BIDDEFORD — In the wake of Tuesday’s release of the National Climate Assessment, which warns of the dangers of climate change, Stanford University has become the most recent university to announce that its endowment will not make any direct investments in coal companies.
Student protesters at universities around the country have called for the end of investment in fossil fuels by their alma maters, and the University of New England in Biddeford is no exception.
Including Stanford, 12 colleges have committed to divesting, including two Maine schools, Unity College in Unity and the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.
Fossil Free UNE started in April 2013.
Although the university doesn’t release a list of its investments, including whether it invests in companies that produce fossil fuels, members of Fossil Free UNE assume that the school invests in such companies.
The main goal of the organization, stated UNE student Katie Santarpio, Class of 2016, in a May 8 email, is to encourage UNE to pull any of its investments from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.
“But,” she said, “our campaign is about more than just divestment. It’s about becoming aware of our environmental and political surroundings.
“UNE is an institution dedicated solely to educating us and trying to make our futures brighter; why, then, would they invest in companies that are striving to achieve the exact opposite?”
Several years ago, UNE President Danielle Ripich signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2008, committing the university to sustainability and achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.
To be truly committed to this cause, said Santarpio, the university should take greater action, like making more environmentally and socially responsible investments.
The divestment issue is of great importance, not just locally but to the world at large, stated UNE student Kate Hruby, Class of 2016.
“Divestment from fossil fuels is really the moral issue of our times,” she stated in May 8 email. “As sea levels rise, weather patterns become more polarized with droughts and floods, natural disasters become more frequent, environmental health issues become greater, economies flounder and species extinction increases, our way of life will change, and not for the better.”
The National Climate Assessment makes clear the implications and danger of not taking environmental issues seriously, she said. The report concludes that “the evidence of human-induced climate change continues to strengthen and that impacts are increasing across the country,” presenting a major challenge for society.
The report highlights that work like that conducted by groups like Fossil Free UNE in making people aware of climate change is important. This is why the progress the group has made since its formation is significant, said Santarpio.
During the spring semester, with the work of five student interns and a small host of other involved members, the UNE Environmental Council passed a resolution calling for the council’s support of the university divesting from the top 200 fossil fuel companies, she stated in a May 3 email.
In addition, stated Santarpio, the undergraduate student government passed a second resolution a few weeks ago to form a committee dedicated to researching the proposal.
“We hope to continue our work until our school listens,” she said.
The interns and other group members have worked to create awareness about the issue to students around campus, she said. Through a petition drive, the group has gathered more than 150 student signatures in support of divestment.
“We were also involved with decorating the school cafeteria during Earth Week with an ”˜activist’ theme, and spoofed fossil fuel company logos to then be covered up by our own logo as well as other environmental campaigns going on throughout the U.S,” stated Hruby in a May 3 email.
“We’ve also been sure to market this campaign in economic and health related ways as well,” she wrote, “rather than just environmental ways to show how broad the issue of fossil fuel divestment can be.”
Regarding the National Climate Assessment, Hruby wrote, “It is a relief to read something so blatantly telling us that we have to change. Because that is what Fossil Free UNE and the rest of the fossil fuel divestment movement is here to do: tell the world that we are no longer sitting back and letting destruction overcome us.”
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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