[Vision2020] "The Nation:" Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Wraps Up First Semester on 192 Campuses

[Ted Moffett]

Note that the U of I is not on this list:

http://gofossilfree.org/campaigns/
-----------------------------Will 350.org Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign
Be Key Tactic in 2013 Battle over Climate Change?

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/2/will_350org_fossil_fuel_divestment_campaign

-----------------------------------------------
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171971/fossil-fuel-divestment-campaign-wraps-first-semester-192-campuses
Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Wraps Up First Semester on 192 Campuses
<http://www.thenation.com/blog/171971/fossil-fuel-divestment-campaign-wraps-first-semester-192-campuses>
Extra Credit <http://www.thenation.com/authors/extra-credit> on January 2,
2013 - 12:04 PM ET

A new campaign to push colleges and universities to divest from the fossil
fuel industry has spread like wildfire to over 190 campuses across the
country in just over a month. Now, as students head home for the holidays,
organizers are celebrating some significant early victories and looking
forward to a busy spring semester.

“2012 was the hottest year in American history—drought, wildfire, storm, we
had it all,” said Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org<http://www.350.org/>,
one of the organizations leading the new divestment campaign. “But 2013 is
going to be the hottest year on American campuses in a very long time,
because students have done the math, connected the dots and gotten down to
the hard work of divesting from the fossil fuel companies at the root of
our trouble.”

In a speech on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-RI) commended students for getting involved in the campaign,
“These students are imploring their schools to weigh the real cost of
climate change against the drive for more financial returns, and divest
from the polluters. With American college and university endowments
estimated to total more than $400 billion, this movement by students
deserves significant attention.”

Two small schools, Unity College and Hampshire College, have already
divested their endowments from fossil fuels. Unity College President
Stephen Mulkey wrote in a blog post announcing the decision, “The colleges
and universities of this nation have billions invested in fossil fuels.
Like the funding of public campaigns to deny climate change, such
investments are fundamentally unethical.”

In the last month, a growing number of other colleges and universities are
beginning to take the divestment debate seriously:

   -

   Harvard has met student demands to set up a “social choice fund” for
   alumni donations and President Faust has agreed to discuss divestment with
   students next semester. In November, an official student resolution
   supporting divestment passed with 72 percent of the vote.
   -

   Swarthmore, where student efforts were recently profiled in *The New
   York Times*, also just launched a new process to look into investing its
   endowment more responsibly.
   -

   At Bryn Mawr, the CFO of the college told students that the endowment
   was invested in only a couple fossil fuel companies and divestment should
   be doable.
   -

   Middlebury recently disclosed that it has 3.6 percent of its endowment
   invested in fossil fuels and is launching a formal process this January to
   consider divestment.
   -

   Students at Bates, Bowdoin, Earlham, the University of Wisconsin, the
   University of New Hampshire, the University of North Carolina and elsewhere
   have also opened up dialogues with their administrations.

With significant media coverage in *The New York Times*, *Time*, *MSN
Finance*, *Rolling Stone *and more, the campaign is also beginning to make
an impact in economic circles.

“The speed at which this campaign has spread is causing ripples in the
investment community,” said Andy Behar, the CEO of As You Sow, a campaign
partner that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility
through shareholder advocacy and coalition building. “We anticipate more
‘carbon free’ investment options coming onto the market over the coming
months for endowments, foundations, and other institutional investors who
want to move investment dollars to build a clean-energy future.”

According to endowment experts, fossil fuel divestment won’t necessarily
result in negative financial impacts for a college.

“We’re looking forward to working with students and others to show college
administrators that divestment isn’t just the moral thing to do, it’s both
practical and responsible, as well,” said Dan Apfel, executive director of
the Responsible Endowments Coalition, a campaign partner. “It’s time for
colleges to build fossil free portfolios that have strong returns on
investment and help move us towards us a sustainable future.”

In fact, colleges have lots of profitable, sustainable investment options
at their disposal.

“If instead of propping up Shell or BP, a college invests in, say, more
efficient lighting or heating, the median return on investment is 28
percent,” wrote Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable
Endowments Institute, in an oped for *The Boston Globe. *“Best of all, this
kind of investment supports the educational mission of a campus instead of
undermining it.”

The divestment campaign is also beginning to reach city and state
governments. Earlier this November, the mayor of Seattle committed to
working on divesting city funds from fossil fuels. City council members and
activists in a handful of other cities are beginning to work on sample
resolutions that could be adopted across the country. In Vermont, two state
representatives are discussing legislation that would divest the state from
the industry.

“After voting in record numbers in 2012, students are seizing on divestment
as a strategy to put climate firmly on the political agenda,” said Maura
Cowley, the executive director of the Energy Action Coalition, another
campaign partner. “Young people don’t just want schools to divest
themselves from the fossil fuel industry, they also want their political
leaders to untangle themselves from these corporations that are wrecking
our future.”

As students prepare for the semester ahead, they are studying the movement
to divest from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. In November, they
received the blessing of one of that movement’s key leaders, Nobel Peace
Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“The divestment movement played a key role in helping liberate South
Africa. The corporations understood the logics of money even when they
weren’t swayed by the dictates of morality,” said Tutu in a video for the
campaign. “Climate change is a deeply moral issue too, of course…. Once
again, we can join together as a world and put pressure where it counts.”

If the last month is any indication, that pressure is beginning to be felt.

*For more on the divestment movement, check out “Climate Activists Hit Hard
With ‘Do the Math’ National
Tour<http://www.thenation.com/article/171225/climate-activists-hit-hard-do-math-national-tour>
.”*

*------------------------------------------*

*Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20130102/b0d7b2b2/attachment-0001.html>