I appreciate the Telegraph’s front page story on March 18th about the electric cooperative Nashua has joined. This project is a wonderful example of how, through innovation and cooperation, we begin breaking the hold the fossil fuel industry has over every part of our lives. Besides the personal advantages of this program, by encouraging small-scale production of clean energy, we decrease the harms already happening in catastrophic weather events and can start to reverse and repair the environmental damage.

Like most Americans, I’m concerned about climate change. As an outdoor enthusiast, I’m dismayed by our warming winters and the loss of traditional activities like skiing and snow-shoeing. But changes like that are benign compared to the rapid increase in sea levels, deadly storms, wildfires, and flooding. These are already causing food shortages, rising prices for basic necessities, and habitat loss for many species, including humans, who are increasingly migrating to safer places, including New England. [As Climate Change Drives Migration To N.H., Towns Face Tension And Opportunity | WBUR News.]

A Pew Research Center survey in January 2022 found that 69% of Americans favor the United States striving to become carbon neutral by 2050. Developing alternative energy sources, rather than expanding the production of fossil fuels, is favored by the same percentage.

Those of us who are older can see the future in ways we couldn’t when we were younger, and we care deeply about the kind of planet we’re leaving to our children and grandchildren. Those of us privileged to have time and resources want to do what we can to reverse current trends. But how can we best help transition our world to carbon neutral energy sources?

Paying attention to the cash to carbon connection is one answer. Some banks have far worse records than others for funding fossil fuel expansion and do very little to finance alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar. Doing business with one of those banks means our cash is turned into carbon by the fossil fuel corporations financed by those banks.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citibank are the four national banks that are the biggest funders of the fossil fuel industry. Together they account for over one quarter of the $4.6 trillion total financing for fossil fuels by the top 60 global banks between 2016 and 2021. Already, thousands of customers and potential customers have pledged to move their money out of these four banks if the banks won’t move their investments out of fossil fuels.

Many Americans in the over 60 demographic have a lot of money sitting in financial institutions. Older Americans hold 70% of the wealth in this country, but represent just 17% of the population. Banks disproportionately depend on us, and that means we hold a great deal of power. What if we began to demand that banks stop funding fossil fuels and start financing alternative energy, or we’ll take our business elsewhere?

We can use our power of choice of to reflect where we stand on climate change. If we want to help insure our children and grandchildren won’t have to live through the upheavals a continued reliance on fossil fuel use will bring, we need to do our business with banks that have demonstrated real commitment to expanding clean energy projects.

While Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America have verbally committed to help reach the global target of Net Zero emissions by 2050, none have published a credible transition plan or ruled out fossil fuel financing for expanding projects. These banks also have dismally low levels of financing of renewable energy. Just 2% of financial backing by Chase and Citibank for energy companies went to renewable energy activities between 2016 and 2022.

By contrast, some European banks are making these commitments. In December, Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, announced it would no longer finance new oil and gas projects. Danske, a Danish bank, has committed to stop financing oil and gas projects and financing of fossil fuel corporations.

Individually we can be a activists by doing small things that effect big change, including making sure we invest in banks that will help to build a better tomorrow. Collectively, those of us who are older can become involved with organizations like Third Act. This is a group co-founded by Bill McKibben to motivate “experienced Americans” — over the age of 60 — to become climate activists and a pro-democracy force. Another results-oriented organization is Elders Climate Action, which partners with groups of all ages to broaden and strengthen our impact.

Planet Earth will most likely survive even humans’ worst foolishness, but the increasing rate of climate-driven disasters and species extinctions should be a warning to us: the human species, just as much as any other, depends on a healthy environment for survival. This is the time to do everything we can to clean up after ourselves and restore the environment for future generations.

Jean Lewandowski is a resident of Nashua.

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