When will they give up their own use of fossil fuels and make their own lives carbon neutral?
Students push for university climate change divestments
When environmentalist Bill McKibben hit the road in 2012 to preach the gospel of sustainable investing, few would have guessed that his bio-fuel-powered bus tour of US universities would spark a worldwide divestment movement.
But eight years later, the work of Mr McKibben and others has led more than 1,250 institutional investors with $14.5tn in assets to commit to cut fossil fuels from their portfolios, and inspired a new generation of activists to take the fight to companies profiting from climate change.
Their message caught on quickly with students. If the world was going to keep global warming in check, energy companies would need to leave the vast majority of their fossil fuel assets in the ground. Therefore, university endowments that held fossil fuel stocks, as Mr McKibben argued in Rolling Stone magazine, are investing in a way “that guarantees [their students] won’t have much of a planet on which to make use of their degreeâ€. (snip)
Students have kept up the pressure and things are changing. By January 2020, more than half of the public universities in the UK had committed to divest, and both Cambridge and Oxford joined the group later in the year.
In the US, Brown University became the first Ivy League school to sign up in March 2020. Cornell University followed suit in May.
You get the idea. That said, how do these institutions of higher learning run without fossil fuels? The construction, bringing in food and supplies, all the offsite conferences, all the sports? How about heating and cooling? Remember this one from earlier in the year?
Oxford official to students demanding divestment:
"I am not able to arrange any divestment at short notice. But I can arrange for the gas central heating in college to be switched off w/immediate effect. Please let me know if you support this proposal.”https://t.co/Q0MBDNCjVU
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 3, 2020
The students weren’t particularly happy with having to practice what they preach. And the professor responded further
Oxford official back to students demanding divestment but opposed to having the (gas) heated turned off: https://t.co/vJMkETvEm4 pic.twitter.com/am5j073loc
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 3, 2020
“No personal cost to yourself.” Without that fossil fuels and other monies the cost of education will go up further. Have fun!
I wonder how many knew how terrible these places were before they arrived to get a credential? Research? Naw.