Divest! Divest! Divest!

Wonderful idea.
Fossil fuels under fire: Divestment push picks up steam

This week, Syracuse University announced its $1.2 billion endowment plans to drop all fossil fuel stocks. A number of smaller institutions have made similar pledges, including Hampshire College, University of Maine and The New School. This week students at Bowdoin College in Maine staged a sit-in at the president's office in an effort to get the school to divest from fossil fuels.

The Syracuse decision shows the divestment movement is "entering a new, more escalated phase," says Jamie Henn, communications director at 350.org, a non-profit focused on climate-related campaigns and projects. "It's a billion-dollar endorsement of the idea and takes us into another league in terms of the types of universities that are beginning to come on board."

Henn expects "big actions" this spring on divestment in the University of California system, as well as "iconic East Coast schools" such as Swathmore and Amherst. Furthermore, he notes institutions such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, religious groups like the World Council of Churches and municipalities like San Francisco County have made similar divestment pledges.

I support them 100%.

But Stanford is viewed as a special case and most other universities with major endowments, notably Harvard and Yale, have declined to join the divestment movement.

"While I share [students'] belief in the importance of addressing climate change, I do not believe, nor do my colleagues on the Corporation, that university divestment from the fossil fuel industry is warranted or wise," Harvard President Drew Faust declared in 2013.

Don't give up the fight! With enough pressure, even Harvard and Yale will fold.

Steven Davidoff, a law professor at U.C. Berkeley, puts it this way: "Endowments are there to make money for the school. Anytime you make decisions based not on returns but other [motives] you're going to risk not getting the money you need to make the school run."'

Opponents such as Davidoff further argue there's better ways for student groups to fight for the environment. "It might make everyone feel good but won't do a lot of good," he says of the divestment effort. "I doubt any coal company is going to go out of business. We have a legislative process and if you want to effect change that's what you do."

Don't listen to these corporate shills bankrolled by Big Oil. You can win this fight! Look at the tobacco companies, they were wrecked by public pressure and divestment efforts. Now that you are close to achieving victory, the opponents will come out of the woodwork to fight divestment, so you must be stronger than ever!

Students of America, you must take the fight one step further. Force your endowments not only to divest, but to go short! If you are truly opposed to fossil fuels, you must take a short position to drive the prices even lower. The survival of the planet is at stake!

It isn't enough to do nothing, you must do something, and that something is to short fossil fuel stocks. Your universities have tens of billions of dollars, they can easily afford an organized campaign to short fossil fuel stocks. Notice it's law and finance professors who oppose it: they're bought off by Big Oil! Don't believe their lies! Now is the time to strike, while the oil industry is suffering. Go short or go home!