The Third Act Banking on our Future campaign is now underway! Last Wednesday night on our truly wonderful national monthly call, we featured Reverend Lennox Yearwood, President of the Hip Hop Caucus, Sam Brown, Former State Treasurer of Colorado, and a thoughtful and inspiring message from Bill Moyers, who could not make the event. We unveiled the Banking on our Future Pledge to stop big banks from funding the climate crisis and urge investments in climate solutions.
Third Actors, we need your help! Sign the Pledge:
- If you are a customer, and have a checking, savings, and/or credit card with Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo, we ask you to pledge to close your account and cut-up your credit card if by the end of 2022 they are still funding projects and companies that are accelerating the climate crisis. Don't switch yet, though. (Note: Check your credit cards carefully—an Amazon card or a United miles card, for instance, are from Chase; the Costco credit card is from Citi, and so on.)
- If you do not have an account or a credit card at these banks now, we ask you to pledge that you won’t open one in the future.
What does my bank have to do with climate change?
The answer is a lot: since the Paris climate accord was signed in 2015, these four banks have invested one trillion dollars in dirty fossil fuel projects and companies. If older Americans like many of us, who hold 70% of the wealth in this country, wield our economic power, we can stop these banks from lending to the fossil fuel industry polluting our atmosphere and help shift investments to clean energy.
We are powerful when we act together
But, don’t move your money or cut up your credit card quite yet. The big banks won’t notice if you quietly move your money on your own.
We are giving Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citibank until the end of 2022 to stop investing in dirty projects like mining coal in Australia and India, drilling for oil in the Arctic and the Amazon, and/or building tarsands and fracked gas pipelines in places like Minnesota and West Virginia.
However, if the banks don’t stop, we will make good on our pledges together, en masse. If you join us, together we can divest from companies that do not take into account the health and future of the environment and the communities they serve.
In the meantime, Third Act will be gathering the best data, resources, and tools from partnering organizations to help ensure that we have a comprehensive list of environmentally and socially responsible financial institutions for you all to bank with. We will also offer webinars, FAQs, and support on the actual mechanics of switching accounts that will make it easy for you - when the time is right - to stop banking with companies invested in climate chaos.
Today, please sign and share the pledge for customers or the pledge for non-account-holders with your friends, family, neighbors, and community. You won't be alone: A recent Yale survey of consumers indicates quite a sizable group of Americans (38%) say they would be extremely, very, or moderately likely to switch banks or credit cards if they knew their bank was investing in fossil fuels! (Note 1) What’s holding people back from taking action to influence big polluters? In that same survey, 58% of people said nobody had ever asked them to…
So, ask them to join us! If they have any questions, share this clip from CBS News talking about Third Act and the role that Boomers like us can play in the fight against climate change.(Note 2) The Third Act website has lots of information to help you get started.
Take the Pledge Today!
Together, let’s raise our voices with the young people on the frontlines of the climate movement as we call on the banks: Move your money out of fossil fuels, or we will move ours out of your banks! With hope and organizing, here’s to #BankingOnOurFuture!
Bill McKibben and the Third Act Team
P.S. Please follow Third Act on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where you can easily share the Banking on our Future Pledge.
Endnotes
(1) “Consumer Activism on Global Warming, September 2021,” Anthony Leiserowitz et al, published by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications, December 16, 2021.
(2) CBS News Video Clip, MoneyWatch, “Climate activists push for banks to divest from fossil fuels,” featuring Bill McKibben of Third Act and Valerie Rockefeller of BankFWD, January 28, 2022.
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