Divesting Our Holdings from the Oil Companies

I just heard a snippet from a Bill McKibben speech in which the legendary environmentalist talks about the large and growing campaign to encourage groups (like university endowments) and people (like you and me) to sell whatever holdings they might have in the oil/coal/gas companies.

McKibben said years ago that he doesn’t like public speaking.  I hope that’s no longer the case; he looks and sounds completely comfortable, and he sure is good at it.  Here’s his summation of where we are:

The oil companies say that there is five times more carbon accessible to their drilling than scientists say can safely be emitted into our atmosphere.  Yet ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and the rest have each assured their shareholders and banks that this is precisely their business plan for the next few years, i.e., extracting and burning that fuel.  If they are successful, there remains no mystery as to how or when our civilization will end; if they are free to implement their strategy, our planet will be ruined in very short order.

That’s about as direct as it gets; McKibben doesn’t leave the listener guessing as to what his point was…..