This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
Students Stage Day of Action As Harvard University Refuses to Divest From Fossil Fuels
Student activists with the Divest Harvard campaign blockaded one of the main entrances to Harvard University President Drew Faust’s office in Harvard Yard today, kicking off a day of non-violent action. Students are calling for an open debate about fossil fuel divestment with the Harvard Corporation after having been denied a public meeting with the administration since fall 2013, according to the groups press release.
[blackoutgallery id="332633"]
Supported by 350.org and Better Future Project, the campaign is part of a global movement including more than 400 campuses calling for endowments to divest from publicly traded coal, oil and gas companies that own the majority of the world’s carbon reserves. The fossil fuel divestment movements aims to stigmatize and decrease the influence of fossil fuel companies responsible for the worsening climate crisis.
Divest Harvard is calling on the university to:
- Immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuel companies
- Immediately divest direct holdings (currently $17.3 million) from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies
- Divest indirect holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies within five years and reinvest in socially responsible funds
Watch Tim DeChristopher speak at today's event:
The Harvard administration has repeatedly refused to participate in open and transparent dialogue about fossil fuel divestment, instead holding meetings with trustees behind closed doors and making public statements that dismiss concerns about the dangerous political influence of fossil fuel corporations.
“The university’s failure to respond to demands for an open discussion of its investments in fossil fuels shows a lack of respect for student opinion,” said Brett Roche, undergraduate and blockade participant. “If a Harvard education is truly meant to liberate students to challenge and to lead, then the administration should be ready to engage with students organizing for institutional change.”
In addition to the blockade, a day-long rally is taking place that features music and speeches by alumni, faculty, social justice groups and prominent climate activists, including Tim DeChristopher. The students are encouraging passers-by to make T-shirts, banners and other crafts as well as write letters to President Faust and members of the Harvard Corporation about why they support fossil fuel divestment.
“We want to get President Faust’s attention,” said Sidni Frederick, undergraduate and Divest Harvard member. “It’s important for the university’s leadership to know that the student body can’t wait any longer for them to begin a real dialogue about why they aren’t taking bolder steps in solving the climate crisis, a problem that threatens all of our futures.”
For more than two years much of the Harvard community has been calling for the university to divest. In 2012 72 percent of students voted for divestment and earlier this month 93 faculty members sent a strongly worded open letter to President Faust and fellows of the school admonishing the university for refusing to consider divestment.
--------
YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE
Students Rally for Fossil Fuel Divestment at Ohio State University
Divest Duke Urges University to Phase Out Investment in Fossil Fuels
Prescott College Passes Landmark Fossil Fuel Divestment Resolution
--------
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Erica Cirino
Visit a coral reef off the coast of Miami or the Maldives and you may see fields of bleached white instead of a burst of colors.
By Jason Bittel
High up in the mountains of Montana's Glacier National Park, there are two species of insect that only a fly fishermen or entomologist would probably recognize. Known as stoneflies, these aquatic bugs are similar to dragonflies and mayflies in that they spend part of their lives underwater before emerging onto the land, where they transform into winged adults less than a half inch long. However, unlike those other species, stoneflies do their thing only where cold, clean waters flow.
By Bob Curley
- The new chicken sandwiches at McDonald's, Popeyes, and Chick-fil-A all contain the MSG flavor enhancement chemical.
- Experts say MSG can enhance the so-called umami flavor of a food.
- The ingredient is found in everything from Chinese food and pizza to prepackaged sandwiches and table sauces.
McDonald's wants to get in on the chicken sandwich war currently being waged between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A.
'We Have So Much More to Do': Youth Climate Activists Declare as Global Elite Close Out Davos Forum
By Andrea Germanos
Youth climate activists marched through the streets of Davos, Switzerland Friday as the World Economic Forum wrapped up in a Fridays for Future demonstration underscoring their demand that the global elite act swiftly to tackle the climate emergency.
Trending
By Tim Radford
The year is less than four weeks old, but scientists already know that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to head upwards — as they have every year since measurements began — leading to a continuation of the Earth's rising heat.