Police arrested senior citizens who blockaded banks in a 'Rocking Chair Rebellion' to end fossil fuel use

• Senior citizens blockaded banks and cut up credit cards across the US after a dire UN climate report.
• Nine older Americans and one scientist were arrested after occupying a bank lobby in Washington DC.
• They say Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America should stop lending to fossil-fuel companies.

SAN FRANCISCO —As rain walloped the city and howling winds filled the narrow streets between skyscrapers, more than 100 people gathered before a glass facade on a busy street in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday.

Grey-haired San Francisco protestors donned hats and rain jackets, set up a tent, passed around colorful banners and signs, and sang songs about protecting future generations. The smell of sage filled the air.

Their target — the glass doors and walls — was an entrance to the corporate offices of Wells Fargo, one of four major banks that are the biggest lenders to the fossil-fuel industry. The others are Bank of America, Chase, and Citibank, according to a 2022 report from six environmental and advocacy organizations.

If you're looking for more environmentally friendly banks consider PNC, Hanover Bank, and Capital One.

This was one of 100 locations where older Americans, aged 60 and up, called themselves the "Rocking Chair Rebellion" and blockaded those banks across the country.

The protests came the day after the United Nations released the final installment of a dire climate change report. That assessment, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, paints a grim picture of the future if the world doesn't cut emissions of planet-warming gases in half by 2030. To achieve that, scientists agree, it's crucial to stop using fossil fuels like coal and oil.

"That's all we've asked of these banks — that they stop lending for the expansion of this industry," environmentalist and author Bill McKibben told Insider.

He helped launch this campaign, called Third Act, to organize Americans aged 60 and up for climate action.

"If you have $5,000 in one of these banks, it gets lent out for pipelines and so on, and that produces more carbon than flying back and forth across the country," McKibben said.

At similar protests in cities across the country, senior citizens cut up their credit cards and sat in lines of rocking chairs.

Nine seniors were arrested on Wednesday, alongside ecologist Rose Abramoff, after sitting in the lobby of a Chase Bank in Washington, DC and singing songs for an hour, according to a statement and photos shared with Insider.

"If you're 65 now, you've been on the planet for 80% of the emissions that have been emitted. We older folks have a debt to pay to our children and grandchildren," Deborah Moore, a campaign strategist at Third Act, who led the San Francisco protest, told Insider.

"This event is led and organized by older Americans, but it's multigenerational," she added.

There were no arrests in San Francisco, where three young people and three older people chained themselves to the Wells Fargo doors.

"We're hoping to damage the reputation enough that people say: 'Oh no, Wells Fargo is not a good guy. They're not a good community partner, and neither is Bank America or Chase or Citibank. And we need not to bank with them,'" said Mo, a 66-year-old chained to the bank's door, who declined to share their full name for privacy.

"It's about a commitment to the next generation," Mo added.

As protestors chanted, gave speeches, and painted the street in front of Wells Fargo HQ, a procession of grey-haired people wearing tattered burlap sacks silently marched in a line around the perimeter of the protest.

A thin, blotchy layer of white powder covered their faces, and they wore signs reading "drought," "mega-fires," and "floods" — events that are becoming more severe and destructive as global temperatures rise.

They called themselves "The Lamenters" and declined to answer any questions.

"The most important thing an individual can do, I think, is to be a little less of an individual, to join together with others in movements large enough to make real change," McKibben said.