New York, NY – A coalition of environmental groups, led by Third Act NYC, staged an action on Valentine’s Day at JPMorgan Chase Headquarters in Manhattan, to pressure JPMorgan Chase to rethink its extensive investments in fossil fuel exploration, extraction, and production.
JPMorgan Chase is the worst of America’s Big Four Dirty Banks when it comes to investing in climate-killing fossil-fuel projects (the others are Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America). In the seven years since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed, Chase alone has invested $382 billion in an industry that’s literally cooking the planet.
On Valentine’s Day Third Act NYC, along with allies from XRNYC, Stop the Money Pipeline, Greenfaith, 350NYC, Rise And Resist and many other organizations, delivered a letter to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon demanding an immediate end to all new fossil-fuel investing, and that Chase redirect its investments to renewable sources of energy. That would be a true Valentine to the planet and its children!
The groups are also telling Dimon that if such an announcement is not made by March 21, those who are Chase customers will be back to CLOSE their Chase accounts.
“This is part of Third Act’s Banking on Our Future campaign,” said Pat Almonrode, co-facilitator of the NYC Working Group. “People over 60, the age group that Third Act represents, are the fastest-growing segment of the American population – and by some estimates we control about 70% of the private wealth in this country. The banks are using our money to fund climate chaos. If you have $62,500 in the mainstream banking system, the banks’ investments in fossil fuels mean that your $62,500 is effectively pumping more heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere than the average American produces from all their activities in six months.”
“As Bill McKibben, founder of Third Act, has said, ‘Money is the oxygen on which the fire of global warming burns,'” continued Almonrode. “We say: not our money, and we’ll make the point again, nationwide, on March 21, Third Act’s National Day of Action.”
“We’re not naive,” said Almonrode. “We know we’re not going to bankrupt the banks by withdrawing our money. The goal is to diminish the social sanction that the banks currently enjoy, and to continue bringing the fight against climate change into America’s daily conversation. And we think that as ‘experienced Americans’ with so much demographic, political, and financial power, we’re uniquely positioned for this work.”
© Erik McGregor – erikrivas@hotmail.com – 917-225-8963