In May of 2010 I wrote an oped called Spill Baby Spill. In that piece that was published in several print and online news outlets around the country called for churches, universities and individuals to divest their portfolios of fossil fuel industries.– It said in part:
“We must put our elected and appointed officials on notice that this is the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. It is time we rejected the morally bankrupt arguments of an industry that is destroying not only our environmental and economic future, but the democratic process.
Vote with your wallet and purse. Sell mutual funds that include fossil fuel securities. Tell charitable foundations, your churches, and higher education institutions to divest portfolios of oil stocks. Invest in alternative energy companies instead. This amounts to an investment in yourself, your community, the environment, and your children’s future.”
350.org through its go fossil free campaign has been organizing students around the country to compel universities to divest their portfolios of investments in fossil fuels. Apartheid in South Africa was ended in large part to a campaign to divest South African companies from University portfolios in the US and around the world.