We are in the midst of a movement. Before you throw up your hands and cry, “Good Lord, not another one,” as images of Occupy Wall Street and Kony2012 flash through your mind, hear me out. A movement of fossil fuel divestment is gaining support on university campuses across Canada and the United States. 

Divestment is not a new idea. In the mid-1980s, it was a tactic used by students who demanded their universities rid themselves of holdings in companies that operated in apartheid South Africa. Fossil fuel divestment has been gaining popularity in recent years because of the pressing danger of climate change.

 Climate change and its human causes are no longer ideas presented only by radical environmentalists. The warming of the planet is an observable, quantifiable phenomenon. In Winnipeg, we are experiencing an unseasonably warm January on the heels of one of the coldest winters on record. Our springs have been wet and cold, and our summers have been rife with flash floods, tornadoes and hailstorms. The burning of fossil fuels is the cause of these changes.

 A warming planet is a volatile planet. Ask many farmers and they’ll tell you that volatility is not something they hope for each year when the growing season comes around. Shifting, extreme weather patterns don’t lend themselves well to stable food production. Not to go all Malthusian on you, but a planet that is home to nearly 7.3 billion people is in serious trouble when the food supply is threatened. Human ingenuity can and has increased the productivity of arable land, but the fact is no amount of pesticide, fungicide or herbicide can make crops grow in soil that is too hot, cold, dry or wet for sowing.

 With this in mind, students at the University of Winnipeg, in partnership with the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA), are currently launching a fossil fuel free campaign. It demands that the University divest the funds held through the University of Winnipeg Foundation that support fossil fuel companies. It is not uncommon for pension funds or similar investments to have an ethics clause that prohibits investment in industries that it wishes not to support, like weapons or tobacco. The University of Winnipeg has no such guidelines.

 Attending university demands that students invest significant time, effort and financial assets in their futures. However, for students to build a future, there needs to be a healthy planet. Fossil fuel divestment simply asks universities to invest in that same goal. 

The motto of the University of Winnipeg is Lux et Veritas Floreant, which means Let Truth and Light Flourish.

 Transparent and ethical investment strategies should be part of that approach. It is ridiculous for universities to remain invested in companies that jeopardize the very futures they are trying to create. The future of our planet cannot be left in the hands of those who continuously find more creative ways to destroy it, such as fracking, deep-sea drilling and transcontinental pipelines.

 At stake is nothing less than our ability to live on this planet.

Robyn Otto is a German major with mild caffeine and major pug addictions.

Published in Volume 69, Number 18 of The Uniter (January 28, 2015)