Fossil Free

Amherst College: Fired Up and Ready To Go

Posted by katiemac – May 10, 2013

by Katie MacDonald and Lauren Ressler

As climate activists, we know what its like to face powerful opposition.  We are fighting the most powerful industry in the world, and with that comes an understanding that we have a long road ahead of us.  Over the course of the semester, college students have been proving to themselves and this movement that they will stand firm against powerful interests on their campuses no matter what comes their way.  Their resolve has sparked a truly historic groundswell of action, dedication, and fearlessness.  As we head into a fearless summer, we thought we would share a unique story that inspires us to keep fighting.

Amherst College in Western Massachusetts is a campus with a story worth telling.  This semester, a group of students leading the Amherst Coal Divestment campaign accomplished a herculean feat by overcoming a campus culture that is resistant to activism and orchestrating one of the largest demonstrations of electoral student support in years, all with a team of new student organizers.  This is how it unfolded. (more…)

Fossil Free UK

Posted by allyse – May 9, 2013

Today marked the opening action day of the Fossil Free campaign in the United Kingdom, to coincide with the launch of a disgraceful new partnership between Shell and the University of Oxford – one of our most prestigious higher education institutions. Louise Hazan explains how US students’ rallying call for fossil fuel divestment has been taken up by the country’s largest student activist network, People & Planet.

This afternoon I joined dozens of Oxford alumni, staff and students, at a protest outside Oxford University’s Earth Sciences department to denounce a new £5.9 million partnership and the growing influence of big oil companies over the research agenda of UK universities. Far too many of the 160 British universities support the continued extraction of fossil fuels, not only through their endowments being invested in companies like BP and Shell, but also through research partnerships and their role as de-facto recruitment agencies for the industry.

Shell is a particularly inappropriate and unsavoury choice of funder for a new Earth Sciences laboratory in Oxford, not least because Oxford’s own climate scientists are warning us that we need to leave the majority of known fossil fuels in the ground. Many of these scientists were among the 100 high profile alumni and students who signed a letter publicly denouncing the Shell partnership in today’s Guardian newspaper. Shell’s core business activities and political lobbying are pushing us towards a future with a global temperature increase well in excess of 2 degrees and yet many of the new studentships funded by today’s deal specifically focus on the extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons such as shale oil. (more…)

The Claremont Colleges Divestment Campaign 2012-2013

Posted by Jamie Henn –

by Jess Grady-Benson, (Pitzer 2014)

It all started with three of us, Meagan Tokunaga (Pomona ’15), Kai Orans (Pomona ’14), and myself.  In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, it was time for urgent action against climate change.  Though the Claremont Colleges (5C’s) tout superior campus sustainability and a strong Environmental Analysis program, the 5C’s remain invested in the fossil fuel industry, thus implicitly endorsing climate change, the greatest social justice issue of our generation.  It was time to take a stand for our future and divest our colleges of the fossil fuel industry.

On November 11th, 75 Claremont Colleges students marched on the UCLA campus chanting, “from East to West, we must DIVEST!”  Inspired by the words of Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Van Jones, Desmond Tutu, and other speakers of the Do The Math Tour, we returned to Claremont ready to kick off our campaign.

Candlelight March – Dec. 3, 2012

Back on campus we ignited our campaign with a candlelight march to deliver official “Requests to Divest” to all five presidents of the 5 Colleges.  We were gaining power quickly through student and faculty support. Soon we had built a five-college team of about 60 students.

The second semester began with a meeting with Pitzer President Skandera Trombley and Treasurer Lee, during which President Trombley stated, “I think your campaign is a worthy one; I think that you have very admirable principles. You are doing what I think is consistent with the values of Pitzer College.”

Victory One:We were granted the opportunity to present to the Trustee Investment Committee two weeks later and asked to submit an official report on the financial impacts of divestment at Pitzer in three days. Despite this challenge, we successfully published our first report for Pitzer, held a panel where I spoke against the 5C’s most vocal divestment opponents, and presented before Pitzer’s Trustee Investment Committee.  On top of all of that, we passed a resolution in favor of divestment through Pitzer Student Senate! (more…)

Tufts Administration Forms Working Group to Study Divestment

Posted by Jamie Henn –

Here’s an update from Dan Jubelirer at Tufts: 

Over the course of the past two semesters, Tufts Divest has been involved in ongoing talks with the administration and Board of Trustees about divestment. We are committed to working respectfully with the administration, as long as we are making progress towards creating a more sustainable endowment and a better Tufts. Today, we are pleased to say that the Tufts administration is making progress by starting a formal process to look into divestment and other ways the school can address climate change.

President Monaco has requested that a working committee form to review several issues, including divestment and other steps Tufts can take to address the climate crisis.  The committee will have its first meeting next week!  Below is the official announcement from the Administration.

Working Group Regarding Socially Responsible Investments and Climate Change

A growing and active group at Tufts has joined a larger movement to advocate for divestment of fossil fuel companies from the Tufts Endowment Fund.  This group, known as “Tufts Divests: Students for a Just and Stable Future”, has shared a written paper and presented to the Board of Trustees Investment Committee its position that Tufts should, over a five year time period, divest from all holdings in fossil fuel companies in its endowment. The Board has indicated an interest in continuing dialogue with students to explore what proactive actions Tufts can practically take with its investments to help mitigate climate change.

In response, President Monaco has requested a small working group be established to address the issue of socially responsible investments and climate change.  The group will be comprised of three trustees, three students, three faculty members and one representative from university administration.  Trustee Laurie Gabriel will chair the group. The purpose is to explore opportunities for Tufts to engage in effective and financially reasonable efforts to combat global climate change.  This work would include three identified areas:

1. Creating an understanding of what is involved in divesting from fossil fuel companies, including  the financial and structural impacts , while respecting the limitations on disclosure of specific investment information;
2. Exploring the possibility of establishing a fund with a commitment to socially responsible investing;
3. Considering what other advocacy efforts Tufts can undertake or support to encourage public policy that will limit climate change and global warming.

(more…)

Cal Arts Is Winning

Posted by Deirdre Smith – May 8, 2013

By Peter Nichols Organizer for Cal Arts Divest to Impress Campaign

The Cal Arts Fossil Fuel Divestment movement got its start during the bizarre climate silence of the 2012 Presidential race. Left without any reason to believe in the competence of our national leaders, we took it upon ourselves assert Bill MicKibben’s dictum “if it is wrong to wreck the planet, it is wrong to profit from that wreckage.”

Pretty soon, however, we changed our argument. Turns out it isn’t profitable to wreck the planet. All arguments to the contrary are premised upon externalizing costs, i.e. exploiting and sacrificing communities and resources. We call that practice “false economy” because it is doomed, on a finite planet, to collapse.

We started a petition to gain support for our demand to immediately freeze new fossil fuel investments and to fully divest from fossil fuels within 5 years. It grew in size. It turned into a scroll. It now has well over 800 signatures on it (there are 1441 students).

(more…)