Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, was arrested on Friday during a protest with fellow climate change activists at an airport in the Hamptons, Fox News reports.
Disney was protesting alongside members of New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit, and Sunrise Movement NYC. They blocked the main entrance of the East Hampton Airport, which serves private jet and charter flights, in Wainscott, New York.
The protest was to disrupt the “exclusive vacations of wealthy fossil fuel investors and polluters driving the climate crisis.”
“As a person who has been privileged enough to use private jets,” Disney said in a statement, “I know it’s hard to give up a luxury that is special. But I also know that the time has passed for spewing greenhouse gasses like this merely for our personal comfort.”
“The events of the past week alone, with Earth’s average temperature hitting an all time high,” she continued, “drought and fatal heat waves across the country, floods in Vermont and New York, and ocean temperatures around Florida well over 90 degrees, should remove all doubt once and for all. The wealthiest 1% uses as much greenhouse gas as the entire bottom 50%. It is time for real change and this is the most obvious place to start.”
Teddy Ogborn, a Planet Over Profit organizer who was also arrested, said, “These same rich people farting into the Hamptons on private jets are often the ones who make their money in industries that hugely accelerate the climate crisis. As long as the 1% continues to needlessly poison our air and heat our earth, we will continue to escalate our actions against them.”
Activists are planning further action in the Hamptons this weekend, including a “Tax the Rich for Climate Justice” march on Saturday and a protest near Sebonack Golf Course on Sunday.
Abigail Disney has been an outspoken activist, including against The Walt Disney Company, for several years. She co-directed “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” with Kathleen Hughes. The film criticizes the way Disney treats their theme park Cast Members. It was executive produced by Abigal’s brother Tim Disney and produced by their sister Susan Disney Lord.
“What I bring to this [film] is a memory of who my grandfather was in the 1960s and early 70s, what kind of CEO he was, how he greeted people, how he understood them as partners and not cogs in a machine,” Disney said about the documentary at the time.
Read more of Abigail Disney’s past comments below:
- Abigail Disney “Livid” with Working Conditions for Disneyland Cast Members
- Abigail Disney Reflects On ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Controversy in New Op-Ed
- Abigail Disney Talks Brand Erosion and Executive Salaries in Latest Interview, Says The Walt Disney Company “Needs to be Saved From Itself”
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