Dear Anna Maria Tramonti;
Many of your guests were missing the point
or downplaying the urgency of the Fossil Fuels divestment movement. The problem we are facing as a human species
is that we have an extremely limited world carbon budget to spend. In 2012, that budget was 565 Gigatons that could be safely burned and still meet our world-accepted target of two degrees
Celsius. It is less now. The existing reserves at that time were 2795
gigatons. That would mean we would have
to leave 4/5 of current reserves in the ground and not develop them – at least
not for use as fuel. The IPCC has made
this information clearly available to all.
This means that new reserves recently
reported in the Arctic must not be developed.
It means we should not triple production in the tar sands. It means that if the oil sector wants to stay
in business in an ethical, sustainable way, it has to take the immense profits
our system has allowed them to make out of oil and gas and coal, and use that
money to develop our future—a future that does not involve burning oil and
gas. So much of our capital is locked up in
these huge extractive industries focused on environmentally destructive
megaprojects. We have to release this
capital in order to build a new sustainable way of living that respects the
earth and all life.
I want to invest in an energy company that
is developing electricity storage systems for renewable energy. I want to invest in a company that is building
the infrastructure for electric vehicles across North America so I don’t have
to fill up at the pump with gasoline. I
want to invest in new ways to heat my home, and in any kind of processes that
help us conserve and use less energy. Mr.
Yeager from the Wild Rose party pays a disservice to the people of Canada
when he says we don’t know where our gasoline comes from. He accuses us of being ignorant and
stupid. It is the oil industry that has
its head in the sand.
The small bits of tinkering discussed by
Michelle Du Cordova of NEI Investments will not be enough. I agree with her that there will be a place
in the mix for oil companies – especially those focused on supplying plastics. But it will be a much smaller place than what they have now. We need to take all our
capital, and all our creativity and ingenuity and make a transition to 100%
renewable energy for as many sectors as possible by 2030. I hope Ms. Cordova will take her clout as a
shareholder and begin to communicate this message to our oil company leaders.
In the meantime, to invest in fossil fuels
is to sentence our grandchildren to a dangerous, chaotic, uncertain
future. It is so stupid, when we can
already see that an economy based on renewable energy has the potential to create
more, better-paying jobs, distribute wealth better all over the world, and do
much less damage to the environment.
Working for a better future for all
humanity and companion species,
Rev. Frances Deverell
Retired Unitarian Minister in the Community
in Ottawa and
Ottawa host, ClimateFast.ca
