June 6th 2024: HXR takes part in moving photographic exhibition at JPMorgan

Just a day after UN Secretary General António Guterres’s hard-hitting speech, calling fossil fuel companies the “Godfathers of climate chaos” [1], HXR members joined Extinction Rebellion’s vigil outside JPMorgan, Canary Wharf. JP Morgan are by far the world’s largest funder of fossil fuels.

The vigil centred around an exhibition of photographs by South African photographer Gideon Mendel. The pictures show people from around the world including Bengalis, Nigerians, Texans and Germans whose homes have been flooded, standing chest-deep in water. The New Yorker reported these photographs as “the single most powerful rendering of the climate crisis I’ve ever seen” describing how “There’s no dialogue, just the overwhelming sense that something very wrong has happened” [2].

This vigil, also included a second set of Mendel’s photographs: Devon children holding signs reading ‘When I’m 40 will my (place) be under water?’

The powerful photos led many JPM staff and other passers by (many from other banks) to stop and look and created an opportunity for some constructive discussions about the role of banking and bank employees in the climate emergency.

[1] The Guardian. Godfathers of climate chaos: UN chief urges global fossil-fuel advertising ban https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/05/antonio-guterres-un-chief-fossil-fuels-advertising?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[2] The New Yorker. Images of Climate Change That Cannot Be Missed  https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/images-of-climate-change-that-cannot-be-missed