As the air quality crisis continues (you can follow real time updates at AirNow.Gov), please stay indoors as much as you can, and wear an N95 mask outside. 

This smoke threatens the health of every New Yorker, and it also sends a very clear message: The climate crisis is here and we aren’t ready.  

We don’t have a playbook to protect vulnerable populations from wildfire smoke seeping through our windows into our schools and hospitals.

And we aren’t moving nearly fast enough to make the transition to renewable energy that we know is needed – and possible, with the political will – to confront air pollution and mitigate the worst effects of future storms. 

The Comptroller’s office is tasked with taking the long-term view: Ensuring that City services, infrastructure, and resources are managed effectively -- not only to confront challenges now, but for decades to come. 

That’s why I’ve made confronting the climate crisis a top priority of our office. We’re working hard to create Public Solar NYC to dramatically scale up solar adoption and make the most of the infrastructure funds coming from Congress. 

We’ve highlighted the gaps in the City’s cooling center infrastructure that puts vulnerable communities at risk during dangerous heat waves. We developed an innovative, but feasible, proposal to make basement apartments safer. And we launched a Climate Dashboard that enables the public to track our progress and hold the City accountable to our climate goals. 

But the climate crisis cannot be confronted one city at a time. We need concerted action at the scale of the global economy to transition to renewable energy, cut down on pollution, and reverse the trend of hotter, drier, summers that are making wildfires like the ones in Canada explode out of control. 

That’s why, on behalf of three NYC pension funds, we brought shareholder resolutions this spring at four of the big U.S. and Canadian banks calling on them to set and disclose real goals for reducing emissions. European banks like HSBC and BNC Paribas have recognized that confronting climate risk is aligned with their bottom line. 

But Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Royal Bank of Canada have so far refused to stop financing new fossil fuel infrastructure or set real targets to reduce the emissions of their investments. Even after making commitments to abide by the Paris Accords, these banks collectively lent over $1 trillion to new fossil fuel extraction projects. 

This week, those banks are also getting a smoke signal that it’s long past time to stop. Please help us make sure they get the message straight. 

Will you join me in sending a message to Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Royal Bank of Canada to stop financing new fossil fuel infrastructure and set real targets to reduce the emissions of their investments? Click here to Tweet (you can customize your own message).