[Dialogue] fossil fuel di-vestment movement

[Ellie Stock]

  Dear Friends,

 
Exciting news: today, we’re partnering with the City of Seattle and the Mayors Innovation Project to announce that eleven cities have committed to pursue fossil fuel divestment!
 
Can you take a minute to click on the image below to share the news on social media?
 

 
Click to share this image on Facebook
 
Let’s be clear: our work in these cities isn’t over. We’ll need to follow-up with these Mayors to make sure that they really keep their city funds out of fossil fuel stocks and push the pensions that provide for their employees to also divest. But today is a big step forward.
 
The cities committing to divestment today extend coast to coast. From tiny Bayfield, Wisconsin, which has just 530 residents, to international icons, like the City of San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to push the city’s retirement fund to divest $583 million from the fossil fuel industry.
 
In Richmond, CA, Mayor McLaughlin is committing to divestment because she’s sick of seeing the health and safety of her community put at risk by the giant Chevron refinery on the edge of the city.
 
In Ithaca, NY, 26-year old Mayor Svante Myrick, one of the country’s youngest mayors and youngest African-American politicians, committed to divestment earlier this week after meeting with a group of high school students who asked him to protect their shared future.
 
Click here to help spread the news.
 
Today’s announcement sends a powerful message to the fossil fuel industry: if you’re going to try and take away our planet, we’re going to try and take away your money. We’re no longer just playing defense against dirty projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, we’re going on offense, too.
 
It also sends an equally important message to other cities and institutions: if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it’s also wrong to profit from that wreckage. And with some of the most innovative cities in the country now firmly on board with this campaign, there should be no excuse for college trustees or other cities to keep dragging their feet on divestment.
 
Together, we kicked off this divestment campaign last fall and have spread it across the nation to over 300 colleges and universities. Now, the effort is moving off campus: there are over 100 petitions up on the GoFossilFree.org website targeting cities, states, and religious institutions. If you haven’t already started or signed a petition, now is the time.
 
Click here to find or start a fossil fuel divestment campaign in your community.
 
If you’re already running a local divestment campaign, now’s a great time to use the excitement of today’s announcement to spread your petition far and wide. You can find the petition you created by clicking on the link above.
 
When we started this effort, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping end apartheid in South Africa, told us this:
 
“The divestment movement played a key role in helping liberate South Africa. The corporations understood the logics of money even when they weren’t swayed by the dictates of morality. Climate change is a deeply moral issue too, of course...Once again, we can join together as a world and put pressure where it counts.”
 
With today’s announcement, that pressure is coming to bear in powerful ways. It’s still too early to tell if this new divestment movement will have the political impact necessary to weaken the stranglehold the fossil fuel industry has over our government, but thanks to your hard work, we’re off to an incredible start.
 
If you haven’t already joined in this effort, visit gofossilfree.org to get started.
 
Many, many thanks,
 
Jay Carmona
 
PS. If you’re a student divestment campaigner, don’t forget: we’re having a national strategy chat at 6:00 PDT/9:00 EDT tonight. Click here to join in.
  	
 	
350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for email alerts. You can help power our work by getting involved locally, sharing your story, and donating here. 
 
 	
To stop receiving emails from 350.org, click here.
 
 
 
  
 




  Dear Friends,

 
Exciting news: today, we’re partnering with the City of Seattle and the Mayors Innovation Project to announce that eleven cities have committed to pursue fossil fuel divestment!
 
Can you take a minute to click on the image below to share the news on social media?
 

 
Click to share this image on Facebook
 
Let’s be clear: our work in these cities isn’t over. We’ll need to follow-up with these Mayors to make sure that they really keep their city funds out of fossil fuel stocks and push the pensions that provide for their employees to also divest. But today is a big step forward.
 
The cities committing to divestment today extend coast to coast. From tiny Bayfield, Wisconsin, which has just 530 residents, to international icons, like the City of San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to push the city’s retirement fund to divest $583 million from the fossil fuel industry.
 
In Richmond, CA, Mayor McLaughlin is committing to divestment because she’s sick of seeing the health and safety of her community put at risk by the giant Chevron refinery on the edge of the city.
 
In Ithaca, NY, 26-year old Mayor Svante Myrick, one of the country’s youngest mayors and youngest African-American politicians, committed to divestment earlier this week after meeting with a group of high school students who asked him to protect their shared future.
 
Click here to help spread the news.
 
Today’s announcement sends a powerful message to the fossil fuel industry: if you’re going to try and take away our planet, we’re going to try and take away your money. We’re no longer just playing defense against dirty projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, we’re going on offense, too.
 
It also sends an equally important message to other cities and institutions: if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it’s also wrong to profit from that wreckage. And with some of the most innovative cities in the country now firmly on board with this campaign, there should be no excuse for college trustees or other cities to keep dragging their feet on divestment.
 
Together, we kicked off this divestment campaign last fall and have spread it across the nation to over 300 colleges and universities. Now, the effort is moving off campus: there are over 100 petitions up on the GoFossilFree.org website targeting cities, states, and religious institutions. If you haven’t already started or signed a petition, now is the time.
 
Click here to find or start a fossil fuel divestment campaign in your community.
 
If you’re already running a local divestment campaign, now’s a great time to use the excitement of today’s announcement to spread your petition far and wide. You can find the petition you created by clicking on the link above.
 
When we started this effort, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping end apartheid in South Africa, told us this:
 
“The divestment movement played a key role in helping liberate South Africa. The corporations understood the logics of money even when they weren’t swayed by the dictates of morality. Climate change is a deeply moral issue too, of course...Once again, we can join together as a world and put pressure where it counts.”
 
With today’s announcement, that pressure is coming to bear in powerful ways. It’s still too early to tell if this new divestment movement will have the political impact necessary to weaken the stranglehold the fossil fuel industry has over our government, but thanks to your hard work, we’re off to an incredible start.
 
If you haven’t already joined in this effort, visit gofossilfree.org to get started.
 
Many, many thanks,
 
Jay Carmona
 
PS. If you’re a student divestment campaigner, don’t forget: we’re having a national strategy chat at 6:00 PDT/9:00 EDT tonight. Click here to join in.
  	
 	
350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for email alerts. You can help power our work by getting involved locally, sharing your story, and donating here. 
 
 	
To stop receiving emails from 350.org, click here.
 
 
 
  
 

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