For Shutesbury resident Bert Fernandez, climate change “may be the most important issue of our time.”

“We’re seeing all these disasters happening all around the country,” Fernandez said. “Storms are different than they used to be. The ocean waters are getting warmer and rising, and I think it’s an emergency, so any action that we can take, I think is important.”

With this in mind, Fernandez, his wife Elizabeth Fernandez O’Brien and fellow Shutesbury resident Carlos Fontes traveled by train from Greenfield to New York City for the Summer of Heat on Wall Street protest on July 27. Held in front of the Desbrosses Street home of Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, one of the world’s largest funders of fossil fuel development, the demonstration called attention to protesters’ goal of ending fossil fuel financing.

It was there that the three Shutesbury residents were arrested and charged with single counts of blocking pedestrian traffic and failure to disperse. Fernandez O’Brien explained the three sent notarized affidavits to an attorney designated by organizers and, because trips to a Manhattan courthouse for a nonviolent offense would be too difficult, they will not be asked to return to court for six months.

Fernandez O’Brien, recounting the July 27 incident this week, said marchers were asked by police to clear the street. They then split into two groups — red and green. Those in the red group were consenting to committing a nonviolent arrestable offense. About 60 people had their wrists zip-tied behind their backs and were loaded into a van to be taken to a police station for processing. They had previously handed over their valuables to a support group.

Fernandez O’Brien said she chose to travel to New York and get arrested because she is concerned about the climate crisis.

“The climate is so evident here in Massachusetts,” she said. “It’s here, it’s now, and we need to act.”

Fontes said he participated because his daughter was a principal organizer and he worries about his children’s and grandchildren’s future.

“I’m old and I felt I needed to do something that had some meaning that could make a contribution, a small one, to help, in some way, the ... climate emergency,” he said.

The three Shutesbury residents said they have no regrets about getting arrested and would do it again.

“It’s personal,” Fontes said.

According to the Sierra Club, an environmental organization, Citigroup is the worst funder of fossil fuel expansion since the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change signed in 2016. Citigroup has reportedly provided $204 billion since that time to the companies building the most new pipelines, oil rigs and gas terminals. Also, Citigroup in 2023 was reportedly the second-largest Arctic oil and gas funder, providing $246 million to the top Arctic production companies.

The July 27 event was focused on mothers and children. Fernandez O’Brien mentioned one mother said her 4-year-old is afraid of clouds and changing skies following last year’s Canadian wildfires, which sent smoke across that country’s 13 provinces and territories and generated hazy skies as far east as New England. She said another woman mentioned how her daughter, who battles asthma, was hospitalized due to the smoke.