Dear Denver Post’s Editorial Board,
I am a current undergraduate student at DU, and like many other students, I find your editorial on the proposed divestment from fossil fuels by DU confusing.
In your article you write: “We hope trustees defend their investment practices while finding ways to also invest in green energy companies that make it more feasible to wean ourselves from fuels that harm the planet.”
I am curious; how can DU help combat climate change as it continues to profit off of climate destruction by investing in fossil fuels? Our dependence on fossil fuels results in not only climate change, but also oil spills, acid rain and air pollution. If DU is really committed to the “public good,” they should no longer invest in the fuels that are destroying the planet, but instead invest in just and sustainable solutions.
In your article you also state: “It would be cruel to poor and hardworking people in our country and impoverished nations beyond our borders [to stop depending on fossil fuel].”
It seems that you are not aware that climate change disproportionately affects the poor.
According to the UN’s climate panel called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) fifth assessment report published in 2013, “people who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change.”
One of the many effects of climate change is the increase in natural disasters. According to Maarten van Aalst, the director of the Red Cross Climate Center, the number of natural disasters between 2000 and 2009 was around three times higher than in the 1980s.
“It’s the poor suffering more during disasters, and of course the same hazard causes a much bigger disaster in poorer countries, making it even poorer,” van Aalst told The Guardian.
I think we owe it to the poor and hardworking people in our country and in the nations around us to stop investing in their suffering.
DU claims to be dedicated to the public good, but how can they be doing so when they are profiting off of the violence and injustice maintained by the fossil fuel industry?
Maybe you’re right, Denver Post Editorial Board. It’s not clear that DU’s divestment from fossil fuels would have any impact on climate change, but students’ desire to divest goes beyond that. We no longer want to take part in the current and future destruction on our climate that has been created by fossil fuels.
Sincerely,
Grace Carson, DU Undergraduate Student, Journalism and Political Science Majors and English Minor
