The following letter was written collaboratively by students forming a Jesuit network for fossil fuel divestment. Most Holy Father, We write to you as young people, as constituents of Jesuit institutions, other Catholic, Christian, and religious institutions, and non-religious institutions as people of goodwill, on behalf of an entire generation.
As the Board of Managers held their first meeting of the academic year, members of Mountain Justice staged a protest in response to the publication of a paper by the Industrial Petroleum Association of America that cited divestment cost estimates put forth by the Board in their decision not to divest last spring.
“The greatest investment capital shift in history will be long and complex, but it is well underway,” @CFigueres #DivestInvest
Huge milestone for our movement, & a victory for students, pensioners, people of faith who made the path by walking. pic.twitter.com/z5qWURLXfG
Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty The fossil-fuel divestment movement has divided academia. On 24 April, SOAS University of London announced that it would sell off all of its investments in fossil-fuel companies within three years. Days later, the New York University (NYU) senate voted to recommend that the university keep its current fossil-fuel investments, but to develop a greener strategy for the future.
The Church of England’s governing body has thrown its weight behind efforts to slow climate change by backing the move earlier this year to divest its resources from from companies involved in extracting two of the most polluting fossil fuels.
Gil Kemp ’72 with Swarthmore President Valerie Smith. Photo by Laurence Kesterson Gil Kemp ’72 graduated with honors from Swarthmore with a B.A. in sociology and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Divestment At Swarthmore And ‘Hard Choice’ Foolishness The college and university student campaign to divest from fossil fuels as a protest against climate change began at Swarthmore College. It was therefore surprising when the board that overseas that institution’s investments recently voted against divestment. Or maybe it wasn’t very surprising after all.
Prof. Tim Burke writes in his popular blog :
“Since Swarthmore seems likely to be stuck debating or struggling over divestment for at least another year or more, I remain interested in trying to push at the central weakness of the pro-divestment argument. The major argument of many divestment advocates is that divestment by higher education and other large civic organizations will cumulatively stigmatize fossil fuel producers within public culture.” … read more …
Despite a large student protest and strong activist sentiment among its students and alumni, Swarthmore College opted to not divest its $1.9 billion endowment from fossil fuels after a vote by its board of managers on Saturday.