Environmental News 12.1.15 Part I: 300 Stanford professors pushing for their facility to divest from ALL ffuels - But is board listening? We NEED to withdraw and re-invest the HUGE amounts of money STILL being spent on ffuels and seeing as governments and banks continued to subsidize the filthy industry to the tune of $550bn in 2014 (International Energy Agency) it is up to us – wherever or whoever we are – to do what WE can to encourage renewables and discourage further investment in coal and gas. In keeping with this – 300 professors at Stanford, including Nobel laureates and this year’s Fields medal winner (Maryam Mizarkhani, pictured) have just called on their university, via a letter to president, John Hennessy and the board of trustees, to rid itself of all ffuel investments. Stanford, which controls a $21.4bn endowment, eliminated direct investments in coalmining companies last May, but then, only months later, the university invested in three oil and gas companies. “The urgency and magnitude of climate change call not for partial solutions; they demand the more profound and thorough commitment embodied in divestment from all fossil-fuel companies.” the letter says. “The alternative – for Stanford to remain invested in oil and gas companies – presents us with a paradox: if a university seeks to educate extraordinary youth so they may achieve the brightest possible future, what does it mean for that university simultaneously to invest in the destruction of that future? Given that the university has signalled its awareness of the dangers posed by fossil fuels, what are the implications of Stanford’s making only a partial confrontation with this danger?” The fossil-fuel divestment campaign has grown rapidly over the past few years, and, by last September some $50bn worth of investments had been divested from various organizations including $860m from the Rockefeller’s philanthropic fund. “It is very important that educational institutions in particular and organisations that think of themselves as part of civil society make this important step.” Professor Paul Ehrlich said. “It is symbolic. It is not going to instantly change the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is damn important.” Stanford University spokesperson, Lisa Lapin, agrees and says that the facility has already completely withdrawn its investments from coalmining companies and an advisory panel is now studying the feasibility of further fossil fuel divestment. theguardian/environment/2015/jan/11/stanford-professors-fossil-fuel-investments
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 22:41:28 +0000
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