Sept 3rd 2021: Doctors protest outside JP Morgan offices to demand they end fossil fuel investments

Doctors for Extinction Rebellion flag CODE RED for humanity as they demand JP Morgan end new fossil fuel investments immediately. 

• Doctors for Extinction Rebellion stage die in at JP Morgan’s Canary Wharf Offices; some glue to the building, others attempt to mount the doors 
• Doctors, Nurses, Midwives and diverse other health care professionals protest against the world’s biggest fossil fuel investor for driving the public health crisis arising from climate and ecological breakdown
• They delivered a letter referring to the recent ‘CODE RED’ IPCC report and the International Energy Association’s ‘Net Zero by 2050’ report.
  

This morning (Friday 3rd September) sixty doctors, nurses, midwives and diverse other health care professionals delivered an urgent public health message to the world’s biggest fossil fuel funder JP Morgan. Members attempted to mount the doors to raise a banner saying  ‘End Fossil Fuel Funding’, others glued to the building, chalk sprayed “CODE RED” and staged a ‘die in’ in front of the doors to symbolise the deaths caused by fossil fuel funding.

The group, who have received public support from WHO Director General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus (1) and Lancet Editor Dr Richard Horton (2), delivered a letter addressed to the CEO Jamie Dimon, and took the opportunity to read a recent special report on JP Morgan, “A Fig Leaf for Expansion, Assessing JP Morgan’s 2030 Climate Targets” by the Rainforest Action Network(3), which supports the recent International Energy Association’s assertion that there should be “no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects” (4). It suggests that JP Morgan is “uniquely responsible among its peers for fuelling fossil fuel expansion” and describes their targets as “flatly insufficient”, despite their claims to be “Paris-aligned”. Other commentators accused JP Morgan of using a “convoluted accounting trick”(5) to allow them to meet its own internal targets whilst still being able to expand fossil fuel production.

The Doctors for XR letter to JP Morgan made reference to the recent  “bombshell” UN IPPC report (6), which says the world will heat up by 1.5C before 2040 – a decade earlier than forecast, the recent patient evacuations from Whipps Cross hospital in London due to flooding, which has been attributed to climate change (7), and the recent defeat in the Dutch courts for Shell which shows the vulnerability of JP Morgan to court proceedings (8).

Dr Chris Newman, General Practitioner and Co-Founder of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, said:
“Climate change is at our door, and has entered our hospitals and communities. JP Morgan are risking the lives of vulnerable children around the world, as well as my patients and my family.  Not in a few years – but today.”

Jo Hindley, Registered Midwife, said :
“Every baby born today is being laid in the road before a hurtling juggernaut of fossil fuelled Climate Change. I cannot stand by while banks like JP Morgan continue to put petrol in the tank”.

Dr Lynne Jones OBE, Child Psychiatrist and Relief Worker, said:
“We are already seeing the devastating mental health impacts of floods, fire and heat across the world. Fossil fuels are the cancer at the heart of the climate crisis and they have to be cut out.”

Maggie Faye, Registered Nurse, said:
“We know from recent research that fossil fuel air pollution causes 1 in every 5 deaths (9), from heart disease and dementia to lung cancer and cot death. But it is the fossil fuel driven climate emergency that I’m most worried about. We must act now to prevent people dying and suffering unnecessarily.”

Mr Andrew Stevenson, Consultant Surgeon, said:
“Fossil fuels are killing our planet. If we are to stand a chance of saving a liveable planet for ourselves and future generations, banks need to end their investments in fossil fuel exploration and augment investments in the low carbon economy.”

Press Contacts
press@doctorsforxr.com
Rita – 0770 892 1568
Ali – 0790 191 6489

References:
1. IN CASE OF CLIMATE EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS: Extinction Rebellion women break windows at ‘World’s worst bank’ JP Morgan2. WHO Director General meets Extinction Rebellion Doctors after Geneva protest May 2021 Doctors for XR 3.Lancet’s Editor states”Doctors obliged to protest”. October 2019, Doctors for XR.4. A Fig Leaf for Expansion, Assessing JP Morgan’s 2030 Climate Targets, Rainforest Action Network, May 2021
5. Net Zero by 2050, A roadmap for the global energy sector, International Energy Association, May 2021.
6. JP Morgan Chase Just Became the World’s Most Dangerous Bank, Alex Connon, Common Dreams 24th May 2021
7. Letter to Jamie Dimon, Chairman of JP Morgan Doctors for XR, September 2021
8. Climate Action Tracker: Pledges and Targets Accessed in August 2021
9. IPCC 6th assessment report, 9th August 2021
10. The floods show London is now on the frontline of the climate emergency, Sadiq Khan, Guardian July 2021
11. Shell ordered to deepen carbon cuts in landmark Dutch climate case. Reuters. May ’21
12. Fossil fuel air pollution responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. 02/09/2021 | Environmental Research

About Doctors for Extinction Rebellion
Doctors for Extinction Rebellion is a health professional collective who, appreciating that climate change is an impending public health catastrophe, have decided to support and undertake civil disobedience with Extinction Rebellion worldwide. We are doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, paramedics, midwives and other allied health professionals.

Notes for Editors
Whipps Cross is a hospital in East London. Around 100 patients were evacuated when heavy rainfall affected both the main power supply and the backup power supply overnight on a Sunday. Had this happened during the day it would have impacted surgical procedures, and could have led to serious consequences. On the same day Newham hospital, also in East London, was flooded

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