This post:

  • isn’t about stuff you’re already doing like recycling
  • its about your personal retirement stocks and/or kids future education fund and consider whether you’re invested in those responsible for climate change.
  • will take you less than 4 mins to read

Guardians of the galaxy take on fossil fuel divestment

I’ve had alot of respect for UK’s newspaper The Guardian over the years and even more so for taking a global leadership position on climate change.

Like the popular movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, I feel they’ve risen to the occasion to inform and encourage their readers to act:

Journalism tends to be a rear-view mirror. We prefer to deal with what has happened, not what lies ahead.

 

…reasons changes to the Earth’s climate rarely make it to the top of the news list. The changes may be happening too fast for human comfort, but they happen too slowly for the newsmakers – and, to be fair, for most readers.

 

Even when the overwhelming majority of scientists wave a big red flag in the air, they tend to be ignored.

 

The climate threat features very prominently on the home page of the Guardian on Friday even though nothing exceptional happened on this day. It will be there again next week and the week after.

Excerpts from Climate change: why The Guardian is putting threat to Earth front and centre.

How many other ‘mainstream’ papers out there actually take a position?

Regardless, The Guardian along with Bill McKibben’s 350.org are advocating fossil fuel divestment via their #Keepitintheground campaign.

Divestment is the opposite of an investment – it simply means getting rid of stocks, bonds, or investment funds that are unethical or morally ambiguous.

 

When you invest your money, you might buy stocks, bonds, or other investments that generate income for you. Universities (and colleges in the US), religious organizations, retirement funds, and other institutions put billions in these same kinds of investments to generate income to help them run.

 

Fossil fuel investments are a risk for both investors and the planet, so we’re calling on institutions to divest from these companies.

Excerpt from Go Fossil Fuel’s What is fossil fuel divestment

How does fossil fuel divestment work?

There have been a handful of successful divestment campaigns in recent history, including those targeting violence in Darfur, tobacco advertising, and others, but the largest and most impactful one came to a head around the issue of South African Apartheid.

 

155 campuses –  including some of the most famous in the country – had divested from companies doing business in South Africa. 26 state governments, 22 counties, and 90 cities, including some of the nation’s biggest, took their money from multinationals that did business in the country.

 

The South African divestment campaign helped break the back of the Apartheid government and usher in an era of democracy and equality.

Excerpt from Go Fossil Fuel’s What is fossil fuel divestment

Similarly, our very own Guardians of the Galaxy are advocating specific institutions to divest from fossil fuel, specifically:

Their ask is to join 200,000 other supporters to request these foundations to divest

Here’s some of the best comments and how you can join (simply email / tweet!)

wellcome-divestment1

wellcome-divestment2

And it seems to be working…

They’ve had successes at

Another part of the #keepitintheground campaign is targeting Canada’s Oil Sands

fort_mckay_oil_sandsHave you had a chance to consider personal fossil fuels divestment?

Please consider these frequently asked questions:

In summary, 3 things you can do to significantly reduce your impact on climate change:

1. Fossil fuel divestment – Will you consider it for your personal portfolio?

2. Support #keepitintheground

keepitintheground

3. Agree?

Copyright Lifehack

dihan

 

Dihan Chandra

Organic Lifestyle 1.800.864.5690

June 3, 2015  
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