We're Changing the Climb-It

Climber scales New York Times building with climate message

Posted at 7:03 AM on 06 Jun 2008

For World Environment Day on Thursday, a French climber scaled the New York Times building in Manhattan to protest climate change. Wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "The Solution Is Simple.Org" -- the web address of a one-page site calling for meaningful climate action -- Alain Robert climbed to the top of the 52-story building unroped and without a parachute. Once at the top, he unfurled a banner reading, "Global warming kills more people than a 9/11 every week," and was promptly arrested. Robert is an experienced climber who has scaled some 83 tall buildings all over the world. However, another man who scaled the Times building just hours after Robert is not well known. Renaldo Clarke of Brooklyn appeared much less prepared for the feat, according to bystanders, and has been called a copycat by authorities. After Clarke also reached the top of the building -- a climb he said was a stunt to raise awareness of malaria -- he was arrested and taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation; he was soon discharged and taken to jail instead.

sources: The New York Times, Reuters, USA Today

ADVERTISING POLICY

Comments: (2 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Hmm,

...so, apparently he was't nuts, just embracing a cause which doesn't have as much cache as GW. Sad. So much greed on our lovely Earth, and not enough generosity, self-sacrifice and humility.

The mellotron is your friend.

by archigeek at 9:45 AM on 06 Jun 2008

Yeah right

"Global warming kills more people than a 9/11 every week,"

According to Paul Ehrlich, in the mid - 70s he claimed that "Gobal cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people in poorer countries. If something is not done it will probably lead to world famine and possibly world war, and this all by the year 2000."

Every single storm or draught or flood is now being attributed to "climate change". Come on. When people make statements like this they hurt the movement, because there's no credibility in them. On the BBC climate change is discussed as if all the facts were in and EVERY weather event is attributed to it. It's ridiculous.

The desertification of North Africa, which was a savana at one time, has been going on for over five thousands years and steadily expanding south all of the time. Yet the BBC recently reported drought in Somalia as being caused by "climate change" without offering a shred of proof.

I am not contending that CO2 and other dumping into the atmosphere is harmless, or a good idea. But making exaggerated claims which have no basis in fact hurts the movement to make realistic adjustments in our way of life and in how we deal with an ever more crowded planet.

Victory in Pattani

by MAD MAC at 9:58 PM on 07 Jun 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?