Tag: Chicago

Chicago: Indigenous & Climate Activists Disrupt Chase Meeting

  By , , , ,

“Our Native communities bear the brunt of impacts from tar sands pipelines, like Line 3.” – Dallas Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

JPMorgan Chase is banking on climate change and fossil fuels. We’re banking on fierce resistance to Big Oil, Big Coal and the Wall street banks funding them.

Today, Indigenous and climate activists converged at the JPMorgan Chase Tower in Chicago to disrupt the mega-banks annual shareholder meeting. JPMorgan Chase is the worst funder of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) in the world. Since the Paris climate talks in 2015, they’ve put almost $200 billion dollars into fossil fuels. (That’s right, $200 BILLION with a big “B.”)

wheat pastes in Chicago. courtesy of a guerrilla art crew.

The morning started with wheat paste posters put out along Chicago sidewalks outside the shareholder meeting with a clear message for Chase: “You’re the Worst!”

A delegation of Indigenous leaders and environmentalists entered into the meeting to directly confront Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon. Inside, they read him statements, facts from the “Banking on Climate Change” report, delivered a letter signed by over 300 civil society groups and then two activists were escorted out after chanting “Defund climate change, stop funding fossil fuels.”

Meanwhile outside over a hundred people gathered in protest of Chase’s investments in fossil fuels. Speakers from a variety of groups spokes, chants were chanted and signs, banners and beautiful art were put on display.

Then Indigenous leaders led the crowd to block the entrances of Chase Tower. They held the space, forcing Chicago police to move out of the way, while speakers continued to speak. Eventually they left with no arrests.

As Amelia Diehl from Rising Tide Chicago said “Chicago is at the epicenter of a dirty pipeline system, much of it funded by Chase Bank, and we are showing that resistance is more powerful than extractive industries. By funding pipelines that spill, Chase Bank is directly responsible for putting the water source of over 30 million people in the Great Lakes watershed region at risk.”

JPMorgan Chase is the worst funder toxic fossil fuels and destructive infrastructure projects. Communities are now rising up to hold them to account and shut down the flow of money into dirty energy.

###

 

 

Rising Tide Chicago tells Chase Bank: “The Great Lakes are not an ATM”

  By , , , ,

Cross-posted from Rising Tide Chicago

Chicagoans tell Chase Bank: “The Great Lakes are not an ATM”

Chase plan risks contaminating the Great Lakes with dirty Tar Sands oil; Residents tell Chase Midwest Chair Melissa Bean to halt project.

Chicago, Ill. (Feb. 23, 2019) — This Saturday, members of Rising Tide Chicago stood outside of a Chase Bank in Bridgeport to educate concerned citizens about the bank’s funding of dirty Tar Sands oil and humans rights and Indigenous rights abuses. Chase Bank is the #1 Wall Street funder of the dirtiest fossil fuels on the planet. Chicagoans were invited to sign postcards addressed to Chase Midwest Chair Melissa Bean, demanding that the bank pull their funds from the fossil fuel industry in favor of just and sustainable infrastructure.

“Last year the IPCC’s report confirmed we have twelve years to avoid the most drastic effects of climate change, and we must keep fossil fuels in the ground. We want to make sure Melissa Bean is prioritizing a transition away from fossil fuels, starting with sources like tar sands, one of the most carbon-intensive form of oil that also pollutes Lake Michigan, our drinking water,“ said Angie Viands, organizer with Rising Tide Chicago.

Rising Tide Chicago stands with Indigenous communities and tribal governments who have not consented to fossil fuel pipelines that directly threaten their resources. Chase Bank finances Enbridge’s highly contested Line 3 pipeline, its controversial extension, and other nearby pipelines around the Great Lakes, posing an urgent threat to the region’s water sources.

Chase customers were asked to share social media photos with their own “#ChaseStatement” urging Chase to stop financing dirty energy.

Rising Tide Chicago plans to continue these actions in the city, in partnership with local environmental and climate justice organizations. This action is one of many growing efforts across North America to demand banks divest from fossil fuel projects and finance a swift transition to renewable energy.

###

Chicago Climate Activists target Carbon Trading @ Chicago Climate Exchange

  By

*More details and photos coming soon!*

Chicago climate activists returned to the streets today – this time in the financial district in downtown Chicago – in a colorful demonstration against cap and trade, carbon offsets and other “false solutions” to climate change. Building on the long-term campaign to shut down the Crawford and Fisk coal-fired power plants in the city, community and environmental groups from across Chicago and beyond have come together to demand just, equitable, and effective solutions to the climate crisis.

The main target of today’s action is the Chicago Climate Exchange, the first and largest carbon market in North America. Several other “climate criminals” were visited during a march, including JP Morgan Chase, one of the leading funders of mountain top removal coal mining; Midwest Generation, the owner of Chicago’s two coal-fired power plants; and the Board of Trade, which trades in palm oil, one of the leading drivers of rainforest destruction. Continue reading