Authorities are calling it a "heat apocalypse". Europe has seen temperatures of 46°C (114°F) and the UK just suffered through its hottest day in history. Even parts of the Arctic have reached over 30°C (86°F).
This is not normal. The climate emergency is destroying our planet, right now, and somehow getting worse day after day, month after month.
Yet the worst offenders behind it -- a rotten, predatory financial sector that has poured an unbelievable $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels in the last 3 years alone -- are flying completely under the radar.
We’re going to change that.
SumOfUs has a plan to build a crack team of climate campaigners to expose the financial industry’s responsibility for climate chaos, then run massive campaigns in the media and with shareholders to force them to change. We’ll shine the spotlight on these giants like never before.
It could be a turning point for the planet, but we can’t do it without your help. Will you chip in to hold the worst climate criminals to account?
Scientists are losing it, saying “We’ve never seen anything like this.” But household names like JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Bank of America just carry on with business as usual.
The companies they shower with loans, investment, and insurance are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions. If the banks just defunded fossil fuels, it could literally reset our global economy.
Right now the financial incentives are too high for them to change. We need to change the calculation, by making these banks as famous for fuelling climate chaos as they are for plastering their names all over sports stadiums. Here’s how we’ll do it:
- Build a team of expert climate defenders to run mega-campaigns that expose the worst offenders;
- Make the CEOs famous for their role in climate destruction, hounding them at public appearances and splashing their faces on billboards and in the media;
- Organise employees of targeted investment banks to oppose their companies’ policies from the inside;
- File shareholder resolutions around the world to change the rules for investing in favour of the planet.
These banks are the root of the climate crisis. If we’re going to save the planet, this has to work.
We know it can work because we’ve done it before, convincing insurance giant AIG to end its underwriting of a disastrous, climate-wrecking coal mine near the Great Barrier Reef. So let’s do it again.
Will you chip in to fund this plan to take on the big banks wrecking our climate?
The plan is ambitious and bold, I know. But ambitious and bold is the only thing that will save life on Earth -- and your support today can help make it happen.
More information
France and parts of England experience driest July on record as new heatwave nears
Euro News. 1 August 2022.
Euro News. 1 August 2022.
‘Hellfire’: what the papers say about UK’s hottest ever day
The Guardian. 20 July 2022.
The Guardian. 20 July 2022.
U.K. Heat Wave: Britain Sets New Record on a Second Day of Scorching Temperatures
New York Times. 19 July 2022.
New York Times. 19 July 2022.
Heatwave: Fires blaze after UK passes 40C for first time
BBC. 19 July 2022.
BBC. 19 July 2022.
Unprecedented 32.5C in the Arctic Circle during month of smashed global temperature records
SkyNews. 2 July 2022.
SkyNews. 2 July 2022.
Antarctica broke two temperature records in a week
Vox. 13 February 2020.
Vox. 13 February 2020.
Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, study says
The Guardian. 10 July 2017.
The Guardian. 10 July 2017.
Top investment banks provide billions to expand fossil fuel industry
The Guardian. 13 October 2019.
The Guardian. 13 October 2019.