As Smoke Returns to NY Skies, Climate Activists Disrupt Zeldin Event in the Hamptons

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https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-defiance-lee-zeldin

As Smoke Returns to NY Skies, Climate Activists Disrupt Zeldin Event in the Hamptons

"Mr. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is making it impossible for us to regulate these life-threatening emissions," one activist said.

OLIVIA ROSANE
Jul 27, 2025

As smoke from Canadian wildfires triggered an air quality alert for New York City and Long Island on Sunday, activists with Climate Defiance disrupted a speech by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Hamptons.

The disruption came four days after reports emerged that Zeldin's EPA was set to repeal the 2009 "endangerment finding" that greenhouse gas emissions "threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations." It is this finding that has given the EPA the authority to regulate climate emissions under the Clean Air Act. “We are in a climate crisis largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels," the first activist to disrupt the speech said, according to video footage shared by Climate Defiance. "And Mr. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is making it impossible for us to regulate these life-threatening emissions."

Zeldin's speech took place at the Global Breakfast Forum, held at The Hamptons Synagogue. Several of the young Jewish activists who disrupted the speech referenced their faith. "The Torah commands us to be stewards of the Earth, not the oil industry," one activist said. The audience largely responded with boos and jeers, and one attacked two of the activists with a chair, according to Climate Defiance video footage.

However, the Climate Defiance activists emphasized that Zeldin and the pro-fossil fuel Trump administration were the forces that would ultimately disrupt life and community in the Hamptons. “History is going to remember you as a monster," one yelled out to Zeldin. Another said: "Lee Zeldin, you have taken half of a million dollars from fossil fuels. What are you going to say to your children when the Hamptons are underwater?"

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