Christiana Figueres ’79 is a Swarthmore alum, who served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010-16 and declined an honorary degree from Swarthmore College because the Swarthmore College Board of Managers refuses to divest its $2b endowment of fossil fuels holdings.
In her new book, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Figueres and her co-author, Tom Rivett-Carnac, offer ten things one can do about climate change, and they write:
“It’s time to participate in non-violent political movements wherever possible” … “Civil disobedience is not only a moral choice, it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics.”
In 2015, Figueres wrote a letter to the Chair of the Board of Managers, Gil Kemp, and Chair of the Board Investment Committee, Christopher Niemczewski calling on the Board to divest.