Environment & Energy

DBoon

(24,854 posts) Fri Feb 20, 2026, 05:14 PM 19 hrs ago

NYT: He Was a Climate Activist. One Day, the F.B.I. Came Knocking.

Gift link : https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/nyregion/environmental-activists-trump-crackdown.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NlA.2EVu.lorWOb8ovebn&smid=url-share

On a recent frosty February morning, 200 miles north of New York City, a middle-aged man had just had his tea and toast and opened his laptop. He heard a knock on his door. When he answered it, a woman, accompanied by a man, identified herself as a counterterrorism agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She said that she wanted to talk with him about Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental group. He was not in trouble, she told him.

The man’s heart started racing. He told them he had nothing to say. The F.B.I. agent asked if there was someone who could speak on the man’s behalf. He said no. The two agents thanked him and left.

...

For several years, the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, had been active in Extinction Rebellion, which specializes in splashy, nonviolent actions that call attention to global warming. Members have disrupted a Coco Gauff tennis match at the U.S. Open and interrupted a Broadway play. Now, Extinction Rebellion and other environmental groups are concerned that the Trump administration, as it continues to clamp down on protesters, is casting its net wider to include climate activists.

In January, the man, who is no longer active in the group, received a call from the F.B.I. He figured it was a scam and hung up. Two minutes later, an agent texted him, saying that she was standing outside his home. But it was his old address, hundreds of miles away. A few weeks later, the same agent and a colleague were standing outside the mud room of his current home.