If you happen to step into the Bank of America offices in downtown St. Pete today, look up.
Three activists from two local environmental groups — Earth First! and Rising Tide — unleashed a balloon-propelled banner earlier today attacking the bank for funding new coal plants and investing in mining companies that use environmentally destructive practices to extract coal.
The protest was part of a nationwide day of action to pressure Citi and Bank of America to divest from coal as part of a larger climate change campaign. (Check out this video from California of a similar event.)
After hearing about it, I rushed over and snapped these photos. The activists had already left; BOA customers and employees tried their best to ignore the huge banner stuck to their ceiling. They weren’t interested in talking to me about it either.
Afterwards, I met up with one of the protesters at the Globe Coffee Lounge. He told me that, if anything, this might pique the interest of a few bank customers so that they look into how Bank of America invests its money. But it also serves to raise the local groups’ profiles. In larger cities throughout the U.S., Earth First! and Rising Tide are noteworthy radical environmental groups, usually doing various protests that end in arrest.
This isn’t their first direct action protest, this USF student said, and it certainly won’t be their last.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2007.