With Earth Day coming up a week from today, we want to keep you up to date on climate change news and opportunities for your activism, even as we shelter in place.
First, about this coming Earth Day. It’s a big deal — fifty years since environmentalists pushed protecting the environment under President Nixon’s nose. (The upshot: never a nature lover, he still went on to sign the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Endangered Species acts.)
This Earth Day is so big that organizers are spreading the event over three days, April 22-24 (and of course, taking it all online). Check out Earth Day Live for music from people like Aimee Mann and Jason Mraz, good ideas from Bill McKibben, Rev. Dr. William Barber and others, and a livestreamed spirit of hopefulness.
You may have read of 350 Humboldt’s Earth Day plans. We’re asking people to Stop the Money Pipeline — the flow of cash from banks and capital firms to fossil fuel developers. Just since the Paris Climate Accords in 2015, big banks have invested $1.9 trillion in fossil fuels. (See the national Stop the Money Pipeline here).
Many of those banks are familiar names locally. Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi (sponsor of Costco’s popular credit card). You may have insurance through Liberty Mutual (so does the Keystone XL pipeline), or a credit card through Bank of America (they’ve given $106 billion in credit to fossil fuel companies).
And if you’re personally able to invest, you may be doing so through Blackrock, which oversees huge investments in fossil fuels and deforestation projects — even as renewable energy outpaces fossil fuels in profit — see this article from last week.
Some local Stop the Money Pipeline actions are below. We hope you can join in.
But if you only have time for a click on your computer, here’s a petition we’re supporting. Ask California Gov. Newsom to stop issuing permits for new oil and gas wells at a time when new research from Harvard University shows that air pollution aggravates the risk to coronavirus sufferers.
Pat Carr for 350 Humboldt.