To Fight Climate Change, College Students Take Aim at the Endowment Portfolio - NYTimes
-
Upload
courtney-ross -
Category
Documents
-
view
213 -
download
0
description
Transcript of To Fight Climate Change, College Students Take Aim at the Endowment Portfolio - NYTimes
12/5/12 To Fight Climate Change, College Students Take Aim at the Endowment Portfolio - NYTimes.com
1/4nytimes.com/2012/…/to-fight-climate-change-college-students-take-aim-at-the-endowment-portfolio.html
Search All NYTimes.com
Global DealBook Markets Economy Energy Media Personal Tech Small Business Your Money
A blog about energyand theenvironment.
Go to Blog »
Enlarge This Image
Stephen Maturen for The New York Times
Bill McKibben, a writer turned advocatefor carbon reduction, is on a nationaltour to build support for the divestment
To Stop Climate Change, Students Aim at CollegePortfolios
Stephen Maturen for The New York Times
Students in Minneapolis, seeking steps to cut atmospheric carbon levels to 350 parts per million, known as the safe level.
By JUSTIN GILLISPublished: December 4, 2012
SWARTHMORE, Pa. — A group of Swarthmore College students is
asking the school administration to take a seemingly simple step to
combat pollution and climate change: sell off the endowment’s
holdings in large fossil fuel companies. For months, they have been
getting a simple answer: no.
As they consider how to ratchet up
their campaign, the students suddenly
find themselves at the vanguard of a
national movement.
In recent weeks, college students on
dozens of campuses have demanded
that university endowment funds rid
themselves of coal, oil 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
Despite BobDole’s Wish,RepublicansRejectDisabilities Treaty
JewishCongregationApplauds U.N.Vote on Palestine
Log In With Facebook
MOST EMAILED MOST VIEWED
Log in to see what your friendsare sharing on nytimes.com.Privacy Policy | What’s This?
What’s Popular Now
Sign up for the latest financial news delivered before theopening bell and after the market [email protected] Change Email Address | Privacy Policy
Get DealBook by EMail
1. To Stop Climate Change, Students Aim atCollege Portfolios
2. Removing ‘Sacrifice’ From ‘GlutenFree’
3. Cheering U.N. Palestine Vote, SynagogueTests Its Members
4. OPINIONNew Love: A Short Shelf Life
5. DRAFTThe Art of Being Still
HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR
Business Day
Energy & EnvironmentWORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS
GOOGLE+
SAVE
SHARE
SINGLE PAGE
REPRINTS
Subscribe to Home Delivery Helpcross3...U.S. Edition
12/5/12 To Fight Climate Change, College Students Take Aim at the Endowment Portfolio - NYTimes.com
2/4nytimes.com/2012/…/to-fight-climate-change-college-students-take-aim-at-the-endowment-portfolio.html
campaign. 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.
Students who have signed on see it as a conscious imitation of the successful effort in the
1980s to pressure colleges and other institutions to divest themselves of the stocks of
companies doing business in South Africa under apartheid.
A small institution in Maine, Unity College, has already voted to get out of fossil fuels.
Another, Hampshire College in Massachusetts, has adopted a broad investment policy that
is ridding its portfolio of fossil fuel stocks.
“In the near future, the political tide will turn and the public will demand action on
climate change,” Stephen Mulkey, the Unity College president, wrote in a letter to other
college administrators. “Our students are already demanding action, and we must not
ignore them.”
But at colleges with large endowments, many administrators are viewing the demand
skeptically, saying it would undermine their goal of maximum returns in support of
education. Fossil fuel companies represent a significant portion of the stock market,
comprising nearly 10 percent of the value of the Russell 3000, a broad index of 3,000
American companies.
No school with an endowment exceeding $1 billion has agreed to divest itself of fossil fuel
stocks. At Harvard, which holds the largest endowment in the country at $31 billion, the
student body recently voted to ask the school to do so. With roughly half the
undergraduates voting, 72 percent of them supported the demand.
“We always appreciate hearing from students about their viewpoints, but Harvard is not
considering divesting from companies related to fossil fuels,” Kevin Galvin, a university
spokesman, said by email.
Several organizations have been working on some version of a divestment campaign,
initially focusing on coal, for more than a year. But the recent escalation has largely been
the handiwork of a grassroots organization, 350.org, that focuses on climate change, and
its leader, Bill McKibben, a writer turned advocate. The group’s name is a reference to
what some scientists see as a maximum safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 350
parts per million. The level is now about 390, an increase of 41 percent since before the
Industrial Revolution.
Mr. McKibben is touring the country by bus, speaking at soldout halls and urging
students to begin local divestment initiatives focusing on 200 energy companies. Many of
the students attending said they were inspired to do so by an article he wrote over the
summer in Rolling Stone magazine, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math.”
Speaking recently to an audience at the University of Vermont, Mr. McKibben painted the
fossil fuel industry as an enemy that must be defeated, arguing that it had used money
and political influence to block climate action in Washington. “This is no different than
the tobacco industry — for years, they lied about the dangers of their industry,” Mr.
McKibben said.
Eric Wohlschlegel, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, said that continued
use of fossil fuels was essential for the country’s economy, but that energy companies were
investing heavily in ways to emit less carbon dioxide.
In an interview, Mr. McKibben said he recognized that a rapid transition away from fossil
fuels would be exceedingly difficult. But he said strong government policies to limit
emissions were long overdue, and were being blocked in part by the political power of the
incumbent industry.
Go to Complete List » Show My Recommendations
6. Pushing Science’s Limits in Sign LanguageLexicon
7. BOOMINGWhen They’re Grown, the Real Pain Begins
8. WELLFor Athletes, Risks From Ibuprofen Use
9. Study Raises Questions on Coating ofAspirin
10. For Second Opinion, Consult a Computer?
Big boys lay out their OscarbaitALSO IN MOVIES »Amanda Seyfried and the Hathaway extractionA.O. Scott and the many meanings of "Lincoln"
Ads by Google what's this?
New 14% Interest AnnuityCD Alternative IRA401K Rollover
45% Bonus call ( 18006712078 )
theannuityquote.com
12/5/12 To Fight Climate Change, College Students Take Aim at the Endowment Portfolio - NYTimes.com
3/4nytimes.com/2012/…/to-fight-climate-change-college-students-take-aim-at-the-endowment-portfolio.html
A version of this article appeared in print on December 5, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: TheDivestment Brigade.
SAVE EMAIL SHARE
Colleges and Universities
Coal
Get Free Email Alerts on These Topics
Endowments
Global Warming
Mr. McKibben’s goal is to make owning the stocks of these companies disreputable, in the
way that owning tobacco stocks has become disreputable in many quarters. Many colleges
will not buy them, for instance.
Mr. McKibben has laid out a series of demands that would get the fuel companies off
350.org’s blacklist. He wants them to stop exploring for new fossil fuels, given that they
have already booked reserves about five times as large as scientists say society can afford to
burn. He wants them to stop lobbying against emission policies in Washington. And he
wants them to help devise a transition plan that will leave most of their reserves in the
ground while encouraging lowercarbon energy sources.
“They need more incentive to make the transition that they must know they need to make,
from fossil fuel companies to energy companies,” Mr. McKibben said.
Most college administrations, at the urging of their students, have been taking global
warming seriously for years, spending money on steps like cutting energy consumption
and installing solar panels.
The divestment demand is so new that most administrators are just beginning to grapple
with it. Several of them, in interviews, said that even though they tended to agree with
students on the seriousness of the problem, they feared divisive boardroom debates on
divestment.
That was certainly the case in the 1980s, when the South African divestment campaign
caused bitter arguments across the nation.
NEXT PAGE »
Brent Summers contributed reporting from Burlington, Vt.
Ads by Google what's this?
Nikon Official SiteBuy Direct from Nikon for Huge
Savings on Cameras, Lenses & More!
www.NikonUSA.com
DINING & WINE »
GlutenFree Dishes Become
More Tempting
OPINION »
Invitation to a Dialogue:
How to Treat A.D.H.D.
HEALTH »
For Athletes, Risks from
Ibuprofen Use
BOOKS »
Professor Who Learns From
Peasants
OPINION »
Editorial:Rigging theFinancialSystemWill authorities reallyhold banks and bankersaccountable formanipulating interestrates?
U.S. »
Penn Museum Pushes for
Broader Public Appeal
1 2
INSIDE NYTIMES.COM
12/5/12 To Fight Climate Change, College Students Take Aim at the Endowment Portfolio - NYTimes.com
4/4nytimes.com/2012/…/to-fight-climate-change-college-students-take-aim-at-the-endowment-portfolio.html
© 2012 The New York Times Company Site Map Privacy Your Ad Choices Advertise Terms of Sale Terms of Service Work With Us RSS Help Contact Us Site Feedback
More Tempting How to Treat A.D.H.D. Ibuprofen Use Peasants Broader Public Appeal