19 Comments

Well, banks aren't the only corporations in the hall of shame. It is fashionable among many to make net zero commitments but, as has been pointed out, few have solid plans for doing so. Strategies for reaching net zero can be developed and, equally important, measured. Shareholders need to hold corporations accountable if they fail to adopt actionable strategies and carry them out.

Expand full comment

I’ve watched banks both reduce lending to fossil fuel projects and make it much more expensive because of both shareholder pressure and fear of lending to a volatile and sometimes troubled industry. I’ve watched private equity withdraw because of pension fund pressure and the same commercial fears. Capital is greedy, but not stupid. Capital sees the trends and will be responsive to them. Cutting credit cards is silly. We still need a ton of fossil fuel and it needs to be financed. Trust me, if consumer demand dissipates the banks will fly away from the sector in a heartbeat. But banks won’t and shouldn’t beat the consumer to the door. So get solar and drive an electric car…now. Money is watching closely.

Expand full comment

You people are goofy. You stop driving cars, stop heating your house, turn off your electricity, stop flying in private planes, eat ,less food, walk everywhere. You are the HYPOCRITES in this world.

Expand full comment
Jan 29, 2023·edited Jan 29, 2023

Imagine a map of the earth's surface (including oceans) divided into square grid boxes with sides of 18 miles. Then imagine a Hiroshima-size bomb exploding in each grid box every day.

That is the heat delivered to the troposphere by earth's inhabitants each day. (The heat of 600,000 Hiroshima detonations equally-spaced over earth's surface, 197 million sq.mi.)

In the contiguous states of the U.S.A. there are 9,500 contiguous grid boxes, such that the heat of 9,500 Hiroshimas is sent to the atmosphere each day, using average heat figures for world output, as cited by Gore.

Expand full comment

I hold no brief for the banks nor any other polluters. "Global warming" is real and sad.

But all I've been hearing lately is the relentless whining about what is "wrong," over and over, and precious little suggestion as to what to DO about it. I honestly don't think much CAN be done, beyond a few windmills and solar panels, and electric cars smugly driven on roads paid for by fuel-tax-payers. I keep wondering about the air pollution near the plants generating all that "carbon-free" electricity!

I have traveled a fair amount in the "Third World," and I know how much those people rely on carbon-based transportation for their daily lives. I have lived in rural Va. almost my whole life, and there is no "carbon-free mass transit" out this way! Arbitrarily increasing fuel taxes as a way to reduce consumption will only screw those of us who MUST burn carbon just to get to work, or buy groceries!

I don't have any "solutions" to the problem, but I am tired of the whining.

H. Watkins Ellerson

PO Box 90

Hadensville, VA 23067

(804) 457-4243

Expand full comment

If it were truly "up to the banks" it would find faster adoption. However, it's really up to the bankers that work there, and how much compensation they're willing to forgo in their paycheck today to invest the future of the world. Not so easy.

Expand full comment

Thanks for highlighting the greenwashing of banks and the work of Bill McKibben and Third Act.

Appreciate this climate focused article!

Expand full comment
Jan 28, 2023·edited Jan 28, 2023

The front-line soldiers of the climate change movement - Bill, Greta, and Al - are fighting a Sisyphean battle and deserve our strenuous support. Despite their efforts to inform and cajole, the noise is drowning out their message - U.S. Republicans send phony signals to gullible suckers and clog up the congressional channels for reform.

As Al Gore tells us, the thin troposphere absorbs and retains the heat of 600,000 Hiroshima bombs PER DAY! Our planet is in distress. Our leaders must retake the political arena from climate deniers, greedy multinational banks, and ignorant mugwumps and know-nothings, or our children and their children will suffer.

Expand full comment