What can a single person do to help with climate change? Naturally one could fly less, drive an electric car, minimize one’s use of fossil fuel and be more conscious. All these things are good, but they will take a long time to implement and it will take at least a generation to make a global difference. And we do not have that kind of time!
In Bill McKibben’s article “Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming Burns” in The New Yorker on Sept. 17, 2019, he discussed a very good way to make a difference and I want to tell you about it in case you missed it: He exposed the worst banks that lend money to the worst companies contributing to climate change.
If you are banking at one of them (see the list below for the four American banks), consider changing banks and make sure the bank knows why you do so. Even if you are not a millionaire, the banks make a lot of money from our individual accounts and they fear scandals.
We have the power to close our account and leave a bank funding fossil fuel companies. Ask your friends to do the same and start a trend. Tell the bank administration that you are leaving because they are fostering climate change by loaning money to polluters. With that money these companies build coal mines, do catastrophic extraction of Arctic oil or oil-filled sludge in North Alberta.
And the list goes on. Banks lending money for projects so catastrophic to our planet that all the money on earth will not be able to fix the disaster 25 years from now do not deserve us as customers. And tell them that you are going to find yourself a decent bank. It’s OK to be a little dramatic! Let your money talk!
Here are the four worst American banks in 2023 that loaned billions of dollars to polluting companies, according to the Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2023 (based on 2022 loans):
1. JP Morgan Chase, $39.5 billion.
2. Citibank, $39.2 billion.
3. Wells Fargo, $37.4 billion.
4. Bank of America, $35.5 billion.
Globally, only one other bank in Canada is worse than these American banks: RBC supplied $40.6 billion to fund pipelines and fracking in Western Canada. Behind them are many European and Asian banks.
So please do what many have done (including myself) — close your accounts if you bank in one of these banks and find banks that do not finance pollution while pretending to be environmentally conscious.
Anne-Louise Smallen lives in Northampton.