{"id":558,"date":"2012-12-04T18:06:24","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T18:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/?p=558"},"modified":"2012-12-04T18:06:24","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T18:06:24","slug":"divest-harvard-wont-give-up-without-a-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/divest-harvard-wont-give-up-without-a-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Divest Harvard Won't Give Up Without a Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joseph Lanzillo, Divest Harvard<\/div>\n
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Swarthmore students showcase the growing campus divestment movement.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As the necessity of curbing global warming becomes more clear, people across the country are realizing that\u00a0the fossil fuel industry must be challenged. \u00a0<\/span>Individuals are joining the campaign to divest from fossil fuel companies, a movement driven by students who are demanding their schools divest from companies that threaten our future.\u00a0Even though the movement is young, it is clear the divestment campaign is engaging people in the fight against global warming like never before. It’s no different at Harvard.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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In late August, students from Harvard\u2019s chapter of Students for a Just and Stable Future\u00a0launched\u00a0Divest Harvard<\/a>. We are working with\u00a0350.org<\/a>\u00a0and Boston-based\u00a0Better Future Project<\/a>\u00a0as part of a larger movement of over 150 college campuses.\u00a0We are calling on Harvard to divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly-traded companies and reinvest in socially responsible funds.\u00a0We have gathered over 1,000 petition signatures\u00a0from Harvard community members, held events about divestment, and been featured in national media such as\u00a0Public Radio International<\/a>,\u00a0The Nation<\/a>, and\u00a0The Boston Globe<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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In November,\u00a0Divest Harvard had a referendum question on our student government election ballot. With 55% of the student body voting,\u00a072% of students supported the divestment campaign. This is significant because\u00a0divestment received\u00a0even more\u00a0support\u00a0than past divestment campaigns\u00a0at Harvard. In 1986, the\u00a0ballot featured\u00a0a question about divesting from South Africa to end the apartheid, and 65% of students supported\u00a0complete divestment. In 1990–with 38% of the student body voting\u2014just 52% supported complete divestment. This year\u2019s referendum question shows tremendous support for the campaign that\u00a0has ignited a passionate movement at Harvard and across the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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Divest Harvard members have repeatedly tried to start a dialogue with the Harvard administration about divestment.\u00a0So far,\u00a0we\u00a0have been denied a meeting with Harvard President Drew Faust, but our team is hopeful that she will warm up to us and join in on the national divestment conversation. Earlier this year, she was quoted as saying that the University would consider divestment only the \u201cthe most extreme of circumstances.\u201d However, Harvard has previously divested from tobacco companies, companies that backed genocide in Darfur, and companies that supported apartheid in South Africa, so is hope that Harvard will consider divesting from fossil fuels. \u00a0<\/span>As Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org, just wrote in a piece for Boston’s NPR<\/a>, “If it was right to divest from the tobacco industry, then it\u2019s only consistent to divest from the fossil fuel industry as well.”<\/span><\/div>\n

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The movement has been growing at astonishing rates–not just at Harvard, but across the nation. The overwhelming support in the referendum shows just how much Harvard students care about the environment – and that they are committed enough to make a difference. People previously unsure of how to most effectively combat global warming now have a clear goal to fight for; the divestment movement has unified many in its cause. We have watched campaigns arise at other schools, and watched existing campaigns boom.\u00a0<\/span>We can only hope for this trend to continue as we call on our university to invest in our future .<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joseph Lanzillo, Divest Harvard As the necessity of curbing global warming becomes more clear, people across the country are…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}