Why seniors are blocking entrances to the four largest U.S. banks

[riversedge]

Source: washington post


Protests in cities across the country will target Chase, Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo
By Maxine Joselow

March 21, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT



When customers of America’s four largest banks visit their local branches on Tuesday, they will be greeted by an unfamiliar sight: activists in rocking chairs blocking the entrances.

It’s part of a national campaign to pressure banks to stop financing fossil fuels and heed warnings from leading scientists about the need to rapidly phase out oil, gas and coal to avert the worst effects of climate change.
Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.

The rocking chairs are the brainchild of Third Act, a group that seeks to engage Americans 60 and older — those in their “third act” of life — in environmental activism. But the demonstrations are expected to draw attendees of all ages in about 100 cities across 29 states, according to the 53 groups organizing the events.

The protests add to the mounting environmental pressures on Wall Street from politicians of both parties. Liberal lawmakers have pleaded with large financial institutions to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry, while conservatives have attacked what they see as “woke” capitalism, a reference to companies that treat climate change as an economic risk.....................................

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/21/climate-banks-protest-fossil-fuels/

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Good for them

Link to tweet

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Climate activists outside the headquarters of JPMorgan Chase in New York in October 2022. (Anthony Behar/SIPA USA/AP)

[Lovie777]

1. K&R......

[2naSalit]

2. K&R

[oldsoftie]

3. They should at the Capitol pushing for more nuclear power.

dont forget, China is opening new coal powered plants every month.

[Random Boomer]

4. No thank you!

Nuclear power is a short-term solution with long-term dangers of serious proportion. Nuclear power plants are dependent on a stable civilization with highly-skilled technical support staff. To believe that we can sustain those conditions for decades, until the decommissioning of the plant, is highly optimistic. We're likely to face substantial social unrest just within the next 20 years as the disruptive effects of escalating climate change grow stronger. It's also quite feasible that there will be a collapse of central authority -- civilizations fail quickly -- and our society's ability to maintain these plants will crumble. I'd rather have less volatile power sources as we march through the rest of this century. It's going to be a very rough ride.

[oldsoftie]

7. "Short term" is thinking current tech can replace gas, coal & nuclear.

Continuing to put all our eggs in the wind/solar basket is folly. And it makes us even MORE tied to Chinese blackmail; since THEY are tying up the biggest resources for all those panels & windmills. Not to mention, they & India are continuing to open more coal plants, which means whatever we do only helps a little. Add to that, all the pollution Russia is adding with their endless war.

And I dont know why you'd think we'd suddenly run out of professionals to run a nuclear plant. If that happens, we've also run out of professionals to run 1/2 the industry in the US

New technology is invented all the time. Hopefully SOMEONE will come up with something, but we dont know when that will be. TODAY, there is NO way to replace our daily power generation from nuclear, coal & gas with anything we currently have available.

[Random Boomer]

11. You're completely missing my point

Solar and wind aren't going to save us either. We're driving full speed into a brick wall. The world you see around you today is not going to last very much longer. No one is going to save us. No miracle tech will turn things around.

Creating nuclear power plants is a tremendous risk in a disruptive, unpredictable collapse scenario. The worst thing that happens with wind and solar technology is that they stop working; the worst that happens with an abandoned nuclear power plant is that it melts down like Chernobyl.

[oldsoftie]

12. But current nuclear design is decades of improvement from Chernobyl

And the Russians were told Chernobyl was unsafe for YEARS before their accident. But they're Russians, so of course they didnt listen. Todays designs are far safer & produce less waste. If we dont strive to provide the basic standard of living that we have now & expect people to accept living like its 1930, there's going to be a major problem. And that doesn't even factor in how much of the world depends on US to help them live day to day. Will cities right on the coast go away? Probably. And we'll just have to deal with it. Because its likely going to happen regardless of what we do now

Nuclear isnt perfect, but its better than just giving up

[friend of a friend]

13. I will not answer for Random Boomer because I might have misread the post.

What I thought the message about abandoned nuclear power plants was, and what I believe will happen is some nuclear power plants will be in areas where they can not be maintained. I don't believe that national governments will survive.

[Random Boomer]

14. Thank you. Yes, this.

If you walk away from a windmill, eventually it will rust and maybe collapse on top of a wary traveller or a passing rabbit, but the damage it causes will be extremely limited.

If a nuclear power plant is abandoned in mid-operation, the result may not be Chernobyl, but I very much doubt it will be good. Nuclear power plants are only safe if the surrounding industrial/technological society is stable enough to operate them (and then eventually decommission them properly).

There is a mindset of denial and hubris that assumes our technological abilities can be sustained indefinitely. That worldview is going to be tested mightily in the coming decades. War, famine, plague, natural disasters -- or a perfect storm of all the above -- can topple a civilization. If someone can reassure me that nuclear power plants can be abandoned -- that the staff can just get up and walk out the door at a moment's notice -- without any risk of a meltdown, then I'll drop my objections.

[Wonder Why]

5. I hope none of the seniors are customers of those banks

They shouldn't be supporting the sleaziest banks aka the largest. Better to use credit unions and smaller banks

Money talks. So moving one's money elsewhere takes away from the banks' income, power and size.

[flamingdem]

6. This is BRILLIANT

Good visuals and about time for seniors to be visible and into activism.

[Bayard]

8. Seniors rock out!

[Traildogbob]

9. Not the reason

I thought when I read the title. I thought they were gonna block people from withdrawing funds for a bank run that are killing retirement investments.

[OMGWTF]

10. Wells Fargo is a CRIMINAL enterprise.