fusclimate Mailing List: Fwd: An LTE on Divestment

[Scott Jackson (sjackzen46]

Another brick in the wall about divestment from a member of the Union of
Concerned Scientists. Perhaps he's more persuasive than I. (Terry Hokenson
is a fellow Spark who works with MN350 and MN Interfaith Power & Light.
Getting to know people like Terry - a great guy - was another reason I
recommended that folks in MUUSJA/CCC participate in the Spring Be the Spark
workshp series. The second session meets this Sunday, March 9, so there's
still time to sign up and join in.)

Scott Jackson
sjackzen46 [at] gmail.com


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Terry Hokenson <twhokwindsun [at] gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 9:44 PM
Subject: An LTE on Divestment
To: mn350-tar-sands-team [at] googlegroups.com


I thought this LTE from the Quaker publication, *Friends Journal*, gave a
concise argument for divestment in response to a common criticism against
it.

>From a LTE regarding divestment and climate change:

  "I am a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an organization that
is very active with climate change issues, and which is also trying to deal
with this divestment problem. I think it is important to understand the
reasoning and purpose behind this effort. We would like to be guilt-free
and refrain from profiting from
the damage being done to the Earth, to the human race, and to other life on
the planet. However, we turn on our cars every day; we heat our homes with
fossil fuels;
and we continue to waste at a prodigious rate. Pointing the finger at the
fossil fuel companies could be seen as somewhat hypocritical and
disingenuous.

  "However, these companies have been guilty of lying about the scientific
evidence behind this problem, and they are damaging our political process
with money and poisonous misinformation. So I think it is both important
and reasonable for organizations that are speaking out on climate change to
divest themselves of
fossil fuel company securities, however symbolic and technically difficult
the action may be.

  "It is one way we can try to move past the debate over what is happening
to our world and to focus on what we can do about it."

Glenn Thomas
Louisville, Ky
Friends Journal, Jan. 2014, p. 4

Terry Hokenson