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Climate First!'s 12th Annual Meeting
Image: U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen reintroduced
his polluter pays legislation on January 7, 2025.Climate First! holds its 12th Annual Meeting (AM) virtually on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 1:30 pm EST. Please consider attending our exciting meeting. See "details" below. And to RSVP, scroll down near to bottom.
Like those with other climate groups, Climate First!'s activists were dramatically challenged early in the new year. Ever since the new President with his authoritarian-leaning views took charge, and then quickly began taking numerous actions against anything related to clean energy and climate protection, we were utterly baffled as far as how to respond. Add a Republican-controlled Congress that has been almost completely submissive--even seemingly supporting his unconstitutional acts--and we could have easily fallen into complete despair, which would have, of course, made the administration's job easier.
However, we at Climate First! have been working at slowly, but surely, adjusting our mindset, as well as our strategies and campaigns to the new “world” that we work in. For example, since we now will likely have less power to move major U.S. banks as far as their massive fossil fuel investments, Climate First! has decided that it will get more involved in political advocacy at the state level, while adapting, to some extent, its bank campaign work. More specifically as far as state level advocacy, we will work with other groups trying to get “polluter pays” legislation passed in Maryland and possibly nearby states.
Towards that, we have someone from a U.S. Senator's office who will speak at the upcoming AM about the polluter pays principle. With New York State and Vermont having already passed this critical legislation, it is exciting that efforts are also now underway in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Minnesota to get fossil fuel companies to start paying for the damages resulting from climate-amplified natural disasters.
Stay tuned for updates.
DETAILS
What: Climate First!'s 12th Annual Meeting.
When: Sunday, March 2, 2025; the event starts with a general meeting from 1:30 to 2:30 pm EST, followed by an optional Board of Directors meeting that ends around 3:30 pm.
Where: Online.
Misc: Please RSVP below to the event. You'll receive, 1 to 2 days before the meeting, a link to attend the AM, and other helpful information.We hope that you will attend our Annual Meeting, and learn how we at Climate First! are changing how we move forward in our drive to help save the climate.
WHENMarch 02, 2025 at 1:30pmWHEREOnline
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Ted Conwell published Diving Into the Public Health and Climate Impacts of PFAS in Blog: Avoiding Climate Chaos 2022-05-04 11:15:34 -0400
Diving Into the Public Health and Climate Impacts of PFAS
There has been debate at the national level over the past year about regulating Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PFAS are artificial substances that have been used in a vast array of products since the 1940s. PFAS can be found in thousands of household and personal hygiene products, fire-fighting foams, pesticides, food packaging, even food itself (such as dairy products from cows exposed to PFAS). PFAS travel easily through the environment and break down extremely slowly. This can lead to PFAS contamination in public water systems and private wells. PFAS can also contaminate soil and water near landfills, hazardous waste sites, and any manufacturing or chemical production facilities that use or produce PFAS.
Read more
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#DefundClimateChange Campaign
Where the World Stands
A report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in August 2021, concluded that "global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.” In addition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a May 2021 report that no new oil, gas and coal supply projects should be built, if the world wanted to reduce GHG emissions to net-zero by 2050.
Despite the signing of the Paris Climate Accord at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in late 2015, and then the world's governments attending international meetings nearly every year since then, including COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland in late 2021, the world's nations still haven't taken global warming seriously enough. As a result, the world now faces a dire situation.
When the latest Fossil Fuel Finance Report "hit the newsstands" in May 2024, it probably wasn't a surprise to most people that it found that most private sector banks around the world weren't taking the climate crisis seriously enough either. The report, authored and updated by Rainforest Action Network and others every year, found that in the eight years since the Paris Climate Accord, the world’s 60 largest banks have financed fossil fuels to a total of $6.896 trillion.
As one would have imagined, U.S. banks have led the way with JPMorgan Chase (#1 in the world), Citigroup, and Bank of America taking the top three slots in that order--Wells Fargo is now #5--in financing climate-wrecking fossil fuels. Critically, however, Citibank is now leading all the lenders in funding new fossil fuel projects since 2015, in direct contradiction to the IEA 2021 report mentioned above. The IEA's request that no new fossil fuel projects be built certainly made sense as when, for example, an oil company builds a new pipeline, that "locks-in" greenhouse gas emissions for numerous years. And thus, the odds of meeting the commonly held "net-zero by 2050" goal are lessened.
Image: JPMorgan Chase & Co. world headquarters
in NYC; April 17, 2019. Credit: JOHANNES EISELE/
AFP/Getty Images.What Are the Banks Doing?
Trying to address their climate pollution problem, Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Bank of America have established a 2050 deadline for achieving net-zero carbon (or greenhouse gas) emissions in all of their operations, including the financing of fossil fuels. While we certainly applaud their formal plans to deal with their contributions to climate chaos, as usual--the "devil is in the details", which mostly haven't been released yet.
For one, none of the lenders have agreed to end financing fossil fuel expansion, which the IEA concluded was critical to saving our climate. In addition, the details that banks have publicly released often permit the lender to continue to grow its investments in fossil fuels while also engaging in some action that reduces carbon pollution in the atmosphere--hence the phrase, "net-zero." But continuing to release greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the environment, while pulling some out elsewhere, isn't going to save the climate. Rather, the world needs absolute GHG emission reductions immediately. Since the four banks' net-zero emissions plans presently are greatly lacking in addressing our unraveling climate, Climate First! and others have some work to do.
Our Way Forward
In view of the above, Climate First!'s #DefundClimateChange" campaign will focus on encouraging Citigroup, Chase Bank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo to stop funding any fossil fuel expansion, while simultaneously beginning to dramatically reduce their overall financing of fossil fuel companies and projects. Since it is crucial that the major U.S. banks end their financing of new fossil fuel projects in the near future, our cam- paign will often target Citibank.
BANK ACTIONS
A. Communicate your concerns to one or more of the four banks using traditional means or social media:
- Use Facebook: Citibank, Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.
- For helpful resources to review beforehand, check out the Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2021.
B. Bank customers of the four lenders can express their views:
- Sign an open letter to your bank's CEO. These letters were authored by Customers For Climate Justice (C4CJ), a campaign created by the nationwide coalition, Stop the Money Pipeline (STMP). Climate First! is a long-time member of the 120 group STMP coalition that is pushing U.S. financial institutions to stop financing fossil fuels.
- Also, as part of the C4CJ campaign and Climate First!, you can schedule a meeting with the manager of a local branch of your bank to talk about the her/his employer's investments in fossil fuels.
- Again as part of the C4CJ campaign and Climate First!, you can organize other customers of the four banks to schedule meetings with their branch managers.
- Finally, as a C4CJ organizer, you can try to schedule a meeting with the bank's CEO about your concerns.
- Climate First! and STMP will help you whatever (above action) you choose.
C. If you do business with any of the four major U.S. banks financing fossil fuels, move your monies to a green lender. Green (AKA socially responsible or ethical) banks do business by supporting customers, communities, and the planet. When searching for an ethical bank, look for a lender that supports environmental and social equity initiatives. Don’t worry, there’s a range of green banks to choose from. And don't forget to tell your climate-polluting bank why you are moving to another lender. Review this link for helpful social responsible banking information. Be sure to check out Green America's website for how to get a better bank.
D. Join Climate First! as we work with STMP, Friends of the Earth, and others to convince Bank of America not to provide financing to Formosa Plastics in its efforts to build a massive plastic factory in St. James, Louisiana. Building a huge plastics plant in an area already called "Cancer Alley, near an African-American community that has been suffering from terrible pollution for years, not to mention the global warming pollution that will be released, is beyond outrageous.
E. Finally, attend Climate First!'s periodic direct actions against the four banks. Our actions--often "bank walks" where we visit nearby bank branches back-to-back--are peaceful rallies/protests where we respectfully inform employees and customers at local bank branch of our great concern with the climate issue. Note: First, all our live actions are run in a Covid-safe manner. Also, civil disobedience is an activism tool that we sometimes use in our actions but only after careful planning and training.
Climate First! photo history: After the permit for the KXL pipeline was approved by the State Dept in 2017, Climate First! attended an emergency rally near the White House to show its resolve in opposing the project.
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Ted Conwell posted about Donate on Facebook 2017-03-16 14:15:45 -0400Just made a donation to Climate First!
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