It’s time to take a stand on global warming.
On Monday, November 30th, the 10th anniversay of the non-violent shut-down of the WTO meeting in Seattle, and one week before the beginning of the Copenhagen climate negotiations, we are joining BeyondTalk.net for an international day of action for climate justice. There will be safe and fun spaces for children, parents and everyone else who cannot be too near civil disobedience.
When: 11:30am, November 30th (Remember 11/30 at 11:30)
Where: Meet at Justin Herman Plaza and go from there to a mass action and non-violent civil disobedience at the Bank of America on Pine and Kearny in San Francisco
On N30, we will expose some of San Francisco’s worst climate criminals, demanding that they stop financing climate change and standing in the way of climate solutions. The following targets have been chosen for the national day of action: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Chevron, British Petroleum, American Electric Power. The San Francisco action will target Bank of America, and we support affinity groups organizing autonomous actions against the other targets.
Join us for non-violent direct action trainings, teach-ins, and action planning meetings as we lead up to N30.
Why Bank of America?
Financing Climate Change
- BofA is the third-biggest corporate financier of the oil & gas industry in the world, having extended $247 billion in financing to the industry since 2000. (Bloomberg)
- BofA is the third-biggest corporate financier of the coal industry in the world – and the second-biggest in the U.S. – having extended $7.6 billion in financing to the industry since 2000. (Bloomberg)
- BofA is heavily involved in financing mountaintop removal coal mining. They are the biggest financier of Patriot Coal ($500 million since 2000). They’re also the biggest shareholder of MTR company Alpha Natural Resources; they own 8% of the company. (Bloomberg)
Gambling on Carbon Markets
- BofA is a member of the European Climate Exchange (they’re one of only three U.S. commercial banks that belong to this exchange), and they joined the Chicago Climate Exchange in July 2007. They’re also members of the Carbon Markets & Investors Association and the International Emissions Trading Association. And they also made a $10 million strategic investment in Climate Exchange PLC (the parent of CCX) in July 2007.
- BofA received $200 billion in bailouts from the federal government, without which the company almost certainly would have filed for bankruptcy; $57 billion of that is still outstanding. They played a central role in causing the subprime lending crisis (the cause of the current global recession): they heavily financed Countrywide Financial, the country’s top subprime lender, and bought Countrywide in July 2008. (“Do we trust BofA to do a better job with carbon markets than they did with subprime markets?”)
Pushing a Corporate Climate Agenda
- Bank of America is also involved in lobbying against strong climate policy. They’re members of the U.S. Council for International Business – the U.S. arm of the International Chamber of Commerce, one of the worst corporate lobbyists on climate issues.
Info/signup: mcjbay@gmail.com
