Today the theme of the Earth Day movement is Divestment.
I urge everyone to join in. This is the most powerful and practical thing we can do right now to slow the extractive nature of our economy.
As I understand it, the divestment movement has two targets. One is to get public pension funds and various city and state funds to drop their oil and gas investments. Much of this money is invested in fracking, off-shore drilling, mountain top removal, tar sands, and pipelines to carry this stuff to market. All of these extreme extraction methods are costly (when compared to just sucking oil out of the ground as the Saudis do). So they are particularly amenable to divestment right now.
But only if we put the pressure on. Because at the current price of oil those investments are worthless. In other words, it is not only a moral imperative to divest, but it is also a good fiduciary practice. You will find, for example, that many unions (who control pension funds) will understand this. Especially Teacher’s unions (perhaps with a little prodding from their students).
The second target is tougher. We are trying to get Jamie Dimon and Chase Morgan Bank to stop giving loans to fossil fuel companies.
In that light and in honor of Earth Day, I sent Mr. Dimon a letter explaining that I was cutting up their credit card and why.
I urge each of you to do the same. And now is the time in honor of Earth Day. Together, our voice is powerful. One at a time, it is just a meaningless gesture.
Here is the letter I wrote. Feel free to use any or all of it as a template.
You people at Daily Kos are my only social network. And you are a big network. Please join me.
Dear Mr. Dimon:
I have a Chase “freedom” credit card, on which I charge about $800 per month. It has been my main card for probably 10 years. But no longer. I am hereby tearing that card up.
This is why:
Your company, JP Morgan Chase, has provided nearly $196 billion in financing for coal, oil, and gas companies since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016, making you by far the world's leading banker in purveying climate change -- by a wide margin.
While it may not be your intention, you are profiting off climate chaos and human rights abuses.
Besides, your loans are financially dubious, because most of your investments support extreme extraction methods, which are inherently more expensive. At the current price of oil, and even if there is some bounce back, the fossil fuel assets which serve as collateral for your loans will be stranded.
However, what matters to me most is that the earth is on fire. I don't know if you have children but if you do, their futures are at stake, just as much as mine are. We must stop developing new fossil fuel supplies and invest instead in clean energy.
We can't put this off. No matter how you think you can insulate yourself, the carbon count in the atmosphere tells a clear story, and it is rising steadily to a point of climate chaos.
I demand that you divest now. And I will not do any business with you until you do.
Richard Fedder