[Occupymendocino] Today we're asking for something a bit different.

[Mark Safron]

Friends,

Here at 350.org, we spend a lot of time figuring out ways to take collective action, because we believe that’s one of the most powerful ways to drive social change. But today we’re asking you for something a bit different.

Today we're asking you to use your power as an individual investor and divest your personal finances from fossil fuels.

You can get started here: gofossilfree.org/mymoney

We recognize that personal divestment is both a responsibility and a privilege. Many of us don’t have retirement accounts or other investment market funds to divest. But for those of us that do, removing our financial stake in the companies driving the climate crisis is our responsibility.

I recently joined 350.org as a senior analyst, so it’s my job to sort out the numbers. One thing I’ve been tracking is the increasing evidence that we’re in the midst of a “carbon bubble” that’s sooner or later bound to pop. The most recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscores the fact that we can only burn a small fraction of current fossil fuel reserves before triggering devastating levels of climate change. Meanwhile, a recent analysis from HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world, suggests that if we get serious about reducing carbon emissions, the value of fossil fuel companies could fall by 40 to 60%.

I’ve divested my family’s nest egg. Even though our divestment wasn’t huge, it felt like a powerful step to take. Will you take that step with me?

If you're not quite ready to divest your own money from fossil fuels but are interested in learning more, click here to sign up for more info.

Last year, we launched Fossil Free, a new campaign urging institutions to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Our premise was simple: if it's wrong to wreck the climate, it's wrong to profit from that wreckage. Since we launched the campaign, divestment has taken off like wildfire. Oxford University recently published a study claiming that the current movement to divest from fossil fuels is growing faster than any previous divestment movement in history.1 According to the Oxford study: "The outcome of the stigmatisation process, which the fossil fuel divestment campaign has now triggered, poses the most far-reaching threat to fossil fuel companies."2

If you believe that we will win -- and I do -- then divestment is both the right thing to do and the smart thing.

Onward,

Brett for the team at Fossil Free and 350.org

PS. For college alumni, here's another opportunity to be part of the divestment movement. Use your power as an alum (and potential donor) to drive divestment forward on campus: gofossilfree.org/alumni

1. Damian Carrington, "Campaign against fossil fuels growing, says study," The Guardian, October 7th, 2013, www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/08/campaign-against-fossil-fuel-growing

2. Atif Ansar, Ben Caldecott, & James Tilbury, "Stranded assets and the fossil fuel divestment campaign," Stranded Assets Programme, University of Oxford (2013).

 
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