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To: President Gregory Hamann

Divest Linn-Benton Community College from Fossil Fuels!

Immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies.

Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years.

Why is this important?

Here are 10 Reasons why we need to call on Linn-Benton Community College to Divest from Fossil Fuels:

1. If it’s wrong to wreck the planet, than it’s also wrong to profit from that wreckage.
2. We shouldn't be investing in companies that are spending millions of dollars lobbying against clean energy solutions and millions more funding climate denial and anti-science think tanks.
3. The fossil fuel industry’s business plan is to burn five times more carbon dioxide than scientists say we can safely emit and still keep global warming below the 2°C tipping point.
4. Companies like Chevron, Exxon, and Peabody Coal are polluting our land, air, and water, putting our communities and children at risk.
5. Big Oil likes to say that it’s greening its operations, but that’s just PR: no major oil company is investing a significant part of its profits into renewable energy research.
6. Divestment can have a major political impact by taking away the social license of the fossil fuel industry, turning Big Oil into Big Tobacco, an industry that no politician wants to be seen with.
7. Divestment campaigns have made a big impact before, including in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
8. Divestment doesn't pose a serious financial risk to a portfolio and opens the door for more sustainable investments that not only get a good return but also help our communities and the planet.
9. Investing in the fossil fuel industry is increasingly risky: financial analysts are now warning us about a “carbon bubble” that could result when government’s decide to regulate greenhouse gas emission and fossil fuel companies are forced to leave their coal, oil and gas reserves underground, tanking their share price.
10. There’s a growing fossil fuel divestment movement that can amplify all of our individual actions: over 300 campuses and 100 cities and states have joined the campaign — and we’re just getting warmed up.

Albany, OR, United States

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Updates

2015-09-07 22:33:29 -0400

10 signatures reached