What a wonderful piece! So great to have these savvy, feisty sisters provide the hook !
When we spread the word about the heating up climate and the heating-up resistance to enablers, stories about real people along with a playful spin ⚾️ are essential in making the word more fun to pass and to catch.
" You can find the underlying paper here, and I’m going to reprint the abstract..." Bill, the link to the paper on the effectiveness of divestment doesn't seem to work - THIS IS EXTREMELY VALUABLE, because there have been some articles recently claiming the opposite! I'd love to be able to share that paper widely. By the way, with FossilFreeCA.org, the call ins today in CA re: SB 252 were 100% positive for requiring Pension funds to divest, so I'm sure it will pass out of the Labor Committee. Thanks
Great column! Thank you. Third Act’s focus has been to encourage those of us over the age of 60 (and presumably somewhat more financially secure than when we were younger activists) to withdraw our funds from the Big Banks that fund fossil fuel companies. But here you’re writing about the value of having activist shareholders who can play a very strong role by boring from within: over 500 proposals around climate change!! I support both these broad categories of actions (shareholders and account holders), but have been hamstrung about how to square them while talking to others to win them over. Would love to know your thoughts on this.
Fine to buy a share for these purposes, if you ask me
Divestment is necessary from fossil fuel companies because their business model is so rigidly wrong. But the banks should be able to be more flexible, if pressed!
"Our chances of getting out of the climate crisis are only so-so—and they get materially lower every time some important institution decides not to face facts."
What's the most important institution, from the standpoint of money with the mission, the duty and the scale to finance climate action, the is not facing the facts?
The institution of fiduciary money: the tens of trillions aggregated into social superfunds for provisioning The Pension Promise of certainty of quality of life in retirement for workers.
What quality of life will workers have if habitats on earth have become diminished during their retirement years to a point where they cannot live safely and securely?
That's the fact our pensions fiduciaries are not facing. It would be catalytic if the good Sisters of St Joseph made it their mission to make them face it!
Always great to have committedly devout people in enlightened action. Also great that McKibben here enlightens me that shareholder resolutions aren't shrugged off by the corporate kingpins -- at least not shrugged off by banks. Seems new -- like expanding animal rights. I thank God or Internet.
What a wonderful piece! So great to have these savvy, feisty sisters provide the hook !
When we spread the word about the heating up climate and the heating-up resistance to enablers, stories about real people along with a playful spin ⚾️ are essential in making the word more fun to pass and to catch.
just right!
what a juicy and quotable column. Thank you, Bill McKibben
this one was fun to write--my pleasure!
" You can find the underlying paper here, and I’m going to reprint the abstract..." Bill, the link to the paper on the effectiveness of divestment doesn't seem to work - THIS IS EXTREMELY VALUABLE, because there have been some articles recently claiming the opposite! I'd love to be able to share that paper widely. By the way, with FossilFreeCA.org, the call ins today in CA re: SB 252 were 100% positive for requiring Pension funds to divest, so I'm sure it will pass out of the Labor Committee. Thanks
here you go https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4386469
Great column! Thank you. Third Act’s focus has been to encourage those of us over the age of 60 (and presumably somewhat more financially secure than when we were younger activists) to withdraw our funds from the Big Banks that fund fossil fuel companies. But here you’re writing about the value of having activist shareholders who can play a very strong role by boring from within: over 500 proposals around climate change!! I support both these broad categories of actions (shareholders and account holders), but have been hamstrung about how to square them while talking to others to win them over. Would love to know your thoughts on this.
Fine to buy a share for these purposes, if you ask me
Divestment is necessary from fossil fuel companies because their business model is so rigidly wrong. But the banks should be able to be more flexible, if pressed!
Huge amount of work you just did here. I will blog on it @ Petaluma360.com and share here in Sonoma County, CA.
"Our chances of getting out of the climate crisis are only so-so—and they get materially lower every time some important institution decides not to face facts."
What's the most important institution, from the standpoint of money with the mission, the duty and the scale to finance climate action, the is not facing the facts?
The institution of fiduciary money: the tens of trillions aggregated into social superfunds for provisioning The Pension Promise of certainty of quality of life in retirement for workers.
What quality of life will workers have if habitats on earth have become diminished during their retirement years to a point where they cannot live safely and securely?
That's the fact our pensions fiduciaries are not facing. It would be catalytic if the good Sisters of St Joseph made it their mission to make them face it!
Always great to have committedly devout people in enlightened action. Also great that McKibben here enlightens me that shareholder resolutions aren't shrugged off by the corporate kingpins -- at least not shrugged off by banks. Seems new -- like expanding animal rights. I thank God or Internet.