Background

We are facing an unprecedented ecological climate crisis and must urgently reduce the burden of carbon-based fossil fuels. The fossil fuel sector, including big oil, gas and coal industries, have used their considerable political clout to block  energy alternatives and thwart our nation’s response to the climate crisis. A growing movement to “divest from the fossil fuel sector” is building among colleges, universities, foundations, pension funds, and religious institutions. It is now time for individual investors to add their voices to the call. This movement envisions that individuals and institutions should not invest and profit from corporations whose business model is recklessly destroying the planet. There are many wonderful opportunities for re-investing funds in energy and the businesses of the new sustainable and equitable economy.

Actions

Why we must keep most carbon assets in the ground.  See Bill Mckibben’s article, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” To understand how the fossil fuel industry corrupts our democratic process and blocks sane alternatives, see: Dirty Energy Money: Challenging Dirty Energy's Dominance Of Our Democracy. To learn more about the true costs of relying on our fossil fuel energy sector, see Price of Oil: Exposing the True Costs of Fossil Fuels. Investing in the fossil fuel sector is not only wrong for the planet and future generations, it’s a risky investment because the assets of the sector will fall in value.  See this research at Carbon Tracker: Unburnable Carbon: Are global financial markets carrying a carbon bubble?
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Updates

Resources

  ABOUT DIVESTMENT "Why Divest?" from Divest-Invest. “11 Reasons To Divest From Fossil Fuel Corporations” by Chuck Collins. For information on the divestment movement, see www.gofossilfree.org. To learn about the push to get large environmental organizations to divest, see Naomi Klein: Time for Big Green to Go Fossil Free INVESTING ALTERNATIVES Learn how you can divest from fossil fuels without sacrificing return on investment.  See resources complied by Divest-Invest. THE DEBATE See a debate about the Pros and Cons of divestment, hosted by the Jamaica Plain Forum: May 13th Boston panel on divestment Also this forum in the New York Times: Room for Debate: Is Divestment an Effective Means of Protest?
 
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