(Update: On 11 Oct 2021 the Reed College Board of Trustees announced its decision to divest the college’s endowment from fossil fuels. Read about it here.)
Reed College was established just over 100 years ago. I don’t know what the pressing issues of the day were back then, but they certainly didn’t include global climate change. The notion that human activity, everyday human activity no less, could alter the global ecosystem, threaten food production, accelerate the pace of species extinction, etc., etc., was not only completely foreign to the College’s founders, it would have seemed like the most far-fetched idea imaginable. Perhaps, just perhaps, they believed that global transformation was something that Divine Providence could bring about, but it is a virtual certainty that they never conceived of this as being within the power of human beings to effect.
A look back is necessary because the College’s founders wrote a policy statement for how the College should behave in the future, and that statement is based on a massively ignorant view regarding humanity’s potential for good and for ill, and the policy it contains is being used as an excuse for inaction.
Reed must divest now.
That said, getting there might need to take more time than I would like and it might need to happen in stages rather than all at once. But as far as I’m concerned those are details to be worked out later. The College’s stated policy on fossil fuel investments needs to change now. We are facing a massive crisis that confuses us only because it is happening slowly, because it is taking different forms in different locales (and most of those are far away from Reed and places are trustees live), and because a huge amount of money and institutional inertia is trying to appeal to deep-rooted habits of action and thought with this time-tested message: “Ignore this. You can always take care of it later. Much later.”
Fortunately, we know better. The consequences of global climate change can’t be ignored and the causes have already been set in motion so we can’t wait to act. Come to the Global Divestment Day events on campus on Feb 13. If you aren’t at Reed, follow the events on the web. And be sure to check out this 2012 video: “Bill McKibben’s Thought Bubble: The Fight of Our Time.“
