Follow the money . . . and stop it!

September 28, 2019 3:49 PM

Bill McKibben and friends show the way to stop fossil fuels.
posted by Mesaverdian (7 comments total)

Bank of the West has made this the explicit focus of their latest branding campaign.
posted by PhineasGage at 4:08 PM on September 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm not sure there's any precedent for banks to act from an altruistic rather than profit-seeking motive. Maybe the government can regulate the banks into not making those investments? I don't see them doing it on their own unless the profit from fossil fuels vanishes entirely.

Which means starting to price in the externalities of fossil fuels so the resulting damage and possible mitigation of that damage is part of the price of buying it to burn for energy. That would cripple the industry overnight. As it always would have, if we'd have cared about it to begin with.
posted by hippybear at 4:27 PM on September 28, 2019 [8 favorites]

The director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, Lee Wasserman, says that it’s time to take on the reputations of the bankers, in much the same way that the Sackler family has increasingly been shunned for its role in the opioid crisis. “When the neighborhood tavern serves up several rounds to an already drunken patron, and the inebriated person rams into a minivan loaded with Little Leaguers, it’s not only a tragedy—the bar may be sued out of business, and the bartender could face jail time,” he said. “How much morally worse is it to enable the expansion of a deadly fossil-fuel industry, whose business model is certain to cause the death and suffering of millions of people and the loss of much of the earth’s diversity? Big, sophisticated banks such as Chase and Wells Fargo understand climate science and know that our current path is leading towards climate catastrophe. Yet their machine of finance cranks along.”

This is an important post, OP. Thank you so much!
posted by Bella Donna at 8:21 PM on September 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

A very powerful argument. I appreciate the way Bill appeals to the FIRE sector's bottom line.
posted by doctornemo at 5:11 AM on September 29, 2019

I'm not sure there's any precedent for banks to act from an altruistic rather than profit-seeking motive.

Altruism - no. But there are some other interesting, perhaps relevant precedents. Earlier this year, JPMC announced that it would no longer bank the private prison industry. Last year, BOA announced that it would stop lending to business clients that manufacture military-style weapons for civilian use. From a slightly different POV, the new cannabis industry has had difficulty finding banks, despite the money you'd expect them to bring in.

My non-expert takeaway: profit is absolutely the all-important thing (for banks), but where's the profit if it's being used pay fines, to settle lawsuits, and run PR campaigns to adjust public perception.

Also, younger people seem to be more concerned about climate change. As the younger generations wield more and more influence - as voters, stockholders, board members, children and grandchildren of stockholders and board members - perhaps it will be as simple to them that one doesn't bank fossil fuels as supporting marriage equality is to (most) people of my generation.
posted by bunderful at 5:57 AM on September 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

“How much morally worse is it to enable the expansion of a deadly fossil-fuel industry, whose business model is certain to cause the death and suffering of millions of people and the loss of much of the earth’s diversity? Big, sophisticated banks such as Chase and Wells Fargo understand climate science and know that our current path is leading towards climate catastrophe. Yet their machine of finance cranks along.”

At Shut Down DC on Fri. the police were entirely hands off until we gathered in front of a Wells Fargo branch to listen to a speaker address their role in bankrolling the Dakota Access Pipeline. Then, 5 cops in tactical gear on bikes sped up and into the crowd yelling "Get back!" at the top of their lungs, pushing some people away from the front doors.

I fully expect law enforcement to be marshaled more and more in the service of maintaining fossil fuel business as usual, and protecting the ghouls driving the climate disaster.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:07 AM on September 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

Market Forces has been doing good work along these lines for some while now in Australia. One current campaign involves pressuring insurers not to get involved with the Adani Carmichael obscenity; they've already had quite a lot of success with persuading banks to rule out financing the thing.
posted by flabdablet at 5:02 AM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]