BIG TECH LOVES TRUMP

xrnyc_press@unitedrebellion.com

ACTIVISTS CALL OUT BIG TECH’S CLIMATE BETRAYAL

NEW YORK, NY — This morning, climate activists with Extinction Rebellion NYC staged a bold protest at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, disrupting business as usual with chants of “Dump Trump, Apple!” Activists spray-painted messages including “Boycott (Apple)” and “Tim + Trump = Toxic” on the store’s iconic glass entrance. One individual was arrested.

The group is calling out Big Tech’s climate hypocrisy. Front and center at Trump’s 2025 inauguration were the same CEOs—Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg—who once claimed to be big supporters of the Paris Agreement. They’re backing an administration that’s gutting environmental rules and funneling billions of dollars to fossil fuels, while billions of people sweat through record heat. As inequality mounts and once-in-a-century natural disasters now occur every year, Big Tech stays quiet—choosing profits over principles and access over accountability.

The “America Is All In” coalition, with Apple, Google, and Meta on board, noisily defended climate action during Trump’s first term. But in December 2024, as Trump’s second inauguration loomed, they backed away, refusing to sign a key letter reaffirming the Paris Agreement.

The latest climate models project 3 degrees of warming by 2060. Another new study predicts up to 4 billion deaths and a 50% loss of global GDP this century. The protest comes as record-breaking rainfall hits Central Texas, where the death toll has reached 67.

Meanwhile, Big Tech’s AI binge is one of the planet’s fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions. Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have shot up more than 50% since 2019, fueled by energy-hungry AI data centers. Google is selling out the future for short-term gain.

Electricity demand for data centers alone will increase 10-20% per year through 2030, according to Chris Seiple, Vice Chairman of the Energy Transition and Power and Renewables Group at analyst firm Wood Mackenzie. On April 8, 2025, Trump signed an executive order entitled "Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 1424," that would power AI data centers with coal.

According to Ford CEO Jim Farley, “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US.” Other influential execs have made similar remarks. These companies are racing towards a future that will destroy livelihoods, using the very dirtiest of fossil fuels and nothing but the very dirtiest of fossil fuels–coal–to do so. They are knowingly creating technologies that will hurt people and our planet, just to save a few bucks.

Extinction Rebellion NYC calls on the public to vote with its dollars; the future depends on it. Boycott tech companies that enable authoritarianism and expand fossil fuel use.

Photos and videos available here. Content is free to use with credit to Extinction Rebellion NYC.

QUOTES

“In 2023, Tim Cook called combatting climate change one of the most urgent priorities of our time. Fast forward to 2025, and he’s donating to Trump—the man leading the charge to roll back all climate progress. They’ve betrayed their customers and the planet at the most critical moment in human history.” — Miles Grant, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion
“Citizens vote based on party positions on issues like immigration and climate change. Corporations, on the other hand, ‘vote’ with their money—backing whichever politicians promise favorable trade deals and deregulation. The result is a nation tilting further toward private, monopolistic control—what many now describe as oligarchy or fascism. But if this country is known for one thing, it’s for rising up against such power and returning governance to the hands of the people.” — Nate Smith, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.
“Eight years ago, Big Tech CEOs were quick to call out Trump for ditching the Paris Agreement. Now? They’re totally silent. They care more about protecting their own wealth than they do about the planet. Hypocrisy at its finest!” said Evan Kravitz, an Extinction Rebellion activist who participated in the action.
“These companies wrapped themselves in glossy green branding and diversity pledges. But when it came time to take a stand, they chose profits over people. That’s not neutrality—it’s complicity,” said Danielle, a Texas-native Extinction Rebellion activist who joined the action. “My home state is underwater right now. This is the cost of their cowardice.”
“Every policy, every business decision, every vote must confront the reality that our planet’s future is on the line. Big Tech promised leadership, but when the heat was on, they sat silent—front and center at Trump’s inauguration, funding a regime that’s gutting climate protections,” said Devin Lilly, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.

About Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action on the climate and nature emergency.

Extinction Rebellion exists because the conventional approaches: voting, writing to politicians, lobbying, and signing petitions, have failed. Powerful political and economic interests prevent change, as does our outdated political system itself. Our strategy is therefore one of nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience – in short, it is a strategy of rebellion.

Climate boiling is here and now. It’s happening all around us, and it hits historically vulnerable communities hardest of all.. Extinction Rebellion demands that all of us, especially major institutions and governments, tell the truth about the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction. Extinction Rebellion believes that, when faced with the government’s criminal inaction, it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, through peaceful civil disobedience .

Internationally, Extinction Rebellion has been demanding that those with power act now to halt the worst outcomes of the climate catastrophe currently unfolding. Unlike other climate advocacy groups, Extinction Rebellion understands that we must go beyond politics and establish Citizens’ Assemblies. Citizens’ Assemblies are deliberative bodies that are, like juries, formed of randomly selected members of the public. Assembly members hear expert testimony and develop recommendations on specific policy issues. Only through this method can we achieve the fair and just transition we need.

Leading by example, Extinction Rebellion is fighting for a more stable, sustainable world.

actions, pressMun XRJuly 6, 2025