A NASA scientist and three others were arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday after chaining themselves to the doors of a Chase Bank office building.
According to a 2020 report from the Sierra Club and other climate advocacy organizations, JPMorgan Chase has invested more money in fossil fuels than any other bank. The protesters on Wednesday called for the company to stop investing in coal, oil, and gas.
Kalmus spoke to a crowd that assembled shortly after another protestor helped him chain himself to the glass door of the bank. The event was live on Facebook.
Kalmus said that he was willing to take a risk for his sons.
We have been trying to warn you guys for so long that we are heading towards a catastrophe, and we have been being ignored. The scientists of the world are being ignored. We are not joking. We are not lying. We are not exaggerating.
Insider could not identify the other three people who chained themselves to the bank doors. More than two dozen police officers blocked off the road and removed the four people from the street.
The company declined to comment on Wednesday's events.
The actions of Kalmus and his companions were part of a group of scientists who took actions of civil disobedience to advocate for climate action. The United Nations released a new climate report this week.
Scientists in Berlin used their hands to block a bridge. The steps of the Spanish Parliament were painted red. Some people threw fake oil onto the Shell headquarters in London. Five people, including a biology professor, were arrested after blocking traffic in pouring rain. People chained themselves to the fence around the White House.
The report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the world must peak emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide in less than three years to have a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial standard.
Climate change is already driving extreme fires, hurricanes, and floods across the planet, and a temperature increase would have catastrophic consequences. The report found that the world's governments and corporations are not close to meeting emission reduction goals that would help limit extreme weather.
Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals, but the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels, according to the UN secretary general.
Jim Skea, co-chair of the group that wrote the new report, said in a press release that it is now or never if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C.
15 scientists were arrested during protests surrounding the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, last year.
Kalmus said that this planet is everything, and it is time to act like it.
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