Some Recommended Resources
- Cambridge Associates: The Fossil Fuel Divestment Discussion
- Cambridge Associates: Cambridge Associates’ Perspective on the Ongoing Fossil Fuel Divestment Discussion
- Bill McKibben, Middlebury: The Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment
- Drew Faust, President, Harvard: Fossil Fuel Divestment Statement
- Robert Stavins, Harvard: What’s the Proper Role of Individuals and Institutions in Addressing Climate Change?
- Stanford University: Statement on investment responsibility as amended through June 2013
- Joshua Humphreys, Fossil Free USA: Institutional Pathways to a Fossil-Free Investing
Other Resources
These represent a broad and disparate array of divestment resources; some are better than others. We include them only for your convenience and in hopes of educating community members about the divestment issue. Inclusion here most assuredly does not imply any sort of endorsement.
Our thanks to Follen Community Church for their collated resources.
- Climate Change
- Lowering Our Carbon Footprint
- Renewable Energy
- Divestment from Fossil Fuels and Reinvestment in Sustainable Energy Initiatives
- Get Involved
- Films and Books0
Climate Change
Commentary
- Climate Change and the Years of Living Dangerously,Institutional Investor, by Michael Peltz
- Why the Climate Movement Must Stand with Furguson,Yes magazine, August 22, 2014. (Why climate change is a social justice issue.)
- The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate, Al Gore in Rolling Stone, June 18, 2014
- Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math, Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone, July 19, 2012
- The New Abolitionists: Global warming is the great moral crisis of our time, Environmentalist and writer for The Nation Wen Stephenson in The Phoenix, March 12, 2013
- Video: MSNBC’s Commentator Christopher Hayes on Climate Change
- Parenting in the Age of Climate Change, Yale Climate Connections, April 23, 2013
- Rough Forecasts, New Yorker, May 2014
- Fossil Fuel Subsidies Dampen Shift Towards Renewables,Inter Press Service News Agency, April 9, 2014
- Wake Up! Our World is Dying and We’re All in Denial, Mary Pipher, Alternet News, October 21, 2012
Science
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for the latest IPCC report on climate change
- IPCC Press Release, "Greenhouse gas emissions accelerate despite reduction efforts." April 2014
- NOAA, Global Climate Change Indicators, latest measures from the National Climate Data Center
- Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Call to Action on Climate Change
Lowering Our Carbon Footprint
- Buying into Solar Power, No Roof Access Needed,New York Times, June 19, 2014
- Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low Carbon Living,Union of Concerned Scientists, June 2013
- What You Can Do,Union of Concerned Scientists
Plastic Water Bottles vs. Reusable Water Bottles
- Ban the Bottle—Plastic Water Bottle Facts,Ban the Bottle
- Bulletin Bottle, bulletinbottle.com's selection of reusable water bottles in many materials
Renewable Energy
- China Leads the Way in Renewable Energy Growth,Nature World News, June 26, 2014
- Renewables Provide Small Share of U.S. Electricity But They’re Growing, Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2014
Divestment from Fossil Fuels and Reinvestment in Sustainable Energy Initiatives
Divestment in the News
- British Medical Association (BMA) Votes for Fossil Fuel Divestment, the Ecologist, June 26, 2014
- Harvard should cut the hypocrisy and divest from fossil fuels, the Boston Globe, May 8, 2014
- Climate change and the fossil fuel divestiture movement, Institutional Investor, April 15, 2014
- Harvard faculty members urge university to divest from fossil fuels, the Guardian, April 10, 2014
- Divestment Point/Counterpoint, Bob Massey vs. Robert Stavins, Environment 360, March 2014
- Putting the Freeze on Global Warming, Bill Moyers and Company interview (video , 24 minutes), April 25, 2014
- We need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet, Desmond Tutu, the Guardian, 04/10/2014
- Should universities divest their fossil fuel holdings?Debate.org, March 19, 2014
- How to Stop Apocalyptic Climate Change, Todd Gitlin, Bill Moyers & Company, 11/2013
- To Divest or Not to Divest? The Pros and Cons of Fossil Fuel Divestment Forum: (video). Panelists: Chuck Collins, Tim Brennan, Bob Massey, the Rev. Jim Sherblom, Tim Smith, Lauren Ressler, Stephanie Leighton, May 2013
- Go Fossil-Free Resource Page
- Debunking Myths about Fossil Fuel Divestment
- 11 Reasons to Divest from the Fossil Fuel Industry
- Top 200 Fossil Fuel Companies
Divestment in the News
- Weekly updated list of news articles on divestment (maintained by 350MA)
- Fossil Fuel Divestment: The Dominos are Starting to Fall,Blue Mass Group, May 22, 2014
Fossil-Free or Sustainable Funds
- Fossil Fuel-Free Index Will Help Investors Manage Climate Risk, Forbes, 5/1/2014
- Fossil Free Index, April 2014
- Go Fossil-Free Personal Divestment Roadmap
- Green Century
- Pax World Global Environmental Markets Fund
- Portfolio 21: Offers fossil-fuel-free mutual fund that also looks at energy efficiency
- Sentinel Investments
- Trillium Core Fund
- Sheldon Green Alpha Fund
- RBC Global Access Capital Community Investment Fund
- CCM’s Community Development Fund
- Access Capital Community Investment Fund
- CRA Qualified Investment Fund: Focuses on community development, including affordable housing, job creation and neighborhood revitalization.
- Wikipedia: Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), Mutual and Exchange Traded SRI Funds
Fiduciary Responsibility and Financial Aspects of Divestment
- The Financial Case for Divestment from Fossil Fuel Companies by Endowment Fiduciaries by Bevis Longstreth, Former SEC Commissioner, Huffington Post, November 2013.
- Divesting in fossil fuels shouldn't harm endowments, report finds, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 29, 2013
- “Economic Resistance”—a.k.a. divestment—is as American as apple pie. Interview with Bob Massey in the Grist, November 2013.
- Reason, Rationality, and Fiduciary Duty, Steve Lydenberg, Initiative for Responsible Investment, Harvard Kennedy School, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
Stranded Assets and the Carbon Bubble
- The Coming Climate Crash. Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession, Henry M. Paulson Jr., New York Times, June 21, 2014
- The Carbon Tracker Initiative
- Carbon bubble will plunge the world into another financial crisis: Report, the Guardian
- Carbon-intensive investors risk $6trillion bubble, study says, Bloomberg News
- Fossil fuels and vested interests: A society in denial, the Guardian
- Firms own ‘unburnable fossil fuels’, BBC News
- Seven Reasons to Sell Your Oil, Gas, and Coal Stock (Infographic)
- After bubbles in Dotcom and housing, here’s the carbon bubble, Wall Street Journal
- Energy sector seen as threat to stability, Financial Times
- Earth Day debate: Is there a ‘carbon bubble’?, New York Times
- Unburnable Carbon: Are the world’s financial markets carrying a carbon bubble?
Big Oil vs. Sustainable Energy Initiatives
- Koch Brothers, big utilities, attack solar, green energy policies,Los Angles Times, April 19, 2014
Get Involved—Climate Action and Email Info and Discussion Groups
- 350MA.org: Independent grassroots project of the Better Future Project, working to address climate change at the local and state levels with legislation and actions. There are nodes across the state, including Cambridge and Concord.
- 350.org
- Citizen’s Climate Lobby: Working to create the political will for a stable climate and to empower individuals to exercise their personal and political power. A local Lexington chapter has just been formed. For more information, contact bmw@citizensclimatelobby.org.
- Mothers Out Front, Mothers, grandmothers, and other caregivers who can no longer be silent and still
about the very real danger that climate change poses to our children’s and grandchildren’s
future. (Lexington chapter starting up)
- Mothers vs. Climate Change: April 6 Boston Globe article on Mothers Out Front
Films and Books
- Carbon Nation (2010): An optimistic (and witty) discovery of what people are already doing, what we as a nation could be doing and what the world needs to do to prevent (or at least slow down) the impending climate crisis.
- Chasing Ice: Follow National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.
- Climate of Change (2010): A documentary focused on the efforts of everyday people all over the world who are making a difference in the fight against global warming.
- Bidder 70: A film about young UU environmentalist Tim DeChrisopher, who derailed an illegal BLM oil and gas auction in a courageous act of civil disobedience.
- Climate Changed by Phillipe Squarzoni: Graphic novel on climate change
- Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living: Book containing expert advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists
- Oil and Honey: Washington Post review of Bill McKibben’s book