Banking rarely moves quickly\u2014there are thirty-year mortgages, and ten-year certificates of deposit, and we still talk about \u201cbanker\u2019s hours.\u201d But when things go badly, as they did last week in Silicon Valley, the scary unwinding can come in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n
One result of the rescue of the California bank will be to further entrench the four huge money-center banks\u2014Chase, Citi, Wells-Fargo, and Bank of America. They were\u00a0closing in<\/a>\u00a0on fifty percent of American deposits already, and that status as giants will likely draw in yet more money going forward because everyone understands that they are much too big to fail: at least since 2008, it\u2019s been clear that they have the implicit backing of the federal government and its printing presses. More than ever, they will be the center of the financial world\u2014a kind of money state.<\/p>\n Which means, in an ideal world, that they would exercise that privilege on behalf of the society that grants it to them. Obviously they\u2019re going to look after their own interests\u2014that\u2019s what the rich and powerful do. But in an emergency we should be able to expect something slightly resembling responsibility from them. Facing the civilizational crisis that is climate change, they should act in at least modestly pro-social ways. Instead, they\u2019ve continued to pursue their most narrow and short-term self-interest, loaning money to the fossil fuel industry for its continued expansion even though every climate scientist on the planet has insisted that expansion must come to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n To give just the most timely example, Conoco Phillips, which has\u00a0received<\/a>\u00a0$10 billion from those four banks since the Paris climate accords were signed, won federal approval today for a vast new oil complex in the Alaska wilderness. This was a savage mistake by the Biden administration, which hopes for a small political boost as it mulls a re-election bid. But it was also a mistake by the banks, though they win a not-insubstantial profit on such loans.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the very slightly longer-term cost is enormous. For Biden, he\u2019s diminished dramatically his standing as a climate champion, because the Willow project will pour carbon into the air for many decades to come. \u00a0Here\u2019s Ellen Montgomery of Environment America:<\/p>\n The Willow Project would extract 500 million barrels of petroleum and release annual emissions equivalent of 76 new coal fired power plants operating in a single year<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And the banks? Well, they further undermine the planet\u2019s environment, upon which all else depends. Including the economy\u2014which is a subset of the earth, and not the other way around.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s why a broad coalition of groups, ranging from the Sierra Club and Greenpeace to the Sunrise Movement and Third Act, are protesting outside branches of those four big banks next week, on\u00a0March 21.<\/a>\u00a0We\u2019ve been planning it for months, but it\u2019s now more important than ever. Yes,\u00a0we\u2019ll be cutting up credit cards<\/a>, and encouraging people to find fossil-free banks, but we know we can\u2019t really shake the financial foundations of these giants: instead, we need to get across both the modesty of our demands (not an end to banking with Big Oil but simply an end to funding of fossil fuel\u00a0expansion)\u00a0<\/em>and the extreme radicalism of their current position. They are financing the single most dangerous experiment in the history of our species.\u00a0Cash in those banks equals carbon in the air.<\/strong>\u00a0(To see exactly how much carbon, you can run your own banking life through this\u00a0nifty new calculator<\/a>\u00a0from Bank FWD).<\/p>\n Climate change doesn\u2019t play out quite as fast as, say, a bank run. But climate change by now is happening in real time, entirely visible (in fact, the endless rains of this California winter were flooding the Bay Area even as SVB was angling for a bailout of a different kind). The Big 4 banks have failed morally, and we need to call them on it, eroding their social license.<\/p>\n Our society has given them unprecedented power, including an open tab. They\u2019ve given us a run on the planet.<\/p>\n