Tell BlackRock: Stop financing the destruction of the Amazon

The petition to BlackRock reads: "Your investments in oil, mining and agribusiness in the Amazon are quickly destroying rainforests, violating indigenous rights and worsening our climate crisis. Stop funding the destruction of the Amazon and destroying the homes of its indigenous inhabitants." Add your name:

The record-setting destructive fires spreading quickly across Amazon rainforests are up 80% over last year and nearly all are human-caused, likely set by ranchers, loggers and fossil fuel interests emboldened by Brazil's extreme right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who has declared that the Amazon is open for business.1,2  The Earth's lungs are on fire. BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is cashing in on Amazon destruction by investing millions in the oil, mining and agribusiness industries in Brazil that are destroying rainforests and indigenous homes and worsening the climate crisis. Companies that are devastating the Amazon – and our planet – wouldn't be able to continue operations without the backing of BlackRock and other massive investment firms. Let's demand that BlackRock divest completely from these operations immediately. Tell BlackRock: Stop financing the destruction of the Amazon. Click here to sign the petition. Bolsonaro campaigned on loosening restrictions on development and deforestation and promoting business interests in the Amazon, and he kept his promises: Since Bolsonaro took office and prior to the most recent fires, the Brazilian Amazon had lost a staggering 1,330 square miles of forest, a 39% increase over this time last year.3 Bolsonaro even promoted wildly false conspiracy theories to cover for his government's anti-environmental policies, blaming non-governmental organizations who work to protect rainforests for setting the fires.4 With Bolsonaro's Amazon deregulation campaign, BlackRock sees opportunity as the world's largest investor in fossil fuel extraction, especially in the Amazon.5 Yet, publicly, BlackRock and its CEO Larry Fink are on a campaign of their own: to greenwash BlackRock's role in rainforest destruction and climate change by offering "sustainable" investment products and marketing itself as a socially responsible model corporate citizen – all while the companies it invests in are causing untold destruction to the environment and the health and livelihoods of indigenous people living in the Amazon. It's clear that Bolsonaro won't end the massive deforestation activities wreaking havoc across the region. But if enough of us call out BlackRock's active role financing Amazon destruction, we can help stop it from getting any worse. That's why we must speak out now. Tell BlackRock: Stop financing the destruction of the Amazon. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/blackrock-amazon?t=9&akid=33756%2E3130208%2E5WAy0o - Heidi Hess, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Jessie Yeung, "Blame humans for starting the Amazon fires, environmentalists say," CNN, Aug. 23, 2019. Leila Salazar-López, "Bolsonaro Wants to Plunder the Amazon. Don’t Let Him." The New York Times, Jan. 29, 2019. Letícia Casado and Ernesto Londoño, "Under Brazil’s Far-Right Leader, Amazon Protections Slashed and Forests Fall," The New York Times, July 28, 2019. Tim Marcin, "Brazil's President Bolsonaro Is Now Spreading Conspiracy Theories About the Amazon Fires," VICE, Aug. 22 2019. BlackRock's Big Problem, "BlackRock’s Sustainable ETFs:Green Business or Greenwash?" accessed Aug. 23, 2019.

Force Wells Fargo and other #BackersOfHate to stop funding immigrant detention

"Established 1852. Re-established 2018?"1

Petition to Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock: "Stop profiting off of immigrant detention and the separation of families. Immediately divest from private-prison companies and cease offering lending facilities to companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic." Add your name:

Wells Fargo is so desperate to reform its scandal-plagued image that it recently resorted to an ad campaign with the tagline: "Established 1852. Re-established 2018."1 Wells Fargo executives probably don't want people to hear that the "re-established" company is currently getting rich off of Trump's heartless policy of separating families and detaining immigrants in private prisons.2 Wall Street banks like JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock and Wells Fargo are heavily invested in awful, private-prison companies and make loans that keep them in business.3 That's why we're teaming up with our friends at Presente and Moms Rising to demand that #BackersOfHate divest and stop funding Trump's racist policies. This Wednesday, I am delivering petition signatures directly to Wells Fargo headquarters in San Francisco to make clear that profiting from the pain of immigrant communities is morally wrong and bad for business.  Force Wells Fargo and other #BackersOfHate to stop funding immigrant detention. Click here to sign the petition. Who wins by putting more and more immigrants in jail? Big banks, that's who. Private prison companies, like CoreCivic and GEO Group, are lucrative businesses don't just enrich investors, they lobby for more punitive policies towards immigrants and citizens alike. Sixty percent of Trump's incarcerated immigrants are held in private prisons built by companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group.4 Trump's policies could grow the multi-billion dollar private-prison industry by more than 580 percent in just one year. No wonder JPMorgan Chase alone has increased its private-prison holdings by a shocking 9,600 percent since Trump took office. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock all hold stock in companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group – and these companies' stock prices have skyrocketed in recent weeks.5 The big banks also keep GEO Group and CoreCivic in business with lucrative loans. Those two companies are set up as real estate investment trusts, which allows them to dodge some taxes but prevents them from holding a lot of cash. That means they can't pay bills without frequent loans – loans that make a lot of money for the banks. In 2017, GEO Group and CoreCivic paid their lenders $217 million.6 All Wells Fargo and others would have to do is stop making these loans, and CoreCivic and GEO Group could no longer afford to keep people in cages. Force Wells Fargo and other #BackersOfHate to stop funding immigrant detention. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/wells_fargo_immigration?t=7&akid=30140%2E3130208%2EITSgJ- Corporate #BackersOfHate, especially Wells Fargo which is trying to polish its corporate image, need to hear that Americans won't tolerate them overlooking basic morals in the desperate pursuit of profit. They must immediately drop their stock in private prisons and cease offering lending facilities to the companies responsible for carrying out Trump's cruel immigration policies. -Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: James Peltz, "Wells Fargo launches ad campaign to leave accounts scandal behind. Not everyone is buying it," The Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2018. Make the Road New York and Center for Popular Democracy, "Private Detention Industry Expected to Swell from 'Zero Tolerance; at the Border," June 26, 2018. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid.

Tell JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock: Stop financing Amazon destruction

The petition to JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, Inc. reads: "Fossil fuel operations that you invest in are actively violating indigenous rights in the Amazon and worsening our climate crisis. You must stop funding the destruction of Amazon rainforest and destroying the homes of its indigenous inhabitants." Add your name: The hypocrisy is incredible: JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, two of the world's largest financial institutions, publicly touted their green bona fides at the United Nations' recent annual climate change conference, while they continue, in private, to fund massive fossil fuel expansion and destruction in the Amazon. According to a stunning new report by Amazon Watch, both firms have large financial stakes in at least three companies drilling for oil in the Amazon, which are posing a serious threat to biodiversity and the health and welfare of indigenous people and furthering runaway climate change.1 Companies that drill in the Amazon wouldn't be able to continue operations without the backing of these massive banks and investment firms. It's time for us to call on these financial institutions to divest completely from dirty and dangerous fossil fuel operations immediately. Tell JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock: Stop financing Amazon destruction. Click here to sign the petition. VIDEO on Amazon Crude  Despite their continued public lip service to social and environmental corporate responsibility, the funding provided by JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock to companies that drill for oil and gas in the Amazon is causing untold destruction to the environment and the health and livelihoods of the indigenous people living there. According to the Amazon Watch report, one block in the Peruvian Amazon owned by Frontera Energy, a controversial Canadian-based crude oil and gas company, is "infamous for its antiquated, leaky pipeline infrastructure” and its “legacy of dumping billions of gallons of toxic production waters and hundreds of oil spills have left lagoons with oil, contaminated animals, dead fish, cultural knowledge loss, mistreatment of men, women and children."2 Momentum to force financial institutions to divest from fossil fuel projects is growing. Massive public pressure by CREDO members and our progressive allies help pressure Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo to stop funding the global coal industry.3 And recently, the World Bank announced it would stop funding upstream oil and gas projects in the developing world.4 With the United States leaving the Paris climate agreement at the hands of Donald Trump, it's now more imperative than ever that these massive private financial institutions join with the rest of the global community to stop financing oil and gas drilling. Tell JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock: Stop financing Amazon destruction. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/jpmorgan_blackrock_amazon?t=7&akid=26469%2E3130208%2EFC6eKf - Josh Nelson CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: Amazon Watch, "Investing in Amazon Destruction," November 2017. Alexander C. Kaufman, "JPMorgan, BlackRock Tout Climate Bona Fides While Funding Amazon Oil Drilling," HuffPost, Nov. 9, 2017. Rainforest Action Network, "Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo Cut Coal Financing, Join Growing Movement by Banks in U.S. and Europe," Nov. 30, 2015. Anmar Frangoul, "World Bank Group will stop financing upstream oil and gas after 2019," CNBC, Dec. 12, 2017.