For days, CFACT searched the streets and buildings of New York City for the 100,000+ climate activists the media claimed were here.
We looked outside the United Nations. We walked around and inside the Javits Center. We checked Bryant Park, Times Square, and the streets of Manhattan. We scoured social media posts and activist announcements, looking for the marches, banners and street demonstrations that have traditionally accompanied the annual gathering of the global climate movement.
They were shockingly hard to find.
As I wrote earlier this week, Climate Week itself certainly hasn’t disappeared. The conferences had attendees. Corporate executives, nonprofit leaders, politicians, and activists were meeting behind closed doors and inside expensive venues across Manhattan.
But out on the streets, something felt different… off even.
The climate movement that once prided itself on disruption, occupying public spaces, and confronting anyone who questioned its agenda was remarkably quiet.
So, on our final day in New York, we changed our strategy.
If we couldn’t find the climate activists, we decided to go looking for the Left ourselves.
We found them.
And they were carrying the red flags of communism.
From Climate Week to the Class War
On the steps of the NY Public Library, demonstrators gathered beneath a sea of communist-red banners before marching through Midtown.
At the front stood members of the Revolutionary Communists of America behind an enormous banner declaring:
“DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM — NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR.”
There was no ambiguity about who they were or what they believed.
The Revolutionary Communists of America openly describes itself as a communist organization seeking the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a workers’ government. Its own website says the organization is working to build a revolutionary party, and earlier this year it reported nearly 650 members attending its national congress from party cells in 42 cities.
The march we encountered was focused primarily on Israel, Gaza, war, and capitalism rather than climate change. But most of the larger climate organizations had members in the crowd- Extinction Rebellion, Sunrise Movement, CodePink were all there, front and center.
They were eager to talk.
One woman we interviewed told us she was disappointed in the lack of climate activity and said she was marching for climate despite the banners and flags around her. She aligned with the commies and quipped, “I hope I don’t get arrested again.”
Another young woman we spoke to actually was NOT a communist; instead, she said she was in fact a socialist.
We continued through the crowd, asking protesters what they believed, what they wanted to accomplish, what kind of political and economic system they hoped would replace the one they were protesting, and how climate change fit into it all.
Most said the same thing, climate change causes genocide, war contributes to climate change, and it’s all interlinked. Some did say they felt genocide was more important than climate, which did back up the polling that has been done where climate has taken a backseat to other political issues.
Then We Brought Climate Week to Them
After spending time interviewing protesters, it was our turn to deliver a message. Turnabout is fair play.
We unfolded a CFACT banner in the middle of the demonstration, which read: “THERE IS NO CLIMATE CRISIS.”
It was not exactly the message the crowd was expecting.
As marchers passed us carrying red flags, Palestinian flags and anti-capitalist signs, we held our banner high and called out:
“You have been lied to. There is no climate crisis. Politicians and greedy corporations have fabricated the climate scare.”
A woman shouted “shame on you” and others jeered similar sentiments. A man came up and told us that our banner was a lie. We told him he can get the facts right here at CFACT.org.
The juxtaposition was hard to miss.
Behind us were protesters condemning corporations and capitalism. In front of them was CFACT challenging a climate agenda that has been embraced and financed by some of the world’s largest corporations, financial institutions, and political organizations and somehow WE were the ones they thought were wrong.
For a few minutes, at least, Climate Week finally made it onto the streets, CFACT style.
Where Did the Climate Activists Go?
That remains the question I left New York asking.
Climate Week organizers certainly haven’t abandoned climate politics. Nor have the corporations, foundations, governments, and advocacy organizations participating in it. Do not feel like it’s over. The green agenda is alive and, unfortunately, well.
But the public face of the movement has changed.
Instead of the mass demonstrations and highly visible street activism that helped define the climate movement in previous years, much of what we encountered this week was institutional: conferences, panels, corporate events, networking sessions and carefully branded gatherings. Will we see it return? Or is this an intentional move to clean the movement up.
Perhaps that’s the real story of Climate Week 2026.
We came to New York prepared to debate climate radicals in the streets. For most of the week, we couldn’t find them.
So eventually we found some communists instead. And we brought the climate debate to them.