Meanwhile, activists in Peekskill, New York, have staged the latest act of civil disobedience against the fossil fuel industry, which is the leading cause of climate change. Twenty-one people were arrested after forming a human chain to block construction of a pipeline that would carry high-pressure methane gas through residential communities near the Indian Point nuclear plant. Benjamin Shepard spoke shortly before he was arrested.

Benjamin Shepard: “We’re here to ask: If all of our elected representatives are on record as being against this pipeline, if the mayor of Peekskill is on record as being against the pipeline, if the people of Peekskill are on record as being against this pipeline, who’s calling the shots? The people or the corporations? And if the corporations won’t get out of the way, the people have to do it, are going to have to get in their way. And that’s why we’re here, to stop the machinery.”