Do the Math: Divest!

Divestment campaigns to shame holders of fossil-fuel stocks are begining to rise up. [I don’t see Stanford, UC Berkeley !? but good on Brown, Cal State Bakersfield (!! right in the oil patch), and many more. ]

In recent weeks, college students on dozens of campuses have demanded that university endowment funds rid themselves of coaloil and gas stocks. The students see it as a tactic that could force climate change, barely discussed in the presidential campaign, back onto the national political agenda.

“We’ve reached this point of intense urgency that we need to act on climate change now, but the situation is bleaker than it’s ever been from a political perspective,” said William Lawrence, a Swarthmore senior from East Lansing, Mich.

Much More

What are the companies?  Bill McKibben with 350.org has a good idea.  The chart below is just the first ten on his group of 200.

Company GtCO2 Primary Fossil Fuel
Severstal JSC 141.6 Coal
Lukoil Holdings 43.56 Oil and/or Gas
Exxon Mobil Corp. 41.03 Oil and/or Gas
BP PLC 34.6 Oil and/or Gas
Gazprom OAO 28.83 Oil and/or Gas
Chevron Corp. 21.22 Oil and/or Gas
ConocoPhillips 19.14 Oil and/or Gas
Total S.A. 18.02 Oil and/or Gas
Anglo American PLC 16.75 Coal

Here is the Rolling Stone article that caught the eyes of some of the young organzers.

Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math

Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe – and that make clear who the real enemy is

 

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