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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- Gilbert M. Joseph— Farnam Professor of History
- Charles Schmuttenmaer— Professor, Chemistry
- John E. Roemer— Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Science and Economics
- Thomas Pogge— Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs
- Nadine Unger— Assistant Professor, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Hazel Carby— Professor, American Studies
- Peter Raymond— Professor, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Matthew Frye Jacobson— William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies and History
- James C. Scott— Professor, Political Science, Anthropology, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Albert Icksang Ko— Professor and Chair, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health
- Ron Eyerman— Professor, Sociology
- Mary Evelyn Tucker— Senior Lecturer & Senior Research School, Forestry & Environmental Studies and Divinity School
- Glenda Gilmore— Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History
- Amy Vedder— Lecturer, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Amity Doolittle— Senior Lecturer, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Robert Dubrow— Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology
- Marcela Echeverri— Assistant Professor, History
- Peter A. Swenson— C.M. Saden Professor, Department of Political Science
- Laura Wexler— Professor, American Studies and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Joseph Fischel— Asst. Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
- Michael R. Dove— Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Vanessa Agard-Jones— Assistant Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and CC ’00
- Greta LaFleur— Assistant Professor, American Studies
- Jennifer Klein — Professor, History
- Mary Lui— Professor, American Studies and History
- Jean-Christophe Agnew— Professor, American Studies and History
- Daphne A. Brooks— Professor, African American Studies, Theater Studies, and American Studies
- John A. Grim— Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Victor Salvador Batista— Professor, Chemistry
- Elisabeth Jean Wood— Professor, Political Science
- Kaveh Khoshnood— Associate Professor, Yale School of Public Health
- Susan Stokes— John S Saden Professor of Political Science
- Melinda Pettigrew— Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Public Health
- Peter J. Krause— Senior Research Scientist, Yale School of Public Health
- Sohrab Ismail-Beigi— Professor of Applied Physics
- Rob Bailis— Associate Professor, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Rosie Bsheer— Assistant Professor, History
- Selma Vital— Lecturer, Portuguese
- Steven Pincus— Bradford Durfee Professor of History
- Laura Barraclough— Assistant Professor, American Studies
- Thomas J. Near— Associate Professor Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Master Saybrook College
- Alison P. Galvani— Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), School of Public Health
- Jeannette R. Ickovics— Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), School of Public Health
- Rina Garcia Assistant— Professor, Internal Medicine
- Anne Eller— Assistant Professor, History
- Jill Richards— Assistant Professor, English
- Daniel Magaziner— Assistant Professor, History
- Karen Hébert— Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Michael Denning— William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of American Studies
- Susan G. Clark— Professor adjunct, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Karuna Mantena— Associate Professor of Political Science
- Crystal Feimster— Assistant Professor, African American Studies, American Studies, History
- Marta Figlerowicz— Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature and English
- Robert Heimer— Professor, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, School of Public Health
- Briallen Hopper— Lecturer, English
- Birgit Brander Rasmussen— Assistant Professor, American Studies and Ethnicity, Race, & Migration
- Inderpal Grewal— Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
- Joseph Errington— Professor, Anthropology
- Jan L. Hagens— Lecturer, Comparative Literature
- Margaret A. Farley— Professor Emerita, Divinity Schol
- Kristina Talbert-Slagle— Lecturer, Yale School of Public Health
- John Pachankis— Associate Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology
- Nicole Deziel— Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
- Debbie Humphries— Clinical Instructor, Epidemiology of Microbial Disease
- Danya Keene— Assistant Professor, Social Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health
- Tisa Wenger— Associate Professor, Divinity School
- Joan Monin— Assistant Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology
- Ling Mu— Senior Lecturer II, East Asian Languages and Literatures
- Tina Lu— Professor, East Asian Languages and Literature
- Gary W. Brudvig— Professor, Chemistry
- Louise Edwards— Lecturer, Astronomy
- Marney White— Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health
- Ian Quinn— Professor, Department of Music
- William Zhou— Senior Lector, East Asian Languages and Literatures
- Asghar Rastegar MD— Professor of Medicine
- Alicia Schmidt Camacho— Professor, American Studies
- Jonathan Guez— Part-Time Instructor, Department of Music
- Catherine Yeckel— Associate Research Science and Lecturer, School of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences
- Martin Klein— Lecturer, Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
- Jenifer Van Vleck— Assistant Professor, History
- Fred Simmons— Assistant Professor, Divinity School
- Elaine O’Keefe— Lecturer and Executive Director Office of Public Health Practice, Yale School of Public Health
- Marcella Nunez-Smith— Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases)
- Adam Reid Sexton— Lecturer, English
- Bill Weber— Lecturer, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Mark Schlesinger— Professor, Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
- William W. Kelly— Professor of Anthropology and Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies
- Catherine Nicholson— Assistant Professor, English
- Mary Beth Decker— Lecturer, Forestry & Environmental Studies
- James Silk— Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School
- David P. Watts— Professor, Anthropology
- Thomas Graedel— Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Carol Carpenter— Senior Lecturer, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan— Professor, Anthropology
- Alark Saxena— Lecturer, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
- Erik Harms— Associate Professor, Anthropology
- Janet Ruffing, RSM— Professor, Practice of Spirituality and Ministerial Leadership
- Chloe Starr— Associate Professor, Divinity School
- Teresa Berger— Professor, Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School
- Helen F. Siu— Professor, Anthropology
- Paul Kockelman— Professor, Anthropology
- Vesla Weaver— Assistant Professor, African American Studies and Political Science
- Ben Kiernan— Whitney Griswold Professor of History
- Annie Harper— Associate Research Scientist, Department of Psychiatry
- David Berg— Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry
- Yawei Zhang— Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
- Leah Ferrucci— Associate Research Scientist, Yale School of Public Health
- Douglas Shenson— Associate Clinical Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health
- Joseph Ross— Associate Professor of Medicine
- Inginia Genao— Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine); Medical Director, Adult Primary Care Center
- Brad Richards— Instructor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
- John P. Moriarty— Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine)
- E Jennifer Edelman— Assistant Professor, Medicine
- Emily Wang— Assistant Professor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
- Michael R. O’Brien, MD— Clinical Instructor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
- Elizabeth Roessler— Assistant Professor, Yale Physician Associate Program
- Laura J. Morrison— Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology and Geriatrics)
- Lydia Dugdale— Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine
- Krisda Chaiyachati— Clinical instructor, Yale School of Medicine
- Janet Ho—Instructor in Medicine, Chief Resident, Internal Medicine Primary Care
- Karen Wang— Associate Research Scientist in Medicine (General Medicine)
- Jeremy Schwartz— Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine)
- Stephen Holt— Assistant Professor of Medicine (Internal Medicine)
- Tracy Rabin— Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine)
- Brendon Lewis Graeber, MD— Assistant Professor of Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology and Pediatrics
- Sarita Soares— Assistant Professor of Medicine
- Auguste H. Fortin VI— Associate Professor of Medicine
- Lisa Sanders— Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine
- Robert Nardino— Assistant Professor, Medicine
- Lisa Puglisi, MD— Assistant Professor of Medicine
- John Carlson— Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Citations
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- 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
- Yale Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. Policies and Past Actions. http://acir.yale.edu/policies_and_past_actions.html
- Greg Michalec and Skye Bender-deMoll “113th (2013-2014) Senate.” Oil Change International. 2015. http://dirtyenergymoney.com/view.php?type=congress#view=connections
- 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.
- 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.
- Yale Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility. Statement of the Yale Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility. 2014.
- United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative and Mercer. Demystifying Responsible Investment Performance. 2007.
- Tom Zeller. Fossil Fuel Divestment: Smart Bet or Losing Strategy. Forbes. 2015.
- Patricia Farrar-Rivas and Anders Ferguson. Emerging Research on Climate Change Risk and Fossil Fuel Divestment. Veris. 2014.
- John G. Simon, Charles W. Powers, Jon P. Gunnesmann. The Ethical Investor – Universities and Corporate Responsibility. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1972.