What are you supporting when you leave your money in the oily hands of Bank of America? Among other evils, investment in coal-fired power plants and the bankrolling of climate change. Normally you don’t think about that. You just get your money and scoot away. But Power Shift activists forced ATM users to think twice about what they were really doing by mindlessly punching buttons when they turned a bunch of Bank of America ATMs into “automated truth machines.”
Instead of choosing to withdraw or deposit money, the transactions users could select included “invest in coal-fired power plants” and “fund executive bonuses.” A report from BankTrack, a Dutch NGO, puts BoA’s coal investments at $17 million since 2005. But big banks are big banks. Bank of America’s not even the worst offender: J.P. Morgan Chase, which owns Chase bank, threw more dough to the coal industry, as did Citigroup.
So, you cannot win with a big bank. Hide your money under a mattress. Or, you know, bank with a local credit union.
