Fossil Free Yale welcomes faculty engagement in our campaign for divestment. As respected academics and employees of the University, faculty members strengthen our voice as we call for Yale to be a world leader and moral authority on climate change.   One of the most important ways faculty can participate is by signing our faculty letter. (please allow a few days for new signatures to be posted)

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“Global climate change and its consequences are critical challenges of our time, and Yale has important and necessary roles to play in addressing them.”
–President Peter Salovey, Aug. 27, 2014

In August of 2014, the Yale Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility (CCIR) decided not to divest the University’s endowment from the fossil fuel industry. We, the undersigned members of the Yale faculty, were greatly disappointed by this decision, and believe that the Yale Corporation must reconsider. We agree with President Peter Salovey that climate change is a critical challenge of our time. According to the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks” (1).

We also agree with President Salovey that Yale has an important part to play in addressing these issues. But while we applaud the University’s ongoing commitment to creating a more sustainable campus, existing initiatives fail to fully address the global nature of the climate crisis. Yale cannot compensate for the broader damages that its investments inflict solely by greening our own operations. Furthermore, Yale must remember that the practices of the fossil fuel industry disproportionately affect people of color, low-income communities, indigenous peoples, and citizens of developing nations. As the IPCC concludes, “Risks are unevenly distributed and are generally greater for disadvantaged people and communities in countries at all levels of development” (1). Climate change is not just an environmental issue; it is a justice issue. To wean ourselves off of fossil fuels as a campus, while worthwhile, only addresses a small fraction of the problem.

The CCIR argues that since greenhouse gases are released by burning fossil fuels rather than extracting them, fossil fuel companies are not responsible for the social injury of climate change. We find this reasoning to be flawed; analogously, although simply manufacturing cigarettes does not cause lung cancer, Yale still has acknowledged the role that tobacco companies play in compromising national health (2). Similarly, the world has become addicted to fossil fuels, and fossil fuel companies do not simply extract and supply — they promote fossil fuel dependency by funding “think tanks” and politicians who deny the fundamental reality of climate change and by lobbying to obstruct critical governmental action, such as a carbon tax, regulation of carbon emissions, or strong measures to promote renewable energy (3, 4). The fossil fuel companies appear bent on discovering, extracting, and selling every last ounce of fossil fuel, using ever more extreme extraction measures. Success in this endeavor will mean disaster for our planet (5).

Furthermore, the CCIR questions divestment as a tactic by citing that the purpose of the endowment is primarily to support “the functioning and success of the university as an academic enterprise” (6). But, we do not believe that supporting academic pursuits and investing in a socially and morally responsible manner are mutually exclusive goals. We reject the assumption that a divested endowment would be less capable of supporting Yale than one comprised in part of fossil fuels holdings. The UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (7), S&P Capital IQ (8), and Veris (9) have all found that divesting from fossil fuels would have little effect on an endowment’s returns. And, in the future, as governments regulate emissions and extraction becomes more expensive, fossil fuel investments could become even less profitable if these assets become stranded, which they must become if substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are to be achieved.

The movement to divest from the fossil fuel industry is becoming a burgeoning social movement led by our nation’s youth, including students at Yale College, who understand the dire threat that climate change poses to their future. We have seen such campus movements before: for civil rights, for peace in Vietnam, for women’s rights, for gay and lesbian rights, for divestment from South Africa. These movements have been on the right side of history, and fossil fuel divestment is no exception. A growing number of universities, colleges, churches, funds, and cities have already committed to divest.

Yale’s guidelines in The Ethical Investor state that the University has the moral obligation to recognize and account for the social injury that its investments cause (10). Furthermore, the CCIR report states that “Taking into account non-economic factors is not a decision to be made lightly, and a decision to divest or refrain from certain investments should be taken only when justified by the presence of grave social injury and broad moral consensus concerning that injury…” (6). We believe that the threat of climate change rises to the level of grave social injury and that the divestment movement and others are on the path toward developing a broad moral consensus on this issue. We therefore call for a renewed dialogue across the University about the merits of divestment. We call on the Yale Corporation to reconsider its decision not to divest and, furthermore, to work with President Salovey and the rest of the Yale community to create a more ethical and sustainable investment strategy. Imagine if Yale University, one of the world’s premier universities with one of the largest endowments, were to take the lead in forging this broad moral consensus by divesting from fossil fuels. The impact would be enormous!

Sincerely,

Faculty Signatories

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1. Gilbert M. Joseph— Farnam Professor of History
2. Charles Schmuttenmaer— Professor, Chemistry
3. John E. Roemer— Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Science and Economics
4. Thomas Pogge— Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs
5. Nadine Unger— Assistant Professor, Forestry & Environmental Studies
6. Hazel Carby— Professor, American Studies
7. Peter Raymond— Professor, Forestry & Environmental Studies
8. Matthew Frye Jacobson— William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies and History
9. James C. Scott— Professor, Political Science, Anthropology, Forestry & Environmental Studies
10. Albert Icksang Ko— Professor and Chair, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health
11. Ron Eyerman— Professor, Sociology
12. Mary Evelyn Tucker— Senior Lecturer & Senior Research School, Forestry & Environmental Studies and Divinity School
13. Glenda Gilmore— Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History
14. Amy Vedder— Lecturer, Forestry & Environmental Studies
15. Amity Doolittle— Senior Lecturer, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
16. Robert Dubrow— Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology
17. Marcela Echeverri— Assistant Professor, History
18. Peter A. Swenson— C.M. Saden Professor, Department of Political Science
19. Laura Wexler— Professor, American Studies and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies
20. Joseph Fischel— Asst. Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
21. Michael R. Dove— Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
22. Vanessa Agard-Jones— Assistant Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and CC ’00
23. Greta LaFleur— Assistant Professor, American Studies
24. Jennifer Klein — Professor, History
25. Mary Lui— Professor, American Studies and History
26. Jean-Christophe Agnew— Professor, American Studies and History
27. Daphne A. Brooks— Professor, African American Studies, Theater Studies, and American Studies
28. John A. Grim— Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar, Forestry & Environmental Studies
29. Victor Salvador Batista— Professor, Chemistry
30. Elisabeth Jean Wood— Professor, Political Science
31. Kaveh Khoshnood— Associate Professor, Yale School of Public Health
32. Susan Stokes— John S Saden Professor of Political Science
33. Melinda Pettigrew— Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Public Health
34. Peter J. Krause— Senior Research Scientist, Yale School of Public Health
35. Sohrab Ismail-Beigi— Professor of Applied Physics
36. Rob Bailis— Associate Professor, Forestry & Environmental Studies
37. Rosie Bsheer— Assistant Professor, History
38. Selma Vital— Lecturer, Portuguese
39. Steven Pincus— Bradford Durfee Professor of History
40. Laura Barraclough— Assistant Professor, American Studies
41. Thomas J. Near— Associate Professor Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Master Saybrook College
42. Alison P. Galvani— Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), School of Public Health
43. Jeannette R. Ickovics— Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), School of Public Health
44. Rina Garcia Assistant— Professor, Internal Medicine
45. Anne Eller— Assistant Professor, History
46. Jill Richards— Assistant Professor, English
47. Daniel Magaziner— Assistant Professor, History
48. Karen Hébert— Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
49. Michael Denning— William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of American Studies
50. Susan G. Clark— Professor adjunct, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
51. Karuna Mantena— Associate Professor of Political Science
52. Crystal Feimster— Assistant Professor, African American Studies, American Studies, History
53. Marta Figlerowicz— Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature and English
54. Robert Heimer— Professor, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, School of Public Health
55. Briallen Hopper— Lecturer, English
56. Birgit Brander Rasmussen— Assistant Professor, American Studies and Ethnicity, Race, & Migration
57. Inderpal Grewal— Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
58. Joseph Errington— Professor, Anthropology
59. Jan L. Hagens— Lecturer, Comparative Literature
60. Margaret A. Farley— Professor Emerita, Divinity Schol
61. Kristina Talbert-Slagle— Lecturer, Yale School of Public Health
62. John Pachankis— Associate Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology
63. Nicole Deziel— Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
64. Debbie Humphries— Clinical Instructor, Epidemiology of Microbial Disease
65. Danya Keene— Assistant Professor, Social Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health
66. Tisa Wenger— Associate Professor, Divinity School
67. Joan Monin— Assistant Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology
68. Ling Mu— Senior Lecturer II, East Asian Languages and Literatures
69. Tina Lu— Professor, East Asian Languages and Literature
70. Gary W. Brudvig— Professor, Chemistry
71. Louise Edwards— Lecturer, Astronomy
72. Marney White— Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health
73. Ian Quinn— Professor, Department of Music
74. William Zhou— Senior Lector, East Asian Languages and Literatures
75. Asghar Rastegar MD— Professor of Medicine
76. Alicia Schmidt Camacho— Professor, American Studies
77. Jonathan Guez— Part-Time Instructor, Department of Music
78. Catherine Yeckel— Associate Research Science and Lecturer, School of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences
79. Martin Klein— Lecturer, Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
80. Jenifer Van Vleck— Assistant Professor, History
81. Fred Simmons— Assistant Professor, Divinity School
82. Elaine O’Keefe— Lecturer and Executive Director Office of Public Health Practice, Yale School of Public Health
83. Marcella Nunez-Smith— Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases)
84. Adam Reid Sexton— Lecturer, English
85. Bill Weber— Lecturer, Forestry & Environmental Studies
86. Mark Schlesinger— Professor, Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
87. William W. Kelly— Professor of Anthropology and Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies
88. Catherine Nicholson— Assistant Professor, English
89. Mary Beth Decker— Lecturer, Forestry & Environmental Studies
90. James Silk— Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School
91. David P. Watts— Professor, Anthropology
92. Thomas Graedel— Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
93. Carol Carpenter— Senior Lecturer, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
94. Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan— Professor, Anthropology
95. Alark Saxena—  Lecturer, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
96. Erik Harms— Associate Professor, Anthropology
97. Janet Ruffing, RSM— Professor, Practice of Spirituality and Ministerial Leadership
98. Chloe Starr— Associate Professor, Divinity School
99. Teresa Berger— Professor, Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School
100. Helen F. Siu— Professor, Anthropology
101. Paul Kockelman— Professor, Anthropology
102. Vesla Weaver— Assistant Professor, African American Studies and Political Science
103. Ben Kiernan— Whitney Griswold Professor of History
104. Annie Harper— Associate Research Scientist, Department of Psychiatry
105. David Berg— Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry
106. Yawei Zhang— Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
107. Leah Ferrucci— Associate Research Scientist, Yale School of Public Health
108. Douglas Shenson— Associate Clinical Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health
109. Joseph Ross— Associate Professor of Medicine
110. Inginia Genao— Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine); Medical Director, Adult Primary Care Center
111. Brad Richards— Instructor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
112. John P. Moriarty— Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine)
113. E Jennifer Edelman— Assistant Professor, Medicine
114. Emily Wang— Assistant Professor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
115. Michael R. O’Brien, MD— Clinical Instructor of Medicine (Internal Medicine) 
116. Elizabeth Roessler— Assistant Professor, Yale Physician Associate Program
117. Laura J. Morrison— Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology and Geriatrics)
118. Lydia Dugdale— Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine
119. Krisda Chaiyachati— Clinical instructor, Yale School of Medicine
120. Janet Ho—Instructor in Medicine, Chief Resident, Internal Medicine Primary Care
121. Karen Wang— Associate Research Scientist in Medicine (General Medicine)
122. Jeremy Schwartz— Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine) 
123. Stephen Holt— Assistant Professor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
124. Tracy Rabin— Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine)
125. Brendon Lewis Graeber, MD— Assistant Professor of Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology and Pediatrics
126. Sarita Soares— Assistant Professor of Medicine
127. Auguste H. Fortin VI— Associate Professor of Medicine
128. Lisa Sanders— Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine
129. Robert Nardino— Assistant Professor, Medicine
130. Lisa Puglisi, MD— Assistant Professor of Medicine
131. John Carlson— Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology

Citations

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1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers. http://ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf
2. Yale Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. Policies and Past Actions.   http://acir.yale.edu/policies_and_past_actions.html
3. Greg Michalec and Skye Bender-deMoll “113th (2013-2014) Senate.” Oil Change International. 2015. http://dirtyenergymoney.com/view.php?type=congress#view=connections
4. Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Bloomsbury Press, NY, 2010.
5. James Hansen, Pushker Kharecha, Makiko Sato, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Frank Ackerman, et al. Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature. PLoS ONE 8(12): e81648. 2013.
6. Yale Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility. Statement of the Yale Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility. 2014.
7. United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative and Mercer. Demystifying Responsible Investment Performance. 2007.
8. Tom Zeller. Fossil Fuel Divestment: Smart Bet or Losing Strategy. Forbes. 2015.
9. Patricia Farrar-Rivas and Anders Ferguson. Emerging Research on Climate Change Risk and Fossil Fuel Divestment. Veris. 2014.
10. John G. Simon, Charles W. Powers, Jon P. Gunnesmann. The Ethical Investor – Universities and Corporate Responsibility. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1972.