Guardian says, ‘Keep it in the ground’

Posted on May 1, 2015 by alan

(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.)

The logic of climate change is simple:

  • high-levels of atmospheric CO2 threaten our future (not only humans, but many species)
  • burning fossil fuels adds CO2 to the atmosphere (scientists estimate that the current level, ~400 ppm, is already dangerously high)
  • BINGO! We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground – that means unmined, unpumped, unextracted, unburnt – so that we can return CO2 to a safe level.

What is so hard to understand? None of it, really. The only reason we think of this as a Difficult Problem is that we developed an energy infrastructure based on fossil fuels before we recognized the danger they posed. We are like the lifetime heroin addict who says, “Now you tell me this stuff is dangerous?” Well, yes, now we are telling ourselves, this stuff is DANGEROUS.

Please learn more by reading some of the articles below, and joining the campaign to Keep It In The Ground.

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