Climate Action Rhode Island took their campaign against Chase Bank, the largest funder of fossil fuels in the world, to the new bank branch in Smithfield, Rhode Island on Monday. The protest consisted of holding signs at the intersection of Cedar Swamp Road and Putnam Pike, and delivering a book, The Uninhabitable Earth, Life After Warming by David Wallace Wells to the branch manager.
"The people of Rhode Island need to know that Chase Bank is a major funder of the company building the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline, that new or expanded pipelines lock us even deeper into fossil fuels well into the future, and that Chase remains the top funder of fossil fuels worldwide," writes Brian Wilder, who leads CARI's campaign against Chase Bank. "The fact that the world's top funder of the fossil fuels overheating the planet has moved into Rhode Island has received no media coverage other than social media, so we are telling the story." [Actually, Uprise RI has been covering this story since the beginning.]
"Meanwhile, the Arctic and the ice sheets are melting, the current trajectory projects sea level rise in the northeast at over 9 feet, and historic heat waves and droughts are plaguing large parts of the United States.
"We call upon Rhode Islanders to boycott Chase and its credit cards until it commits to fund no new or expanded fossil fuel projects (such as Line 3), and to phase out its current fossil fuel funding."
Attending the rally was former Rhode Island State Representative Aaron Regunberg.
"We can either have continued human civilization on this, our one and only planet," said Regunberg, "or we can have corporations like JP Morgan Chase continue to bankroll climate apocalypse. We cannot have both."
The delivery of the book to the bank manager was peaceful and the bank manager listened politely:
Previous Climate Action RI v Chase Bank reporting:
- Climate Action RI issues greenwashing award to Chase Bank branches throughout the state
- CLIMATE CRIMINAL = CHASE BANK says Climate Action Rhode Island
- Chase Bank is working to flood their own downtown bank branch…
- Saying no to ‘climate criminal’ Chase Bank in Wakefield
- Climate Action RI peacefully protests Chase Bank – Chase Bank calls the police
- Climate Action RI protests outside Chase Bank Branch in Wakefield
- Chase Bank continues to expand in RI, continues to fund climate change
- Activists protest new Chase Bank location in Wakefield
- Protesters stage a die-in at Chase Bank, the leading funder of climate change
- Climate Action RI shuts down Chase Bank ribbon cutting
- Climate Action Rhode Island wants you to cut up your Chase Bank credit card – To save the world
- Activists demand that Chase Bank stop funding the climate crisis, call for Rhode Island boycott of new local branches
- Climate Action RI joins national day of action demanding Chase and Bank of America divest from fossil fuels
- Chase, stop funding fossil fuel projects
