Chris Nickolay, Luton Meeting; Chris Walker, Westminster Meeting; Hannah Morrow, Cambridge Hartington Grove Meeting; and Steve Whiting, Stevenage Meeting.
A Friendly action in Cambridge
Friends made a surprise visit to Jane Pepper
On the morning of Thursday 6 June four Friends from Cambridge Hartington Grove, Stevenage, Luton and Westminster took part in an imaginative action to support American campaigners who are highlighting the continued destruction of ecosystems in the Appalachian mountains by mountaintop removal coal mining.
The Friends made a surprise visit to Jane Pepper, a director of the PNC Bank in the US, who was staying at the DoubleTree hotel in the university city.
Chris Walker, one of the Friends who attended, said: ‘We wanted to meet her to call on the bank, which was originally founded by Quakers in the nineteenth century, to divest from the highly destructive mountaintop removal coal mining.’
Since January 2008 the PNC Bank has become the most influential US financer of mountaintop removal coal mining in the Appalachian region. The bank has provided more than $500 million in loans and bonds to six companies practicing mountaintop removal.
Chris explained that Jane Pepper was visiting England as a special guest on a ten-day tour of English gardens organised by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He said: ‘We took her a gift of a book on gardening, some Toblerone chocolate (to her remind her of mountains!) and a letter explaining why we were there.’
Chris explained that the aim was to make a friendly and welcoming, but surprise, visit as the bank executive arrived in the UK.
He added: ‘We were told about her visit by the US’s Earth Quaker Action Team, who are campaigning PNC to divest from the industry that is causing devastation to the Appalachian mountains and ecosystems, and feeding coal to the fossil fuel economy.’
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