Editor,
For those of us who worry about the climate crisis, the most alarming trend a few years ago was the declining fraction of Americans who believed humans are causing climate change. That was, no doubt, a result of the concerted propaganda effort of individuals and corporations with an interest in obscuring the truth.
Fortunately, that trend is reversing as more and more people believe what they see about weather extremes and better understand the message from climate scientists. But now the alarming thing is that, despite growing public awareness of the looming catastrophe, so little is being done about it. A group of us here in New Mexico are following the dictum “Think globally, act locally,” and are calling on UNM to divest itself of all financial holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies. The idea is simple: Some small fraction — probably less than 10 percent — of the endowment is now invested in oil, gas and coal companies. These shares should be sold and the proceeds redirected to other equally profitable but morally less questionable investments.
We are members of 350.org, a group founded by Bill McKibben, who recently said, “If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, then it’s wrong to profit from the wreckage.” We have been collecting signatures on a “Divest UNM” petition at the Albuquerque UNM campus and plan to present it very soon to President Robert Frank, along with a letter laying out our arguments.
The main argument proceeds from the fact that the current reserves of fossil fuels around the world are five times the amount that would raise the atmospheric temperature to a dangerous level. It is widely accepted by governments around the world that exceeding four degrees Fahrenheit above the historical average will result in consequences that may be beyond our ability to adapt to. And these fossil fuel providers plan to sell us five times that amount. Clearly, their business model will wreck the climate, and to make things worse, these companies, with their prodigious political clout, have resisted all public policy efforts to avoid this catastrophe.
In our letter we say to President Frank, “UNM owns stock in these companies. It should not. … We believe the University should, on a timely basis, divest its endowment of all holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies. We are asking you to become an advocate for this position, to present the question to the relevant decision-makers and to lead the effort to make this a policy of the University.”
We do not believe this action will have a significant impact on the overall rate of return that UNM sees from its investments, and whatever minor impact there might be is fully justified. It is difficult to imagine a moral framework that can reconcile the University’s stated commitment to developing young people with a simultaneous ownership position in an industry that is systematically choking off their future.
Kenneth Bergeron
350.org member
