FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 16, 2025
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected]
CODEPINK to Highlight Military's Role in Climate Crisis at NYC 'Make Billionaires Pay' March
NEW YORK, N.Y. — CODEPINK will participate in the "Make Billionaires Pay" march on Sept. 20 in New York City to emphasize the military's significant contribution to climate change. The action, organized by a coalition of over 100 organizations, seeks to draw attention to the disproportionate influence of billionaires on policies that exacerbate climate change and social injustice.
CODEPINK's involvement underscores the often-overlooked impact of the military-industrial complex on the environment. CODEPINK’s presence at the march will be marked by a giant balloon elephant to illustrate how the military is often left out of climate justice discussions, even though it is a leading cause of the worsening climate crisis.
"The U.S. military is the world's largest institutional polluter, and its operations are a major driver of climate change," said Aaron Kirshenbaum, CODEPINK War Is Not Green campaign organizer. "Addressing the climate crisis requires confronting the war economy that fuels it."
The march begins at 12 p.m. on Park Avenue, proceeding past financial institutions such as BlackRock and Blackstone, which profit from the climate crisis and militarism. The route will also pass Trump Tower and Billionaires' Row before concluding near the Trump International Hotel. Participants will advocate for three primary demands:
- Shut down billionaires. Fund our future.
- Shut down fascists. Protect migrants and the global majority.
- Shut down polluters. Defend Mother Earth.
CODEPINK aims to emphasize how these goals are unattainable without addressing the war economy by highlighting the connections between military spending, environmental destruction, and fossil fuel extraction, which are often a main driver of conflict, and that militarized policing disproportionately affects marginalized communities.
"We need to call out the billionaire war profiteers, investors in weapons manufacturers, and fossil fuel executives who rely on war to extract from the earth," Kirshenbaum added. "Peace is essential for a livable world."
The "Make Billionaires Pay" march is part of a global mobilization effort uniting movements worldwide to demand urgent and decisive action for a just and sustainable future.
For more information, please contact Aaron Kirshenbaum, CODEPINK’s East Coast Organizer and War Is Not Green campaigner at [email protected].
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