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To: President Berkey and the Board of Trustees

Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Go Fossil Free!

We demand that Worcester Polytechnic Institute immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and 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?

We are calling on WPI to divest because burning fossil fuels causes global climate change, which threatens the livelihoods of current and future students and the well-being of millions of others, particularly in developing countries.

We are witnessing the worsening impacts of a warming planet more each year; in this last year 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.

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 the remaining fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet.

According to our mission statement, WPI’s purpose is “to convey knowledge at the frontiers of academic inquiry for the betterment of society.” Although WPI has been a national leader in institutional sustainability, allowing its endowment to be invested in fossil fuels is incompatible with working towards a better society. We cannot conscionably work for a better tomorrow while investing in the companies that threaten the stability of the global climate.

As public pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on Worcester Polytechnic Institute to 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 Worcester Polytechnic Institute will not only be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, but also for the well-being of its current and future graduating classes, who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by global climate change.

Please visit our website (divestwpi.wordpress.com) or contact [email protected] to learn more about our divestment campaign at WPI, global climate change, and ways that you can get involved.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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2013-12-16 10:09:22 -0500

50 signatures reached