Fossil Fuel

Tulane Students To Occupy President’s Office For Divestment

April 15, 2015 Jed Lipinski, www.nola.com Resist! Divestment, Fossil Fuel, Student Activism

Tulane students and alumni are planning to stage a sit-in at the office of university president Michael Fitts this week to demand the school divest its $1 billion endowment from fossil fuels. The sit-in is scheduled to take place from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at Gibson Hall, 2823 St. Charles Ave. Divest Tulane, a two-year-old, student-led campaign, is organizing the event. Its goal, according to Emma Collin, a Tulane senior and member of Divest Tulane, is to pressure the school to take the money from its endowment that is invested in fossil fuels and put it instead in "sustainable community solutions." "We're not trying to hurt the fossil fuel industry," Collin said. "We're trying to draw attention to the fact that climate change is a huge and urgent problem that threatens Louisiana and New Orleans profoundly."

With Sit-Ins Around Country, Students Escalate ‘Divestment Spring’

April 10, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Resist! Divestment, Education, Fossil Fuel, Student Activism

With campus sit-ins taking place in several states, and more direct actions planned for the days and weeks ahead, a new generation of climate activists is taking the reins in an escalating fight for fossil fuel divestment that's sweeping the nation this spring. As a group of environmental leaders wrote in an open letter published Thursday atCommon Dreams, "By taking strategic action this spring, students are posing a . . . crucial question to the public and their institutions' leadership: whose side are you on?" Close to 50 student members of Fossil Free Yale entered the university's Woodbridge Hall on Thursday morning, vowing to stay until the administration publicly commits toreconsidering the case for divestment. Yale, which at $24 billion has the third-largest university endowment in the world, said in August that it wouldn't sell its holdings of oil, gas, and coal stocks.

Fossil Fuel Divestment: A Brief History

February 21, 2015 Adam Vaughan, www.theguardian.com Resist! Divestment, Education, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Student Activism

“We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy,” said Stephen Heintz of John D Rockefeller, as he announced that the heirs to one of America’s most famous dynasties, which was built on oil, were pulling their philanthropic funds out of fossil fuels. For sheer symbolism if not financial value – only $60m (£37m) of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund was invested in fossil fuels – it was perhaps the high point of what has become known as the fossil fuel divestment movement. With its roots in US campuses, the campaign to get institutions to pull their financial investments as a way of tackling climate change has seen a total of $50bn divested so far, according to the US Fossil Free campaign.

Anti-Fracking & No-Nukes Activists Join Forces For Renewable Energy

February 6, 2015 Harvey Wasserman, www.commondreams.org Organize! Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuel, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy

In the wake of Fukushima, the global campaign to bury atomic power has gained enormous strength. All Japan’s 54 reactors remain shut. Germany is amping up its renewable energy generation with a goal of 80 percent or more by 2050. Four U.S. reactors under construction are far over budget and behind schedule. Five old ones have closed in the last two years. In New England and elsewhere, as the old nukes go down, safe energy activists shift their attention to the deadly realities of fossil fuel extraction. The issues are familiar. Fracking in particular poisons our water and spews out huge quantities of lethal radiation. Ironically, in Ohio and elsewhere, the seismic instability it creates threatens atomic reactors still in operation.

Banks Fear Risk Of Investment In Fossil Fuels

December 10, 2014 Kieran Cooke, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuel

In a move that’s likely to cause consternation in some of the world’s most powerful corporate boardrooms, the Bank of England has disclosed that it is launching an inquiry into the risks fossil fuel companies pose to overall financial stability. Mark Carney, governor of the UK’s central bank, has written to British Members of Parliament telling them that his officials have been discussing whether or not coal, oil and gas reserves held by the fossil fuel industry are, in fact, unburnable. “In light of these discussions, we will be deepening and widening our inquiry into the topic,” Carney says. The burning of fossil fuels releases hundreds of thousands of tons of climate-changing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Why Oil Train Activists In Seattle Took Direct Action

September 8, 2014 Kevin Gosztola, www.dissenter.firedoglake.com Resist! Activists, Fossil Fuel, Oil Trains

Five residents from the Seattle area took direct action on September 2 and constructed a massive tripod that blocked trains transporting crude oil through a rail yard in Everett, Washington. The action was organized by the environmental action group, Rising Tide North America, and was initiated to call attention to the need to halt the transport of crude oil, which is at risk of explosions. All five individuals were arrested and face misdemeanor charges for putting their bodies on the line. Yet, they recognized that working to push elected officials to act by going through the standard political processes was not enough anymore. They hope other Americans come to this realization as well and learn they may need to make a bit of a sacrifice to ensure a survivable future on Earth. This week’s guests on the “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast are Liz Spoerri, an assistant middle school teacher who has organized with environmental groups, and Patrick Mazza, a veteran climate activist who has been organizing for the last 15 years. Both Spoerri and Mazza were a part of the direct action they took against oil trains. They each share why they took the action and why they feel it is important for others, to take direct action as well.

Fossil Fuel Divestment: Why A Movement Is Never A Farce

July 19, 2014 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Divestment, Fossil Fuel, Movement

There’s a well-known quote from Mohandas Gandhi that, like many of his, is now common enough to verge on cliché: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Every so often it describes a situation perfectly. One such occasion was this Monday, reading Matthew Cunningham-Cook’s recent piece “Why the fossil fuel divestment movement is a farce.” The title isn’t as far off in its description as one might think. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary explains a farce as a funny staged production about “ridiculous situations and events.” An economy that can only operate through the extraction of land and labor is a ridiculous situation to find ourselves in as a society; rightfully so, no one is laughing. The climate crisis is one catastrophic symptom of an economic system that has not only driven us to the brink of destruction, but every day destroys millions of communities in our own backyard and around the world. The movement, though, has progressed in a less linear fashion than Gandhi imagined. For its first two years, divestment was largely ignored by university administrations, the media, the investment community, and just about the entire public. It’s been laughed at its fair share already, but — quicker than anyone predicted — is already starting to win. As noted in the article, not only have major cities and institutions committed to divest, but the international conversation on climate change and extraction is already starting to change. Endorsements have come from such unexpected places as the World Bank, and even former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs’ COO Henry Paulson this past week.

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