93 Harvard Faculty Members Call On the University To Divest From Fossil Fuels

Daniel_Stuckey writes: "One hundred faculty members at one of the nation's most renowned university have signed an open letter calling on Harvard to divest its holdings in fossil fuel companies. Harvard's is the largest university endowment in the world. For the last few years, a national movement has called on on universities, foundations, and municipalities to divest from fossil fuels. Led by students, as well as organized groups like 350.org, it has seen a number of significant victories — at least nine colleges and over a dozen cities have pulled their investments in companies that extract or burn fossil fuels like coal and oil."

Comments

Re:What does it mean to divest?

[Antique Geekmeister]

> Now, now. I think it is news that at least 93 members of the Harvard faculty are so ignorant of how the stock market works that they don't notice that any divestment by any party, by necessity, is automatically matched by an equal investment by the counterparties who buy the stock from the divestor.

This is outright nonsense. Refusals by large investors, especially if those refusals catch on among other inivestores, affect investment trading and income profoundly. Please review the history of divestment in South Africa for more details, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D....

Re:So how many of them are actually qualified

[operagost]

Bill Nye is a mechanical engineer, yet the Slashdot hive mind considers him an authority on AGW.

Re:Especially solar cells and carbon fiber windmil

[ganjadude]

The kennedys shot down that idea because they didnt want to ruin their view. But they are democrats so they get a pass