Hollywood actress Jane Fonda arrested at US climate protest
- Along with several dozen activists, Fonda sat chanting on the floor of a Senate building where no demonstrations are allowed
- She was to spend the night in jail, but has vowed to return to another protest in Washington next week
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“This time, I may be detained overnight and that’s fine for one night, big deal!” Fonda joked to reporters, noting that this was not her first arrest as police put plastic wire around her wrists.
Along with several dozen activists including actresses Rosanna Arquette and Catherine Keener, Fonda sat chanting on the floor of a Senate building where no demonstrations are allowed.
“There are many ways to fight. But I’m inspired by Greta Thunberg and the young student strikers all over the world,” she said.
“I’m a celebrity. So this is a way to use my celebrity to get the message out that we face a crisis that could determine whether or not our children and grandchildren have a future that’s even habitable.”
“We have 11 years to turn it around; we will have to be very brave and very united and very determined,” she said.
Fonda, who wore an eye-catching bright red coat, was referring to scientific reports indicating that sharp decreases in carbon emissions are necessary before 2030 if the world hopes to prevent catastrophic global warming.
“You can call it radical. But I think that what’s radical is not doing anything,” she quipped, noting that she has not endorsed any 2020 presidential hopeful.
To those who call her a socialist, Fonda deftly suggests that “the fact that taxpayers pay US$16 billion a year to subsidise the fossil fuel industry, that’s socialism”.
Fonda was to spend the night in jail and appear in DC Superior Court on Saturday, charged with crowding, obstruction or incommoding, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
But the actress has promised to return next Friday with the founders of the ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s plus actors Diane Lane and Mark Ruffalo.
