Banks Use Your Deposits To Loan Money To Fossil-Fuel, Emissions-Heavy Firms

Banks lend your deposits to carbon-heavy industries, fueling climate change; savings of $1,000 create emissions equal to a New York-Seattle flight, reveals a new analysis. Wired: By switching to a climate-conscious bank, you could reduce those emissions by about 75 percent, the study found. In fact, if you moved $8,000 dollars -- the median balance for US customers -- the reduction in your indirect emissions would be twice that of the direct emissions you'd avoid if you switched to a vegetarian diet. The new report finds that on average, 11 of the largest US banks lend 19.4 percent of their portfolios to carbon-intensive industries. To be very clear: Oil, gas, and coal companies wouldn't be able to keep producing these fuels -- when humanity needs to be reducing carbon emissions dramatically and rapidly -- without these loans. New fossil fuel projects aren't simply fleeting endeavors, but will operate for years, locking in a certain amount of emissions going forward.

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