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Third Act NC elders along with Brass Your Heart social justice marching band, big puppets, and Grannies’ Umbrella Brigade take to the streets of Asheville to bring awareness to the fact that big banks, like Wells Fargo, are using our money to fund fossil fuels.  We want them to fund clean, renewable energy.

By Don Nonini, Third Act North Carolina, dnonini@gmail.com

To celebrate the start of the national Summer of Heat campaign against the four biggest dirty banks (J.P. Morgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo), a small but fervent delegation of Third Act North Carolina members from Durham and Greensboro traveled to join Green Faith Charlotte and 350 Charlotte in their monthly vigil against the Bank of America at the Bank’s Corporate Center in downtown Charlotte on June 12 – Early Elders’ Day, i.e.,  the day before national Elders’ Day!  

We came together across the street from the Bank’ s Corporate Center at the intersection of North Tryon and East Trade Streets in downtown Charlotte.  We received a very warm welcome from Reverend Amy Brooks Paradise, National Organizer of Green Faith, and Jerome Wagner, of 350 Charlotte.  As we grew in numbers to about 20 people, we attempted to raise the roof of the Bank’s headquarters with our songs and calls on Bank of America to divest from its fossil fuel financing. 

Reverend Brooks reminded us that the intersection where we were meeting was once, before the coming of white settlers, a major meeting spot for trade among the indigenous people of the region, on whose unceded land the bank was built, now paved over with asphalt and concrete.  But the dirty fossil finance crimes of the Bank of America could not hide behind the façades of the Banks’ its monumental  corporate headquarters, nor its private security force.Green Faith Charlotte, joined by Third Act North Carolina, speaks to bankers across from corporate headquarters of Bank of America in Charlotte, June 12.

And we knew what was at stake –  summer 2023 was the hottest in recorded history, and recent reading this month promising another scorching, record-busting summer.  Many of us wore emblems of flames with a place name and recent temperature written on it: “Phoenix 115 degrees,”  “Tampa 100 degrees”. . .!

Reverend Brooks  spoke to us of the spiritual meaning of Green Faith’s monthly vigil in front of the B of A’s headquarters, where its members have come together over the last several months to show their opposition to the bank’ s financing of Exxon Mobil, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and many other projects of fossil fuel extraction and violence, often against those most vulnerable.  Reverend Brooks described to we visitors Green Faith’s monthly ritual of a vigil of silence for one second for every $1 billion of B of A’s fossil financing as they stood in front of the entrance to its corporate skyscraper.

Jerome Wagner of 350 Charlotte next spoke to bring us all up to date about the scale of B of A’s financial crimes,  informing us for the eight years between 2016 and 2023 that B of A has financed more than $333 billion of fossil fuel extraction and pipeline projects. 

Don Nonini of Third Act North Carolina spoke next and extended Third Act’s gratefulness for being invited to join Green Faith during this first week of our national Summer of Heat campaign.  He said “Summer of Heat” is the appropriate name for the national extended action because “Our planet is on fire!”  He led those gathered as they chanted, calling out Brian Maloney, CEO of B of A in his office, high up in the Center’s skyscraper, to “Divest from fossil fuels today!”  

After other folks from Green Faith spoke, we  crossed over the street to stand in a circle in front of the bank’s headquarters where we first sang “Not in Our Name!” to let the bank know that its “bottom line” was not planet Earth’s, or ours!  Reverend Brooks reminded us that during our vigil of silence, in order to account for every $1 billion financed by the bank for the fossil fuel industry from 2016-2023, we would have to be silent for 333 seconds  — for five minutes and 33 seconds!  We then stood, militant, directly in front of the bank’ s corporate entrance, silent in what seemed an everlasting period of silence and mourning for all the destruction the bank’s financial support of the fossil industry has caused. 

The action by Green Faith, 350 Charlotte, and Third Act concluded with a flying vigil in which we stopped momentarily with our banners at the crossings at the intersection of Tryon and Trade streets, standing during the “Walk” light, and calling out the bank to divest from fossil fuels.

The Summer of Heat has started in North Carolina!

The National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) is advancing the Conversation on Climate Change. If we train enough voices in proven communication techniques we can change the national discourse around climate change to be productive, civic-minded, and solutions-focused.

Presenter Karen Willey, she/her, environmental educator, former Nature Center Manager and Climate Change Communicator for Third Act NC.

Access the Zoom Recording of Introduction to Climate Communication Webinar.