Rockefellers, Heirs to an Oil Fortune, Will Divest Charity From Fossil Fuels. edited

[elleng]

Last edited Mon Sep 22, 2014, 01:24 AM - Edit history (1)

John D. Rockefeller built a vast fortune on oil. Now his heirs are abandoning fossil fuels.

The family whose legendary wealth flowed from Standard Oil is planning to announce on Monday that its $860 million philanthropic organization, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is joining the divestment movement that began a couple years ago on college campuses.

The announcement, timed to precede Tuesday’s opening of the United Nations climate change summit meeting in New York City, is part of a broader and accelerating initiative. . .

edit: The university with the biggest endowment, Harvard, has declined to divest, despite pressure from many students and outside organizations.

Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s president, has issued statements that she and her colleagues do not believe that divestment is “warranted or wise,” and argued that the school’s $32.7 billion endowment “is a resource, not an instrument to impel social or political change.”

Stanford recently announced it would divest its holdings in the coal industry; Yale University’s investment office asked its money managers to examine how its investments affect climate change and to look into avoiding companies that do not take sensible “steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” The announcement did not satisfy students pressing for divestment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/heirs-to-an-oil-fortune-join-the-divestment-drive.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

[NYC_SKP]

1. Kick! (nt)

[Mz Pip]

2. Good for them!

They are high profile so maybe people will pay attention.

He'll will freeze over before the Koch brothers divest of oil.

[elleng]

3. It's clear which are the class actors!

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Kicking. Thank you. nt

[freshwest]

5. A good message. Hope they don't try to monopolize water or arable land with the proceeds.

That's the next battle, corporate ownership of the REAL necessities of life, not just currency. I see that strategy fueling the new feudalism.

[elleng]

7. Water is already happening. Nestle.

'The Privatization of Water: Nestlé Denies that Water is a Fundamental Human Right.'

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-privatisation-of-water-nestle-denies-that-water-is-a-fundamental-human-right/5332238

Boycott the bastards.

[freshwest]

8. Not just Nestle. Bechtel. Pickens. Numerous others. Plus arable land = Food.

[edgineered]

6. imagine that

They announce now, acting later to sell their oil stocks just as the next oil crisis from the hostilities drive prices up. imagine it might be a short war so they can buy them back cheap.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, elleng.

[Uncle Joe]

10. This is rich, apparently Drew Gilpin Faust of Harvard believes that only money is a resource

writing off a livable, sustainable environment as being necessary for her school to thrive?

Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s president, has issued statements that she and her colleagues do not believe that divestment is “warranted or wise,” and argued that the school’s $32.7 billion endowment “is a resource, not an instrument to impel social or political change.”

[Hulk]

11. Yeah, wouldn't want to cut loose with $32.7 BILLION...

Harvard NEEDS that money. Perfect example of unbridled greed.

[66 dmhlt]

12. Used to be able to reason w/ "Rockefeller & Eisenhower Repbulicans" ...

Those days are long gone, probably never to return in my lifetime.

Sad ... very sad what the Rethuglican Party has become

[elleng]

13. Yes indeed,

and worse than sad, tragic, seriously damaging to the country and our way of governing.