A French climber was arrested in New York for scaling the Times building today. Alain Robert, 45, sought to attract attention to global warming. The man climbed the landmark 52-story building without any equipment all the way to the top, using just chalk for his hands and special climbing shoes.

When he reached the fifteenth floor, he unfurled a banner which read "Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week." Robert used the decorative bars on the building to climb on to the top, with no safety rope at all.

Robert has climbed on about 80 skyscrapers all around the world, including the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, the tallest building in the world. His actions often landed him in jail, but for shorts periods of time. He is banned from China for five years after climbing the 88-story Jin Mao Building in Shanghai.

He apparently started climbing when he got locked out of his parents' home at age 12. After two accidents at ages 19 and 20 he suffered multiple fractures and he alleges he suffers from permanent vertigo. Apparently he fell around 50 feet.

His latest climb before today's appears to be the 60-story Four Seasons Place in Hong Kong, where he almost fell before reaching the top when a woman screamed on the other side of the glass, breaking his focus. That scale was also meant to raise awareness to global warming.