Summer of Heat
by Michael McKenzie
The Summer of Heat is an entire season of sustained civil disobedience protests targeting Wall Street and big banks for their role in fueling the climate crisis.
Juan Mancias, Chief, Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas speaking in front of the Chubb Insurance office.
In June, Over 200 Environmental Justice leaders and advocates from the Gulf South gathered in NYC to challenge banks and insurers of the toxic petrochemical industries in the Gulf South.
They are demanding Wall Street stop financing environmental racism and climate destruction. They paid a visit to the corporate headquarters of BlackRock, Bank of America, KKR, MUFG, and MizuhoWrapping.
Jo and Joy Banner, the founders of The Descendents Project, were there to “add our voice to many different people here who are advocating for finance companies and insurance companies to stop the extraction and destruction of communities like ours in Louisiana.”
“Insurance companies and banks have been involved with the sacrifice of our people since the days of enslavement. Our communities can no longer bear the burden of poor climate, poor health, poor environment because of the pollutants that they continue to support.”
Organizers from Rural Roots, including Ashley Gaignard, traveled from Donaldsonville, Louisiana to “speak out against the banks that are financing industries to take over our communities. We actually speaking to the insurance companies who's actually insuring the problem in our community. Our community is downsizing in population due to industry coming in.”
Gaignard continued, “We're here in New York to fight for preservation of our land and stand up for what was right for health and humanity in Donaldsonville, Louisiana and all the surrounding Ascension parishes.
We say NO to Shell, to Chevron, to CF Industries, Mitsubishi, Westlake. We say NO to Shintech and Dow Chemical, all surrounding our area. You're not clean energy. You're producing methane gas, which is harmful to our community.”
The Gulf South Summer of Heat actions were organized by the Vessel Project of Louisiana and Texas Campaign for the Environment. Summer of Heat is organized by Climate Defenders, NY Communities for Change, Stop The Money Pipeline, and Planet over Profit.