Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC — This Earth Day, activists will turn up the heat on Wall Street through mass online actions.
Earth Day Live, the three-day online Earth Day celebration, will dedicate an entire day — Thursday, April 23 — to “Divest,” a day-long push to end the financing of climate destruction.
Programming for the day is being led by Stop the Money Pipeline, a coalition of over 90 climate, Indigenous, and social justice organizations that launched this January to pressure banks, insurance companies, asset managers, and asset owners to stop financing fossil fuels and deforestation.
Thursday’s live stream will feature webinars, workshops, call-ins to financial institutions, and more. Planned events include:
- A webinar on how JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank funder of coal, oil, and gas in the world, is funding some of the most controversial fossil fuel projects in the country.
- A conversation with representatives of the Gwich’in Steering Committee about how they successfully pressured Goldman Sachs and other major Wall Street banks to back away from funding drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
- A big call-in drive to BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street to pressure them to vote Lee Raymond — the former CEO of ExxonMobil — off the board of JP Morgan Chase.
Stop the Money Pipeline had initially planned to occupy hundreds of Chase Bank branches and the headquarters of other key financial targets on April 23, but had to cancel those offline plans out of an abundance of caution because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizers say the need to pressure Wall Street to stop funding polluters and start supporting communities is more important now than ever. Even with tens of millions of Americans out of work, Wall Street institutions seem more interested in buying up oil companies and setting up “backdoor bailouts” for the fossil fuel industry than they are in getting money directly to those in need.
Stop the Money Pipeline has been working to expose Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to profit off the coronavirus crisis, while uplifting the communities of color, low-income people, and Indigenous communities most impacted by the current crisis.
Organizers hope the “Divest” day will bring thousands of new people into the movement to take on Wall Street and “stop the money pipeline” from Wall Street to fossil fuel companies. In May, the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition will turn its focus to shareholder season and pressure financial institutions to put people ahead of polluters.
“Even though we can’t take to the streets to march and rally together, that won’t stop us from keeping the pressure up on the financial institutions that are helping to drive the climate crisis. It’s more important than ever to hold Wall Street and push them to support our communities, not corporate polluters,” said Sierra Club campaign representative Ben Cushing.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.