Bringing the Climate Fight to King Coal’s Communities in North Carolina

By Rainforest Action Network

Activists from around North Carolina have come together in Charlotte to take citizen action against Bank of America in their own company town. To highlight the socio-economic abuses perpetrated by the bank against the communities and ecosystems of Appalachia, several ATMs and bank branches have been shut down, roped off and declared “global warming crime scenes.” Bank employees have been witnessing their employer being called out for its role in financing the wholesale destruction of the Appalachian Mountains and supporting King Coal’s ongoing tyranny over the Appalachian people. People were cautioned about our common proximity to the impacts of global warming – as a reminder of our common responsibility towards climate justice.

Charlotte bank closed

Activists in Chapel Hill, NC took further action against climate change and mountain top removal, this time bringing the message to Bank of America Director W.Steven Jones – also the Dean of Kenan-Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Posters were put up in and around the UNC business school with pictures of Jones’ colleague – CEO Ken Lewis and information on the bank’s socially unethical and environmentally disastrous investment portfolio.

Ken

Activists also postered climate disaster posters in the boroughs of Charlotte’s finest – to remind them of our common future. We hope they will appreciate this effort to reach out to them directly, and choose to use their positions of power and influence to call on Bank of America to end its financing of massive social and ecological destruction during this critical time of global climate change.

Climate Chaos

One of B of A’s many large-scale coal investments is a loan to Duke Energy for the construction of their new Cliffside coal plant, located between Charlotte and Asheville, NC. This plant is currently facing several legal challenges and massive citizen opposition. The climate disaster posters call for the cancellation of Cliffside as well as an end to all of B of A’s investments in dirty energy projects.

Abigail