![]() The protests, despite their months of planning, appear to be prescient, coming in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a leading funder of renewable energy projects, and a growing backlash against investor environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations by rightwing groups and leading Republicans, many themselves funded by fossil fuel interests.īill McKibben: ‘There is a sense people get more conservative as they age but I’m not sure if that’s true of this group.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian The “big four” are the world’s leading banking financiers of oil and gas projects, despite variously committing to helping address the climate crisis, with a recent report finding they have collectively provided $1.1tn in financing to fossil fuels since the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Third Act is encouraging people to sign a pledge to quit Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America if they don’t stop funding fossil fuels. McKibben said he hoped the protests would highlight the link between “cash in the bank and carbon in the air”. “We probably all believed that the government would address these concerns – we may have gotten a little complacent.” “The people sitting on rocking chairs on Tuesday were marching on the first Earth Day in 1970,” he said. “There is a sense people get more conservative as they age but I’m not sure if that’s true of this group of older people,” said McKibben, who pointed out that people in their 70s and 80s now were young people during the cultural upheavals of the 1960s. While polling has shown that fears over global heating are most prevalent among younger people, to the extent that some question the wisdom of having children themselves, McKibben said he has found “huge concern” among older people about the climate emergency. “I understand why people say ‘OK boomer’ – it’s not like we have done an amazing job in protecting the world.” I’m going to be dead before the climate crisis is at its absolute worst, but being nearer the exit than the entrance concentrates one’s mind to notions of legacy and we are the first generation to leave the world in a worse place than we found it. “We have to show young people we have their back. “Older people have got money and structural power coming out of our ears,” said McKibben, who is 62.
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