Disney heiress protests fossil fuels at East Hampton Airport with eco-radicals

Disney heiress Abigail Disney was arrested on Friday after authorities were forced to physically remove her from a "climate crisis" protest, in which activists blockaded a New York airport over its use of private jets and fossil fuels. 

After Disney, 63, wrapped herself in thick plastic piping, police were ordered to use heavy-duty power tools to cut her free as she lay on the ground blockading the road with other climate activists, Fox News reports.



The demonstration took place at the East Hampton Airport in Wainscott, New York, and was organized by members of New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit and Sunrise Movement NYC, with the intention of standing against the "exclusive vacations of wealthy fossil fuel investors and polluters driving the climate crisis," according to a press release.

Video footage of the incident shows the dramatic moment when police used power tools to cut Disney free by drilling through the thick plastic piping. The activists had draped both of their arms in the plastic piping to create a chain, which the group secured with layers upon layers of duct tape, video shows.

One police officer held down Disney, who is worth an estimated $120 million, while another officer drilled through the piping. Disney was then arrested and escorted into the back of a police van, Daily Mail reports.
 

"As a person who has been privileged enough to use private jets, I know it’s hard to give up a luxury that is special," Disney said in a statement Friday. "But I also know that the time has passed for spewing greenhouse gasses like this merely for our personal comfort."

"The events of the past week alone, with Earth’s average temperature hitting an all time high, drought and fatal heat waves across the country, floods in Vermont and New York, and ocean temperatures around Florida well over 90 degrees, should remove all doubt once and for all," she added. "The wealthiest 1% uses as much greenhouse gas as the entire bottom 50%. It is time for real change and this is the most obvious place to start."

Disney first announced her arrest on Twitter and revealed that she had her mugshot taken, along with fingerprints. 

"At 63 I still had not popped my fingerprint/mug shot cherry so I did this. Because the last thing this planet needs is billionaires spewing greenhouse gases to get to their palatial beach homes. Just so wrong," Disney wrote on Twitter following her arrest.

Teddy Ogborn, an organizer of Planet Over Profit, said of the demonstration: "These same rich people farting into the Hamptons on private jets are often the ones who make their money in industries that hugely accelerate the climate crisis."

Ogborn was also arrested on Friday.