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To: President Fitts and the Board of Tulane University

Tulane University: Go Fossil Free!

Only in New Orleans do French-Creole cuisine, jazz music, second lines, Mardi Gras Indians, French- Spanish- and early-American architecture, Creole ethnicity and Sazerac cocktails come together to create a culture that is unique and irreplaceable. The prospect of dramatic sea level rise due to anthropogenic climate change threatens this way of life. Tulane stands as a leader of New Orleans and has a responsibility to preserve it.

Only at Tulane University is there a billion-dollar endowment that supports the fossil fuel companies whose activities imperil the very city Tulane claims to empower.

Because it is unconscionable to pay for our education with investments that will condemn New Orleans, this nation, and the planet to climate disaster, we call on Tulane University to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds.

Why is this important?

Climate change is accelerating.

We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently; in 2012 alone our country experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50bn in damages.

Experts agree that global warming caused by humans burning fossil fuels will continue to accelerate and intensify these tragic climate disasters. The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming; we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for several thousand years.

As public pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on Tulane University to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds. We believe such action on behalf of Tulane University will not only be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, but also for the wellbeing of its current and future graduating classes, who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by climate chaos.

Tulane University

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Updates

2013-09-30 13:02:32 -0400

1,000 signatures reached

2013-08-14 18:04:50 -0400

500 signatures reached