THUNDER BAY -- A growing group of Lakehead University students and faculty are asking the school to stop investing money in companies involved in the fossil-fuel industry.
Mike Bird, Lakehead University Student Union sustainability co-ordinator, said Fossil Free Lakehead’s campaign has more than 200 signatures supporting divestment. It went nowhere when presented to the school’s board of governors.
A more recent campaign aimed at faculty has collected more than 50 signatures.
The letter sent to faculty says eight per cent of the school’s endowment is invested in companies the profit from coal, gas from fracking and oil from deep-ocean drilling, Arctic drilling and tar sands oil mines.
It goes on to say that aside from being destructive, the practices also contribute to climate change.
That’s disturbing, Fossil Free Lakehead says on its Facebook page.
“Divestment in fossil fuels shows an understanding that this generation’s troubles are our own, that the future of those less privileged than us is equal to and as important as our own career opportunities.
“Global climate change is real, immediate and poses growing threats to humans, infrastructure and natural ecosystems worldwide.”
But while similar movements have failed at other schools, most recently Halifax’s Dalhousie University, Bird said they’re in this for the long haul, calling it a battle over time.
“It’s not necessarily a battle in a specific year or in a specific month,” said Bird, who plans to help Fossil Free Lakehead seek more student signatures in March.
“It’s an ongoing process. So I would consider Dalhousie’s campaign very successful in raising awareness on their campus.”
Dalhousie’s board of governors rejected the divestment call late last year.
This isn’t about one school or one country. Lakehead is part of a global campaign, Bird added, explaining why they’ve taken their fight to the university’s staff.
“We have similar goals, similar tools and certainly a similar passion for accomplishing our goals,” Bird said. “At Lakehead we have chosen to focus on a faculty open letter. This is a similar strategy that I believe we saw at UBC. They got over 100 faculty members to sign that letter, so we are following that approach because we’ve seen it’s been useful.”
The group says companies involved in the fossil-fuel industry care only about their bottom lines, blocking legislation, funding climate-change denial and selling the fuels themselves. Therefore if the school’s goal is to set Lakehead students apart and protect people and the planet, then it stands to reasons its investments must align with its values.
Fossil Free Lakehead said they’d like to see 80 per cent of the world’s proven fossil fuels remain in the ground.
David Tamblyn, the vice-chairman of the Lakehead’s board of governors, said they’re willing to listen, but made no promises.
“We’d be interested in hearing from the students, we’re interested in hearing from our own financial advisors too, in terms of what that divestment in fossil-fuel companies, what would the implications be for the university and the long-term viability … of divestment,” Tamblyn said Thursday.
