The fossil fuel divestment movement is taking the world by storm. What started four years ago with students at a few US college campuses asking their universities to stop funding an industry whose business model is causing planetary disaster, has rapidly grown into an international movement with more than 500 active campaigns. But what has the divestment movement achieved so far?
1 – It got public institutions to ditch their fossil fuel holdings
Investors with a collective worth of more than $50 billion have pledged to drop their fossil fuel holdings – and that does not include thousands of individuals who have moved their money. The most symbolic commitment came from the heirs of the Rockefeller family, who made their fortune from oil. They announced that it was no longer morally acceptable or financially prudent to put their money in oil, gas and coal. This is just one example of the divestment commitments the movement has triggered. The immediate financial impact of these decisions will not bankrupt the industry. However, every institution taking a stance helps to erode the fossil fuel industry’s social acceptance and consequently their political power. Continue reading Carbon bubbles in the boardroom→
Canadian spokesman breaks news at Detroit gathering.
In less than two weeks, the long-awaited final report on women’s religious orders in the United States will be released.
According to Vatican spokesperson Father Thomas Rosica, a press conference will be held at the Vatican December 16. At that press conference, three American nuns will join Vatican officials to publicly reveal the final report of a five-year investigation of congregations of Catholic sisters in the U.S. The inquiry was initiated in 2009 under now-retired Cardinal Franc Rodé, following concerns by many that some congregations of women religious had become too liberal and had abandoned traditional religious lifestyles. Continue reading Vatican’s Report on U.S. Nuns Will Be Released December 16→
“This pattern of double standards, of privatizing profits and socializing disaster runs through the pattern of corporate rule being institutionalized since the Bhopal tragedy.”
December 3, 2014, marks the 30th anniversary of the terrible Bhopal gas tragedy, which killed more than 3,000 people almost immediately, another 8,000 in the following days, and more than 20,000 in the last three decades. Continue reading Bhopal: A Metaphor→