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John -

Below is an op-ed that I wrote for the Los Angeles Times alongside Bill
McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. But before I share our op-ed, [ [link removed] ]please
sign 350.org's petition calling on banks to stop funding fossil fuels:

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition →

Now, I hope you'll take a few more minutes to read our op-ed below.

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We are worlds apart now, one of us terrorized amid the wreckage of invaded
Ukraine and the other entirely safe in the United States. But because
we’ve been engaged in the same global fight against fossil fuels for
decades, we are well-situated to see some of the key drivers behind this
wretched moment, and hence some of the solutions.

Above all, it’s obvious that the world’s banks have amorally worked to
build Russia’s oil and gas industry, the industry that funds the Russian
army, and the industry that Vladimir Putin has used as a cudgel for
decades to keep Europe cowering. And that’s why we cheered so loudly
Tuesday when President Biden — as part of his ban on Russian oil — told
American banks to make no new investments in Putin’s oil. As Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, it strikes at the heart of Putin’s
war machine.

And it is what more than a million people around the world — and more than
75 prominent NGOs — have demanded. Indeed, Wall Street and the banks must
go further and stop the ongoing funding of fossil fuels everywhere,
because they are the xxxxxx of autocracy and the death of the natural
world. The sooner we replace oil, gas and coal with cheap, safe renewable
energy, the sooner we can all live in peace.

If you think the links between American banks, oil and Russia’s war-making
aren’t deep and profound, think again.

Consider, say, JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the world, and the
largest lender to the fossil fuel industry. For decades it was the house
bank to Exxon, largest of the world’s oil companies — David Rockefeller,
heir to that great oil fortune, built Chase into a global giant. And Exxon
could not have been more deeply involved in building Russia: Putin
actually pinned a medal on the chest of Exxon’s former Chief Executive Rex
Tillerson — the “Order of Friendship.” Friendship, in this case, entailed
billions of dollars spent to help the Russian state oil company Rosneft
search for oil and gas in the Arctic.

Exxon, reading the room, announced on March 1 that it would quit the last
of its Russian entanglements in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. And
shortly before Biden’s announcement, Chase started taking Russian
investments — including oil — off its investment indexes. But of course
the damage has already been done.

The banks have happily profited off Putin’s Russia, even after its
expansionist aims were clear. The invasion of Georgia didn’t slow them
down, nor the annexation of Crimea. Likewise, they’ve happily profited off
fossil fuels, even after science made the climate-disaster link crystal
clear. The melt of the Arctic didn’t slow them down, nor the fires of
California.

But perhaps this is the moment: Maybe the uncanny confluence of last
week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report chronicling just
how little time we have left to deal with global warming and the hideous
sight of Russian shells crashing into Kyiv apartment blocks will free up
new thinking. What if banks refused once and for all to deal with the oil
companies, and instead freed up the capital necessary for a rapid
retooling of our energy world to make it both safe and clean?

With an influx of funding, we could, for instance, produce air source heat
pumps by the millions and ship them to Europe, so by next winter they
could be installed, heating homes and putting a noticeable dent in Putin’s
oil-and-gas leverage — it would be FDR’s lend-lease program, but for a new
day. We could quickly build out the network of electric buses, bikes and
cars that would depress demand worldwide for Putin’s fossil fuels, and
that of other oil autocrats and bullies, from the Saudi royal family to
the Koch network.

What if we stopped believing that history determines today’s reality, that
the future has to look like the past? Ukrainians are remaking their
history in these tragic but remarkable days with their shockingly brave
resistance to a war machine funded by oil and gas. Surely bankers safe in
their peaceful offices can chart a new course. Or we can force them to.

Big banks have waffled and wavered over and over; just last fall at the
climate summit in Glasgow they engaged in industrial-scale greenwashing as
they claimed their “net zero” climate targets wouldn’t preclude them from
lending to oil companies for the next round of pipelines or fracking
wells.

Now some may engage in bloodwashing, pretending that somehow they’re
helping the people whose misery they’ve ensured by their years of backing
Putin. But we can push hard at the lies.

Even if the banks shift their priorities, it will have come too late for
the brave people dead in Hostomel, Bucha, Irpin, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv,
Kherson, Volnovakha, Mariupol. But as Putin’s war and his occupation of
Ukraine grind on, it could help.

Ukraine is in the crosshairs now, but we all share a planet that we must
protect. These hideous days represent a decision point for the world,
perhaps the last one we’re going to get. The most powerful forces on the
globe may be its giant banks — they’re the “capital” in capitalism. As
they go, so goes our Earth, the countries that it comprises, and the
world’s people that increasingly live in fear.

Svitlana Romanko, in Ivano-Frankvisk in western Ukraine, and Bill
McKibben, in Vermont, have worked together for years at 350.org, the
global climate organization. She founded the Stand With Ukraine campaign,
calling on governments to ban trade and investment in Russian oil and gas.
He founded Third Act, a progressive organizing group for people over 60.

We must end our global fossil fuel addiction and swiftly transition to 100
percent renewables before it's too late. A brighter future is possible,
but only if we act quickly.

[ [link removed] ]Please add your name to the petition calling on banks to cut off
funding for fossil fuels.

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