On a narrow dirt path in Westchester County, four small children dressed as superheroes in a rainbow of satiny capes and masks picked dandelions on the grassy roadside. As they giggled and chanted for ice cream, their mothers, carrying babies in their arms or sporting baby bumps, unfurled a black and yellow banner that read:
“Fossil fuel expansion is incompatible with a 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway.”
The message was intended for the man living across the dusty lane behind a white picket fence and a neatly clipped lawn, CEO of BlackRock Larry Fink,. His company is the world’s largest asset manager controlling a value of about $10 trillion — and the globe’s biggest investor in coal production.
The rally of moms and kids outside of Fink’s home on May 14th was the second in six months held by Sunrise Kids, a climate activism organization started by new parents in 2018 that caters its meeting schedule and protests to parents who are juggling babies and professional careers. Sending this message to Fink until he gives in to their demands to divest from coal has become the primary goal of this network of moms concerned about the planet’s future and their children’s.
“We want to tell him [Larry Fink] to be a superhero, and not a super villain,” said Thea Prince, a 4-year-old who was waving a silvery star-studded baton. “This is a magic wand. It shoots out powers to get super villains to save the Earth.”
BlackRock is the ultimate decision-maker for the largest global bond and shareholder in the coal industry. According to a February analysis released by Urgewald, a German-based environmental group that tracks investments in the fossil fuel industry, BlackRock had $109 billion in assets in the coal sector based on its company’s filings through November 2021.
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