The Harvard Corporation and Fossil Fuel Divestment | James Engell

James Engell   Professor, Harvard University Posted: 10/23/2013 12:00 pm

In his Annual Message to Congress December 1, 1862, discussing slavery, Abraham Lincoln remarked, “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.” Lincoln floated a plan to end slavery over 37 years, in part through colonization of Africa.

The Harvard Corporation has a strong presumption against divestment, as it should. Otherwise, every cause and political debate would exert leverage over investments of an institution that rightly tries to avoid political stances, except, perhaps, on matters such as affirmative action.

But climate change caused by human activity has been politicized only in order to deny it. Politicizing it does not make it a political issue. Slavery was politicized, as segregation was, and apartheid. In a genuine political issue, at least two points of view hold lasting merit, and deliberation and debate can result in compromise.

The fact of climate change caused by human beings is, in that sense, emphatically not political. It is rather an issue of science, humanity, and morality. The science is clear, just ask any reputable scientist, including many at Harvard. Our actions will supply the humanity and morality — or lack of those qualities.

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Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Fossil Free About the Fossil Free Campaign – Fossil Free

http://gofossilfree.org

If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that educational and religious institutions, city and state governments, and other institutions that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels.

We want institutions to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies, and divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years.

200 publicly-traded companies hold the vast majority of the world’s proven coal, oil and gas reserves. Those are the companies we’re asking our institutions to divest from. Our demands to these companies are simple, because they reflect the stark truth of climate science:

• They need immediately to stop exploring for new hydrocarbons.
• They need to stop lobbying in Washington and state capitols across the country to preserve their special breaks.
• Most importantly, they need to pledge to keep 80% of their current reserves underground forever.

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Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

When the oil runs out

John Gerber

Uploaded on Jan 18, 2009

A video for the UMass Sustainable Living class on peak oil.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Sprawling From Grace, Driven To Madness

David Edwards

Uploaded on May 24, 2007

On DVD April 21st, pre-order now at the Cinema Libre Studio Store http://store.cinemalibrestore.com/spr…

This feature length documentary explores the ravages of American suburban sprawl, what America has lost as a result, and the perils we face if we don’t change the way in which we build our cities. Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security by cheap energy that has allowed us to spread endlessly into our landscape. We are trapped behind the wheels of our automobiles. With the demand for oil outpacing the Earth’s ability to supply it, this suburban living arrangement will fail. America’s love affair with the automobile is straining and, like Nero, we are fiddling away, confident that tomorrow will be as promising as today. The wake up call is coming.

Featured in this film are, Former Massechusettes Governor Michael Dukakis, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Famed Urban Designer Peter Calthorpe, Author of the Long Emergency James Howard Kunstler, and Former President Bill Clinton.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Human Footprint Urban Sprawl Deforestation Global Warming

123456dl

Uploaded on Jun 9, 2007

Thanks to sell off band linkin park, that no longer allow me to put this video with the ‘what i’ve done’ song. Its not like I was not making money out of this. I regret I bought your DVD. Urban Sprawl use too much land and therefor harvest large quantities of forest. Human Footprints is a video that shows what kind of markes we left behin and how urban sprawl has a major roleplay in wasting our land that leads to Global Warming.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Oregon Experience: The Modoc War

OPBWeb

Published on Jul 26, 2012

Oregon Experience: The Modoc War examines one of the most dramatic American Indian wars in U.S. history.
The Modoc War began in November 1872 when the military tried to force a small band of Modoc Indians, led by Captain Jack, to a reservation.
The Modocs took refuge in an ancient lava flow that became their stronghold. Today it is a part of the Lava Beds National Monument.
The Modocs knew the land and used it to their advantage. Twisting lava tubes and hidden caves created the perfect hideout for fifty-five Modoc warriors and their families.
Indian policy was the subject of national debate and many humanitarians sided with the Modocs. Then the Indians attacked a peace commission, resulting in the only U.S. General killed in an Indian conflict. The government cracked down hard, calling for swift punishment.
By the end, the Modocs were fighting off a force of nearly 1,000 men, made up of both military soldiers and civilian volunteers.
Again and again, the small band of Indians overcame incredible odds to protect their way of life. But it could not last. Their world was about to change forever.
Oregon Experience revisits the battle scenes, and uses rare historical images and original wood cut drawings from the period. Additionally, interviews with Modoc descendants, national historians and written first-hand accounts, bring the Modoc War to life.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Bechtel History

nicogbv   Uploaded on Oct 27, 2006
Brief video on the american construction group Bechtel

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Gambling with Civilization, Paul Krugman

Gambling with Civilization

The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World

by William D. Nordhaus   Yale University Press, 378 pp., $30.00

1.   Fortyyears ago a brilliant young Yale economist named William Nordhaus published a landmark paper, “The Allocation of Energy Resources,” that opened new frontiers in economic analysis. Nordhaus argued that to think clearly about the economics of exhaustible resources like oil and coal, it was necessary to look far into the future, to assess their value as they become more scarce—and that this look into the future necessarily involved considering not just available resources and expected future economic growth, but likely future technologies as well. Moreover, he developed a method for incorporating all of this information—resource estimates, long-run economic forecasts, and engineers’ best guesses about the costs of future technologies—into a quantitative model of energy prices over the long term.

The resource and engineering data for Nordhaus’s paper were for the most part compiled by his research assistant, a twenty-year-old undergraduate, who spent long hours immured in Yale’s Geology Library, poring over Bureau of Mines circulars and the like. It was an invaluable apprenticeship. My reasons for bringing up this bit of intellectual history, however, go beyond personal disclosure—although readers of this review should know that Bill Nordhaus was my first professional mentor. For if one looks back at “The Allocation of Energy Resources,” one learns two crucial lessons. First, predictions are hard, especially about the distant future. Second, sometimes such predictions must be made nonetheless.

Looking back at “Allocation” after four decades, what’s striking is how wrong the technical experts were about future technologies. For many years all their errors seemed to have been on the side of overoptimism, especially on oil production and nuclear power. More recently, the surprises have come on the other side, with fracking having the biggest immediate impact on markets, but with the growing competitiveness of wind and solar power—neither of which figured in “Allocation” at all—perhaps the more fundamental news. For what it’s worth, current oil prices, adjusted for overall inflation, are about twice Nordhaus’s prediction, while coal and especially natural gas prices are well below his baseline.

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Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Noam Chomsky (1997) “On Propaganda”

The Chomsky Videos

Published on Oct 2, 2013

Date – June 6, 1997

Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Media

Are the Koch Brothers the New “Copper Kings”

E120,