Climate activists roam Denver dressed as zombies to protest fossil fuel financing
If you noticed zombies taking over LoDo Saturday, you probably assumed it was a typical Halloween celebration, but some Coloradans dressed as the undead in protest. The activists say climate change is the scariest thing they can think of.
"What better way to raise awareness around one of the scariest issues in the world that we are facing currently than to have an event on Halloween," said organizer Giselle Herzfeld with 350 Denver. The climate action nonprofit hosting a "climate banker zombie crawl" through Downtown Denver, dressing up as wall street bankers turned zombies from an addiction to fossil fuels
"Now we are roaming the streets of Denver from bank to bank in search of fossil fuel profits," says Herzfeld.
The zombies started at Union Station and then staggered past Chase Bank and Wells Fargo on 17th Street, protesting the banks' funding of fossil fuels.
"Do we want an apocalypse because we're funding fossil fuels to these trillions of dollars?" protestors ask. "No!" The crowd responds.
There are more than 300,000 oil and gas-related jobs in Colorado, making the industry a major part of the state's economy, but the activists say Colorado also knows firsthand the impacts of climate change, pointing to disasters like the Marshall Fire.
"Homes were destroyed, people's lives were destroyed by that fire. We've seen increasing floods, increasing drought conditions, we've seen the Colorado River drying up," says Herzfeld. She says it's a bid to make climate activism accessible and fun.
"It's a really fun holiday, but it's important to remember we're not gonna be able to have fun if we don't have a future that's livable and habitable," participant Daniela Withaar said.
The crawl ended at the Denver Federal Reserve building where marchers urged the Federal Reserve to phase out fossil fuel financing by 2030.
