Heiress Abigail Disney has long spoken from the inside about the damages of extreme wealth. Born into wealth herself, she's well-acquainted with its perks but has seen enough about carbon emissions and rising inequity to know that jet setting isn’t worth the price to society. She's had a long crusade against private jets, which has recently landed her in hot water with the Hamptons police.
Disney was arrested on Friday for taking part in a demonstration alongside members from New York Communities for Change, the Sunrise Movement, and Planet Over Profit, according to local newspaper The East Hampton Star. Participants, including Disney, blocked the East Hampton Airport to stop private planes from departing and raise awareness regarding the tax to the climate that these jets and their owners create. The Hamptons are a famously wealthy area where the rich tend to fly off too.
Activists sat in front of the airport entrance for about 90 minutes, linking their arms with chains attached by PVC pipes and duct tape, reported the Star. They chanted slogans like “Climate change is f***ing real, give us all a green new deal” and “tax the rich,” according to the outlet.
Disney was one of 14 arrested out of roughly 30 attendees, per the local paper, charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. New York Communities for Change posted a video of Hamptons police using power tools to break the pipes Disney was chained into. “At 63 I still had not popped my fingerprint/mug shot cherry so I did this,” Disney tweeted of her arrest, adding “the last thing this planet needs is billionaires spewing greenhouse gasses to get to their palatial beach homes.”
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. https://t.co/lkGxmXBfwK
— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) July 14, 2023
Disney has long called out the habits of the wealthy and their carbon footprint. The philanthropist tweeted earlier this year that “private jets are a cancer,” suggesting business class as an alternative for those who say they charter planes for privacy reasons. Resolving to be more conscious about travel in 2023, she added that she occasionally flies business and “fail[s] to see what is so hard about that.”
She’s also a part of the hundreds of ultra-wealthy individuals comprising the Patriotic Millionaires, a group that campaigns for higher taxes on the wealthy, including themselves. They’ve called out inequality, with Disney writing in a press release that “extreme wealth is eating our world alive.”
A report from the Patriotic Millionaires and left-leaning think tank Institute for Policy Studies, looked at data from Wealth-X to find out how much the rich actually fly solo. One of the main offenders, Elon Musk, had yearly private jet emissions that were 132 times higher than the entire carbon footprint of the average American.
“The 1% are killing the planet,” The New York Communities for Change tweeted out the day of the protest that. As arrested activist who worked at Planet Over Profit, Teddy Ogborn, said in a statement shared with Teen Vogue, "These same rich people farting into the Hamptons on private jets are often the ones who make their money in industries hugely accelerated the climate crisis."
Disney recognized her privilege and past predilection for flying private in a statement obtained by Fox News. “I know it’s hard to give up a luxury that is special," Disney said, “but I also know that the time has passed for spewing greenhouse gasses like this merely for our personal comfort." She told the Star that while flying private is a “lovely” experience, she’s “done the impossible dream” by doing what many of us do— flying commercial to help combat pollution. Citing recent climate disasters and the record-breaking heat this summer, Disney deemed global warming a pressing emergency. "We don’t have time,” she said.
With a self-reported net worth of $120 million, Disney has more than enough to bail herself out of her arrest. But the Earth might not be able to be bailed out if the wealthy continue to travel this way.
