This is very exciting. I love how it will bring attention to climate change and how it is caused by burning fossil fuels. That climate pollution is padding our atmosphere like a blanket, trapping more heat and making the earth warm up more than ever.
The banks are investing in fossil fuels because they are making money, lots of money! They are not dummies doing it obliviously.
What is needed is to make investing in fossil fuels a losing proposition and turn off the money-making machine.
I want a "Carbon Cashback". It would make big polluting oil companies pay price to pollute! Then, return all that cash back to American families as monthly payments. Canada calls their system a "climate payment". Austria calls theirs a KlimaBonus ("Climate Bonus"!) Look up "Carbon Cashback" to learn more.
Let's stop the problem at the source! Make fossils fuels a losing investment.
I have convinced a good number of my friends to switch to credit unions, the others seem soul-bound to their banks. But another avenue I have explored is recommending the website https://fossilfreefunds.org/ where you can check on how much your personal/retirement investments are contributing to fossil fuels.
For those of us who have divested from the big four banks already, or who don't want to wait until March 21 to do so, does this project have a way to be counted along with the many who will pull their plugs on 3-21-23? I understand how the idea is to make the banks feel the impact all at once, but aren't you risking a reduction in the total number of switched accounts if you count on everyone remembering and being available to take this action on the same day, rather than tracking the cumulative divestments over the entire time of the campaign and reporting that as part of the totals on "D-day"? Is the goal here to make the biggest possible one-day impact for the public relations value or to get our money out of supporting fossil fuels as soon as possible?
good points. there's a big pledge to be signed at thirdact.org, which is ongoing
and the real point of the day is less about moving money than about raising voices--wherever you bank, whatever your credit card, just come out to tell the big banks to change
Thanks Bill for another #PollutionSurvival #PoisonFreeCommunity strategy. Thank you for all you do to build an empathy surplus large enough to save us all. I crossposted to ProEmpathy Voters Are the Solution subscribers.
It's not just banks that are #GreenWashing and #BlueWashing. This year more Fortune 500 companies joined the unglobalcompact.org than anytime in this United Nations' initiative history to reframe #EthicalBusiness around ten principles focused on #HumanRights, #LivingWorkLeisure, and #AntiCorruptionOfGovernment for the sake of #PollutionSurvival.
Don't get me wrong. Even though I have a healthy amount of skepticism and fear around their motivation, I am also glad they have gone on the record to align their operations around the above hashtagged ideas. The latest brain research tells us that if we want the human right to pollution survival (human right as of this year) to become reality, we have to talk about the human right to pollution survival.
Bank of America joined the UN Global Compact (UNGC) in 2016, and Citi joined in 2010. Our Empathy Surplus Network USA joined in 2014. NGO members are required to report every two years on their engagement of business members to fulfill their human rights obligations. In our 2022 Communication on Engagement we created a Human Rights Ethical Business Index. I hope you'll take a look at it and offer any insights. Scroll to the bottom right footer of our website - https://empathysurplus.com - and click on the link "Empathy Surplus Network USA's Communications on Engagement."
By the way, Mastercard joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2018. You can see where they rank on our Human Rights Ethical Business Index by following the instructions above. Thanks.
Again, thank you for exercising empathy for (found in human rights Article 1) and responsibility to (Article 29) the human race.
I'm puzzled about how cutting up my Chase credit card would hurt them instead of me. I do not bank with Chase. I simply have a credit card which I pay off completely every month. So I am not giving them any money in any way. Actually they are lending me money for a few weeks for free and I am the one who 'wins' from this. So cutting up my card would hurt me and do nothing to them. Demonstrations make sense but not cutting up cards.
Hi, Chris, It's great that you are paying off your credit card so that you don't get charged interest rates. However, that's not the only way that banks make money off your credit card. Merchants pay the bank up to 3 percent when you use their credit card. So what Bill is asking is that you CHANGE your credit card to a different bank. And once you've done that, go to the CHASE branch nearest you and cut it up on the assigned day.
I'm a huge Bill McKibben fan and have great appreciation for the work you do. This article is full of great info. My question is: Which credit cards are the best to have in terms of banks/companies that are NOT funding fossil fuel expansion and ARE making a sincere effort to address the climate crisis?
Hey Bill, just wanted to let you know that the last link in your article got mangled. And hey, awesome work on everything. Really awesome to see smart and compassionate analysis of power turn into direct, meaningful action.
This is very exciting. I love how it will bring attention to climate change and how it is caused by burning fossil fuels. That climate pollution is padding our atmosphere like a blanket, trapping more heat and making the earth warm up more than ever.
The banks are investing in fossil fuels because they are making money, lots of money! They are not dummies doing it obliviously.
What is needed is to make investing in fossil fuels a losing proposition and turn off the money-making machine.
I want a "Carbon Cashback". It would make big polluting oil companies pay price to pollute! Then, return all that cash back to American families as monthly payments. Canada calls their system a "climate payment". Austria calls theirs a KlimaBonus ("Climate Bonus"!) Look up "Carbon Cashback" to learn more.
Let's stop the problem at the source! Make fossils fuels a losing investment.
Robin
I have convinced a good number of my friends to switch to credit unions, the others seem soul-bound to their banks. But another avenue I have explored is recommending the website https://fossilfreefunds.org/ where you can check on how much your personal/retirement investments are contributing to fossil fuels.
For those of us who have divested from the big four banks already, or who don't want to wait until March 21 to do so, does this project have a way to be counted along with the many who will pull their plugs on 3-21-23? I understand how the idea is to make the banks feel the impact all at once, but aren't you risking a reduction in the total number of switched accounts if you count on everyone remembering and being available to take this action on the same day, rather than tracking the cumulative divestments over the entire time of the campaign and reporting that as part of the totals on "D-day"? Is the goal here to make the biggest possible one-day impact for the public relations value or to get our money out of supporting fossil fuels as soon as possible?
good points. there's a big pledge to be signed at thirdact.org, which is ongoing
and the real point of the day is less about moving money than about raising voices--wherever you bank, whatever your credit card, just come out to tell the big banks to change
Thanks Bill for another #PollutionSurvival #PoisonFreeCommunity strategy. Thank you for all you do to build an empathy surplus large enough to save us all. I crossposted to ProEmpathy Voters Are the Solution subscribers.
It's not just banks that are #GreenWashing and #BlueWashing. This year more Fortune 500 companies joined the unglobalcompact.org than anytime in this United Nations' initiative history to reframe #EthicalBusiness around ten principles focused on #HumanRights, #LivingWorkLeisure, and #AntiCorruptionOfGovernment for the sake of #PollutionSurvival.
Don't get me wrong. Even though I have a healthy amount of skepticism and fear around their motivation, I am also glad they have gone on the record to align their operations around the above hashtagged ideas. The latest brain research tells us that if we want the human right to pollution survival (human right as of this year) to become reality, we have to talk about the human right to pollution survival.
Bank of America joined the UN Global Compact (UNGC) in 2016, and Citi joined in 2010. Our Empathy Surplus Network USA joined in 2014. NGO members are required to report every two years on their engagement of business members to fulfill their human rights obligations. In our 2022 Communication on Engagement we created a Human Rights Ethical Business Index. I hope you'll take a look at it and offer any insights. Scroll to the bottom right footer of our website - https://empathysurplus.com - and click on the link "Empathy Surplus Network USA's Communications on Engagement."
By the way, Mastercard joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2018. You can see where they rank on our Human Rights Ethical Business Index by following the instructions above. Thanks.
Again, thank you for exercising empathy for (found in human rights Article 1) and responsibility to (Article 29) the human race.
I'm puzzled about how cutting up my Chase credit card would hurt them instead of me. I do not bank with Chase. I simply have a credit card which I pay off completely every month. So I am not giving them any money in any way. Actually they are lending me money for a few weeks for free and I am the one who 'wins' from this. So cutting up my card would hurt me and do nothing to them. Demonstrations make sense but not cutting up cards.
Hi, Chris, It's great that you are paying off your credit card so that you don't get charged interest rates. However, that's not the only way that banks make money off your credit card. Merchants pay the bank up to 3 percent when you use their credit card. So what Bill is asking is that you CHANGE your credit card to a different bank. And once you've done that, go to the CHASE branch nearest you and cut it up on the assigned day.
Thank you for this information. I did not realize that.
I'm a huge Bill McKibben fan and have great appreciation for the work you do. This article is full of great info. My question is: Which credit cards are the best to have in terms of banks/companies that are NOT funding fossil fuel expansion and ARE making a sincere effort to address the climate crisis?
I have none of these credit cards. What about AmEx/Delta Air, US Bank, and Capital One?
What CCs are from "good guys"?
There was community supported shipping in the early 1800s, too. That's how they shared the (fairly high) risks that ships might sink.
Hey Bill, just wanted to let you know that the last link in your article got mangled. And hey, awesome work on everything. Really awesome to see smart and compassionate analysis of power turn into direct, meaningful action.
Funny how trump says he will be arrested on this day