Elders’ Environmental groups around Southern California will lead concerned citizens in protest marches in Beverly Hills and other communities to call out the four banks most responsible for funding the fossil fuel industry and stoking the climate emergency on Tuesday, March 21.

 Despite making pledges to the contrary, in the seven years since the world signed the Paris climate accords, Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America have loaned more than a trillion dollars to companies worsening the climate crisis by expanding U.S. fossil fuel projects and bankrolled Russian oil and gas companies, which in turn finance the war on Ukraine.

“Where people bank, and what their bank does with their money, turns out to be one of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis, often ahead of how much people drive or where they fly in terms of individual impact on the climate,” says noted environmentalist Bill McKibben, co-founder of Third Act, which organizes people over 60 to protect the climate and democracy.

This event is one of more than 80 coordinated protests across the country on that day, including 11 separate events in Southern California. Demonstrators will gather at 10 a.m. at the Beverly Hills sign (located at Santa Monica Blvd. and N. Beverly Drive), marching to branches of the four “dirty” banks and presenting them with thousands of signed pledges from their customers to cut up credit cards and sever ties if banks make no changes to their practices.

Third Act SoCal and Elders Climate Action SoCal, two local chapters of national organizations of elders fighting climate change, will lead this Day of Action which is also endorsed by SoCal 350 Climate Action, the Local 721 SEIU, and Dayenu. Other partners on this Day of Action include The Sunrise Movement, Union of Concerned Scientists, The Climate Reality Project, The Oil and Gas Action Network, Interfaith Power and Light, People’s Action Institute, Faith Alliance For Climate  Solutions, Friends Of The Earth, Green Faith, 1000 Grandmothers For Future Generation, the California Alliance for Retired Americans and The Hip Hop Caucus. All ages are welcome. Other Southern California events planned for this day will be held in Long Beach, Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Claremont, Studio City, Hacienda Heights, Hemet, Palm Springs, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.

 For more information about these SoCal events and other events around the country, please visit https://thirdact.org/national-day-of-action.