Earth Week 2020: Family Action Day #4
In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, Families for a Livable Climate is offering a week of daily activities and actions for parents and kids to do together. Each day focuses on a theme critical to our time and place in the climate movement, with tie-ins to global and local actions & events.
Click here for more information, and to sign up!
Day Four: Thursday 4/23
Theme: Stop the Money Pipeline
Why it’s important:
Today we join a global day of action aimed at targeting the financial institutions that fund the climate crisis.
“The financial sector is funding, insuring and investing in the climate crisis. Stopping this money pipeline is one of the most important ways we can address the climate emergency. They need to stop funding fossil fuels and deforestation and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty.” - Stop the Money Pipeline Coalition
JPMorgan Chase is the world’s worst banker of climate change -- by a wide margin. It is profiting off climate chaos and human rights abuses by providing nearly $270 billion in financing for coal, oil, and gas companies since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016, while increasing this funding each year -- even during a global pandemic and economic recession. Chase Bank is the world’s largest funder of ultra-deepwater oil & gas, coal, tar sands, and the largest US funder of the proposed Jordan Cove fracked gas project in Southern Oregon.
Public pressure campaigns targeting funders of climate chaos are working, and financial institutions are feeling the heat. If Chase bank - the biggest funder of the fossil fuel industry - divested their funding due to public pressure, many other banks would likely follow suit.
Organizations in focus:
Today’s Action:
Today people in Portland and around the country will target financial institutions with reviews about their role in funding the destruction of the climate and communities.
Together, we're going to leave thousands of educational reviews for every Chase branch on Google Maps, Yelp and other sites to emphasize the bank's dominant role in supporting the fossil fuel industry and the destruction of our communities and the climate. It's a Digital Takeover!
Follow the instructions in this Toolkit to place your online reviews
Tie-in actions for kids:
Draw a picture or make a piece of art to post alongside your review. Some messaging ideas: “Chase: Stop Funding Climate Destruction” “Our Climate = Our Future. Stop funding climate change!”
Make a Climate Hero cape, and post a photo or video asking Chase to “Be a Hero not a Villian” by investing in renewable energy, not fossil fuels.
Activities: (Choose one or two)
For the whole family:
Fill out this home energy survey to start thinking & learning about energy sources by examining energy use at home
Have a discussion with your family about energy and fossil fuels. Use the following prompts as your guide:
What are fossil fuels? What are things that people do or rely on that currently use fossil fuels? (transportation, agriculture, shipping, plastics, heating/lighting, etc).
How is the fossil fuel industry harmful to people and the planet, and what are some better alternatives?
Are there things that your family can do to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels? (Eg. ride bikes or public transit, reduce home energy and plastics use, buy locally, advocate for shifts to renewable energy, etc)
For younger kids:
Cookie mining activity - adapt this activity for younger kids, to get them thinking about the impacts of fossil fuel extraction
Make solar tea - to learn about heat energy from the sun
Color pages from this Clean Energy coloring book and start identifying different types of renewable energy
For older kids:
Learn about ways that energy can be generated - watch this video on Energy Sources from PBS
Read a book! This Kid’s Reading List from Multnomah Library features books on Clean Energy, and Fossil Fuel Destruction. Most are available as free ebooks.
Related resources:
Recent articles on banks funding the climate crisis
Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming Burns, article by Bill McKibben, New Yorker magazine
How Chase Became the Doomsday Bank by Bill McKibben (Rolling Stone)
How Important Is BlackRock’s Climate Announcement? By 350.org
Kids Books on Clean Energy & Fossil Fuel Destruction
Kid’s Reading List from Multnomah Library - Created especially for Families for a Livable Climate’s Earth Week Initiative, by a local librarian! Most are available online as free ebooks.
Resource list for moving your money to banks not investing in climate destruction
Our Climate Our Future - These fantastic videos for kids describe the science, impacts, and things we can do about climate change. (You have to sign up for access, but it’s free and from a reputable organization). All the chapters are good, and the following 2 focus on fossil fuels.
Chapter 3: Fossil Fuels and CO2
Chapter 4: CO2 & Climate Change
Best of luck with today’s action, activities, and learning!
Let’s be in touch on social media! Share your progress and/or action photos with us on instagram & facebook.
Thanks, and see you tomorrow!