_US) August 28, 2023
Climate protests are not new. For years, climate activists have staged protests and committed acts of vandalism. Many have attacked government institutions or museums, causing damage to works of art. For example, the group that in Nevada had already held several demonstrations in public spaces, mainly in Europe. Extinction Rebellion, or XR, as the group of environmentalists who demonstrated in Nevada is called, have stuck themselves to the chair of the speaker of the British Parliament, blocked busy roads and carried out other forms of radical activism.
But how is this kind of activism funded? In 2019, the Climate Emergency Fund (CEF) was founded, an organization that is quietly funding a new generation of environmental activists. The organization has direct ties to Hollywood. CEF was co-founded by documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and initially funded by activist and Getty Oil heiress Aileen Getty, according to
Bloomberg.
Burning Man SHUT DOWN by Climate activists, people stuck in traffic shove and remove blockade with activists chained to it - NEVADA #BurningMan pic.twitter.com/zVvw17TuS8
— FreedomNews.Tv FNTV (@FreedomNTV) August 27, 2023
Also serving on its board of directors are filmmakers Adam McKay and Geralyn Dreyfous. The Climate Emergency Fund claims that it funds at least 112 organizations. The funding is intended to boost activities organized by groups such as Extinction Rebellion and mobilize climate activists. So far in 2023, more than 1,000 actions have been carried out and at least 130,000 people have been mobilized.
In addition, CEF assures that gradual reform has failed, but activism is effective. Therefore, it promotes what it qualifies as disruptive tactics. "We support the organizations who tell the truth, disrupt normalcy, and demand transformation at emergency speed," CEF says on its official website.
CEF funds hundreds of organizations like XR. It supports the protests and vandalism they carry out to promote environmental policies. "The global Extinction Rebellion movement, active in over 80 countries, began in the United Kingdom in 2018. The UK chapter is responsible for some of the most inspiring climate protest in history, including its weeks-long occupation of key sites in London in 2019 and its blockade of rightwing press distribution in 2020," the organization said.
