{"id":6515,"date":"2013-11-04T11:37:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6515"},"modified":"2013-11-04T11:39:27","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T16:39:27","slug":"divesting-from-oil-and-gas-prof-matthew-richard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/divesting-from-oil-and-gas-prof-matthew-richard.html","title":{"rendered":"Divesting from oil and gas –Prof. Matthew Richard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nDr. Richard posted this letter to the editor of the\r\n\r\nThe Spectator<\/a>,\r\nVSU’s student newspaper,\r\n\r\non SAVE’s facebook page<\/a> today. I added the links and the images. -jsq\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nTo the Editor:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nI would like to address the VSU community with this letter.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nVSU Students, faculty, and staff, did you know that many of the\r\nclothes that we admire and purchase in the USA are made in places\r\nlike Bangladesh? Indeed, some of our most popular brands of\r\n\r\nclothing<\/a>, including GAP, Old Navy, and Banana Republic originate\r\nthere. Perhaps you know that many Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers\r\nemploy children as young as 12 years old who earn as little as $32\r\nper month despite working up to 14 hours a day? It’s little wonder\r\nthat so many of us can look so stylish—and for relatively\r\nlittle money.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIf you didn’t already know this, does it matter to you now? Are you\r\nconcerned that the money you spend supports sweatshops in Bangladesh\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nand elsewhere, perpetuating the misery of millions of our fellow\r\nhuman beings? Undoubtedly many of us are concerned, and we\r\nunderstand that we can make a difference in the world by being more\r\njudicious about where we shop. It’s why we choose to buy groceries\r\nat worker-friendly Publix rather than the anti-union Walmart\r\nCorporation. As ethical consumers become more aware of the need for\r\ngreater social responsibility in the marketplace—exemplified\r\nby the Fair Trade movement—growing numbers producers are\r\nresponding our demands. The result is that positive changes are\r\ntaking place in numerous industries all over the world. You’ll\r\nrecall that\r\n\r\nit was divestment that contributed to the end of the\r\nracist Apartheid system in South Africa and to a decline in smoking\r\nin the United States<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe same principles are at work right here on campus in S.A.V.E.’s\r\nfossil fuel divestment campaign. For the greater good, namely to\r\nstabilize the climate,\r\n\r\nS.A.V.E. is urging our administration to\r\nwithdraw funds from corporations that produce and distribute\r\ncarbon-based fuels and to reinvest them elsewhere<\/a>. Divesting from\r\noil and gas will encourage companies who specialize in producing\r\nenergy to bring cleaner fuels to the market. Only by demanding\r\ncorporate accountability and responsibility can we safeguard public\r\nhealth and allow our fragile planet begin to heal itself. Without\r\nthis pressure, however, oil and gas companies have no incentive to\r\nchange.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nSome will argue that VSU’s coal, oil, and gas investments yield good\r\nreturns, but I’d counter that\r\n\r\nthere are plenty of other options\r\npromising solid returns these days<\/a>. In fact, the last time I\r\nchecked, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was up 23% from a year\r\nago. So, the yield argument is a nonstarter. Moreover, if\r\nadministrators really believed what they preach about education,\r\nthey would see the fossil fuel problem holistically as members of\r\nS.A.V.E. do. They’d understand that what the professors in\r\nGeosciences are teaching their students is connected to what\r\nprofessors in Philosophy and Religious Studies, and professors in\r\nHistory, and Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice are\r\nteaching their students; namely, that we live in a globally\r\ninterconnected world, and that failure to look beyond short-term\r\ntime horizons is irresponsible. Indeed, there seems no better way to\r\nconnect the disciplines—seen as an important issue in\r\neducation—than over this issue.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAs an educator, I am extremely proud of\r\n\r\nthis group of student activists<\/a>\r\nwho have taken to heart everything that they have learned\r\nhere at VSU. Let’s follow their lead.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\nMatthew Richard, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology,\r\nAnthropology, and Criminal Justice<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nP.S. S.A.V.E. is circulating\r\n\r\na divestment petition<\/a> that has already\r\ngarnered over 500 signatures. You can add your signature here:\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/campaigns.gofossilfree.org\/petitions\/divest-valdosta-state-from-fossil-fuels?source=facebook-share-button&time=1382485417<\/a>.\r\nS.A.V.E. is also showing a documentary film,\r\n\r\nGASLAND II, this Thursday, Nov. 7, in Room 3009 of Bailey Science Center<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Richard posted this letter to the editor of the The Spectator, VSU’s student newspaper, on SAVE’s facebook page today. I added the links and the images. -jsq To the Editor: I would like to address the VSU community with this letter. VSU Students, faculty, and staff, did you know that many of the clothes […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47,141,216,19,6124,559,23,4468,24,134,3454],"tags":[1309,1061,8719,7211,8745,8753,1003,7212,7210,8701,8709,8702,12,7,1174,562,8782,8713,8883,8714,7042,4705,7147,3130,6,8743,8874],"class_list":["post-6515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-co2","category-coal","category-history","category-natural-gas-2","category-oil","category-renewable-energy","category-save","category-solar","category-vsu","category-vsu-spectator","tag-apartheid","tag-bangladesh","tag-climate-change","tag-clothing","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-divestment","tag-fair-trade","tag-gasland-ii","tag-georgia","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-matthew-richard","tag-natural-gas","tag-oil","tag-renewable-energy","tag-save","tag-solar","tag-stocks","tag-students-against-violating-the-environment","tag-the-spectator","tag-tobacco","tag-valdosta","tag-vsu","tag-vsu-spectator"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1H5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6519,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515\/revisions\/6519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}