Photos: Queens Man Scales Unisphere In Climate Change Protest

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Glen Schleyer crept into Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the middle of the night with a 20-foot Climate Change banner, a Dachshund named Roxie and the harnesses he'd need to scale Queens' iconic Unisphere.

"It's something I'm doing for my children and everyone's children," Schleyer, 49, said of his protest climb. "The original point of the Unisphere was that it's one planet, one earth ... and that's really what we need right now."

Schleyer, a retired attorney from Forest Hills, scaled the 12-story structure three times — twice in secret after sunset — and once more during his political action Friday about noon, he told Patch.

The Queens man, now an activist with Extinction Rebellion NYC, said he learned to climb just six months before his protest, meant to draw attention to government inaction on Climate Change and fires roaring through the Amazon Rainforest.

"The Amazon fires are the most notable sign of our destruction right now," he said.

Spectators watched as Schleyer climbed up about 70 feet, grabbed the "Zero CO2 2025, Climate Justice Now” banner he'd stashed in the globe the night before, and draped it over the steel outline of Brazil in the pouring rain.

"When Glen started the climb into the unisphere a torrential rain from hurricane Dorian began," photographer Sue Brisk wrote on Instagram. "He raced into the water & became invisible in the fog of rain."

The whole climb took less than 30 minutes, but a Parks Department worker was already waiting to detain Schleyer once he climbed down, he said.

"I knew by the time I got down there would be someone waiting to arrest me," Schleyer said. "That's nonviolence, that's the cost. It is just communication."

Police soon arrived to lock Schleyer in handcuffs, then stared up at the banner trying to figure out how to pull it down, photos show. Schleyer said his offer to climb back up and grab the sign himself was declined.

Schleyer was detained for about 10 hours and charged him with disorderly conduct — a violation, not a crime — for which he was sentenced time served and a $120 fine, he said.

Everything pretty much went as expected, he said, except for the moment during a late night practice climb when Roxie (the Dachshund he brought so as to seem like a dog walker and not a globe climber) began barking loudly.

"She was supposed to be my alibi," Schleyer said with a laugh. "And she's narcing me out!"