Anti-fossil fuels groups have been ramping up protests in the United States and overseas as part of a coordinated campaign to bring awareness to climate change by vandalizing fine art, blocking major roads, and even gluing themselves to sports cars.
CEF celebrity funders also include Jeremy Strong, who plays Kendall Roy in the HBO TV series Succession, comedian Chelsea Handler, actor and Silicon Valley star Thomas Middleditch, and Abigail Disney, daughter of ex-Disney executive Roy E. Disney, according to CEF's annual 2022 report. CEF states in its 2022 annual report that"nonviolent protest is a crucial tool for creating the political and social will needed to rapidly shift climate change policies and protect a livable future on Planet Earth." Though its 2022 tax forms are not public yet, CEF also claims in the report and on its website to have steered more than $5 million in grants to 44 global entities last year, trained 45,000 activists, and generated over 24,000"press hits.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a liberal donor-advised grantmaker that disclosed over $10 billion in assets on 2021 tax forms, granted $100,000 to CEF in 2019, financial disclosures show. Other notable donors between 2019 and 2020 were the Sierra Club Foundation, a top environmental charity, and the Earthsense Foundation, a group that lists a New York City address on tax forms that has been led by CEF board member and Hollywood producer Shannon O’Leary Joy.
Manchin spokesman Sam Runyon declined to comment on the Sunrise Movement incidents, telling the Washington Examiner,"I’m sorry we can’t be more helpful, but these are sensitive security issues and we just can’t be sharing additional details." The A22 Network, which fundraises globally through the platform Donorbox, includes both Declare Emergency and Just Stop Oil. It also includes an Italian group called Ultima Generazione, or Last Generation, which sent activists in July 2022 to glue themselves to Sandro Botticelli's famous Primavera painting in Florence.