At least 20 Indigenous leaders and climate activists were arrested Tuesday as actions demanding an end to fossil fuels continue during New York’s Climate Week. Dozens of protesters swarmed the Bank of America Tower in Manhattan yesterday, blocking entrances as they chanted, “We need clean air, not another billionaire.” The bank is one of the largest funders of oil, gas and coal across the globe, as well as a leading financial backer of the contested Mountain Valley Pipeline. This is environmental activist John Beard of the Port Arthur Community Action Network in Texas.

John Beard: “We refuse to be sacrificed any further on the altar of Big Oil, Big Gas and Big Finance and BOA. We refuse to allow them to put profits over people and determine the lives and future of people in the Gulf South without them sharing any benefit from it and destroying the very planet upon which we all depend.”