Big Green divestment call

I came across an article by Naomi Klein on The Nation magazine regarding a call for Big Green, that is the large mainstream environmental organisations, to divest in fossil fuels. According to this article, several mainstream environmental have stopped investing in fossil fuel companies, others have not. This article summarises the main points and provides a link to the original article.

Fossil-Free Movement and other divestment movements

Launched just six months ago, the movements which demand fossil fuel divestment are really active. So far, 305 universities and colleges as well as 100 cities and states in the United States are involved. The divestment demand has also spread to Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. So far the divestment movement has already claimed successes:

Four US colleges have pledged to divest from fossil fuel shares and bonds
Ten US cities, including San Fransisco and Seattle, have made similar commitments

Although there are details to work out, such as how to guarantee a firm commitment to honour these pledges, it can be seen that there is a strong support for this cause. The mission statement of the Fossil-Free Movement is:

If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that educational and religious institutions, city and state governments, and other institutions that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels.
Fossil-Free Movement mission statement

Environmental organisations who have not invested in fossil fuels

The following organisations have neither invested in nor hold endowments in fossil fuel companies:

Greenpeace
350.org
Friends of the Earth
Rainforest Action Network
Oil Change International
Climate Reality Project
Many smaller organisations

In addition, they either do not take corporate donations or place severe restrictions on them that extractive industries are easily ruled out and would never qualify. Some also own a few shares in fossil fuel companies, but only for the purpose of causing trouble in shareholder meetings.

Environmental organisations who have invested in fossil fuels

Some of the other powerful environmental organisations did act as if they had a stake in the fossil fuels industry, lead the movement to various false "solutions": carbon dioxide trading, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide offsetting, "clean coal", natural gas as a transitional fuel. This created the illusion of progress whilst allowing the fossil fuel companies to continue mining, drilling and hydraulic fracturing (better known as "fracking"), business as usual and no change in other words. The environmental groups, along with the amount they have invested are all shown in this other article on The Nation.

The role of foundations and endowment funds

Purists would say that no green group is completely clean, since virtually every group takes money from endowment funds which are built on fossil fuel empire-foundations and continue to do so. The largest foundation of them all, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had at least $958.6 million invested in just two fossil fuel giants, ExxonMobil and BP, in 2012.

Klein asks how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation can fund research on malaria while investing in one of the biggest contributors towards climate change and increases in malaria. I would add: Let us not forget that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the same foundation that has also invested heavily in GMOs and Monsanto (not to mention Coca Cola, McDonalds and vaccinations).

Divestment groups call for Big Green to divest

Klein comments that the divestment question has taken these groups by surprise because for decades they were able to make deals with polluters. Nowadays people are fed up with being told that the best way to fight climate change is to change their light bulbs and buy carbon offsets, while leaving the big polluters undisturbed. And they are eager to take the fight directly to the industry most responsible for the climate crisis by divestment in fossil fuels, hence the student divestment movement and environmental groups forming Fossil Free.

For a long time, forming partnerships with polluters was how the green groups proved they were serious. But the young people demanding divestment and the grassroots organisations campaigning for divestment in fossil fuels are calling for Big Green to cut ties with fossil fuels.

Original article

Read the original article in full on The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/article/174143/time-big-green-go-fossil-free

Acknowledgements

This article is a summary of the original article, which was written by Naomi Klein on The Nation. The original article is copyright © The Nation 2013. Under the Fair Use provisions of the US Copyright Act (1976), this article summarises and provides comments on the original article.