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Pitchfork-Wielding Climate Activists Protest at BlackRock Headquarters

By Dinah Wisenberg Brin

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Climate activists brought pitchforks and dumped what appeared to be coal during a demonstration at BlackRock’s Manhattan headquarters Wednesday to protest the firm’s fossil-fuel investments, according to news reports and video posted on social media.

The protesters dumped coal on an escalator and chanted “Stop funding climate death” and “Climate action now,” according to Fox Business, which cited a FreedomNewsTV video posted on Twitter and an activist group that identified the “chunks” as coal. The outlet, citing the New York Police Department, reported that 10 people were arrested.

FreedomNewsTV posted to YouTube a more than four-minute video documenting the demonstration, showing protesters with signs reading “Your Investments Are Killing Us,” “Your Greed = Climate Chaos” and “How Dare You Plunder The Earth?”

Text under the YouTube video noted the event is part of a week-long #occupyParkAve, and the Independent reported the action occurred on the third day of New York City climate protests led by activist groups.

Meanwhile, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has drawn scorn from Republicans over its support for companies following environmental, social and governance, or ESG, principles they consider to be aligned with liberal politics.

Opposing what they consider BlackRock’s so-called “woke” ESG political agenda, officials in several states have removed hundreds of millions of dollars from the firm and other “anti-fossil fuel” institutions or threatened to take action.

BlackRock Alternatives announced this week that it has raised $4.5 billion in initial investor commitments — more than half its targeted size — for the BlackRock Global Infrastructure Fund IV to invest in essential infrastructure assets and business globally involved in three global energy transition trends: decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization.

The fund will target investments in five sectors: energy and environmental, low carbon power, regulated utilities, transportation and logistics, and digital infrastructure.

Dinah Wisenberg Brin

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