{"id":50276,"date":"2019-12-23T10:06:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50276"},"modified":"2019-12-23T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:07:00","slug":"why-uvic-faculty-massively-voted-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50276","title":{"rendered":"Why UVic Faculty Massively Voted to Divest from Fossil Fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Opinion\/2019\/12\/23\/UVic-Faculty-Vote-Divest-Fossil-Fuels\/#disqus_thread\">Why UVic Faculty Massively Voted to Divest from Fossil Fuels<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It\u2019s time to walk the talk on reconciliation and the climate crisis.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Opinion\/2019\/12\/22\/DivestUVicStudent.jpg\" alt=\"DivestUVicStudent.jpg\"\/><figcaption>Paarth Mittal is a student member of Divest UVic, a campus group that wants endowment and pension funds out of fossil fuel investments.&nbsp;Photo source: Divest UVic Facebook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, we think it is hypocritical for UVic to&nbsp;present itself&nbsp;as a sustainability&nbsp;and reconciliation leader while investing in companies that are primarily&nbsp;responsible for both the climate emergency and Indigenous dispossession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, UVic has $2.5 million invested in Imperial Oil (the Canadian subsidiary of ExxonMobil). Records show that Imperial Oil\u2019s own scientists&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2019\/12\/11\/Canadian-Oilsands-Firm-Denied-Own-Science\/\">confirmed<\/a>&nbsp;the realities of climate change as early as the 1970s, and yet the company has willfully pursued denial and policy obstructionism as an accumulation strategy. By investing millions of dollars into Imperial Oil, UVic is tacitly supporting its history of climate change denial; indeed, the university is hoping to profit from it. That is sustainability leadership in high-speed reverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many fossil fuel companies also contribute to the destruction of Indigenous lands and waters\u00a0with their pursuit of new fossil fuel infrastructure projects. For example, UVic\u2019s endowment fund\u00a0has $700,000 invested in Teck Resources. Teck is currently pursuing\u00a0one of the largest open-pit oil sands mines ever proposed. The project is\u00a0in close proximity to many Cree and Dene families.\u00a0According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigenousclimateaction.com\/\">Indigenous\u00a0Climate Action<\/a>, \u201cThis project\u00a0threatens our\u00a0Indigenous rights, ways of life, and ability to ensure the\u00a0preservation of our lands and territories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The investment in Teck Resources contradicts UVic\u2019s Strategic Plan and Indigenous Plan, which \u201ccommits to building and strengthening respectful relationships with Indigenous communities locally, provincially, nationally and around the world.\u201d How can UVic claim that reconciliation and respectful Indigenous relationships are top priorities while materially investing in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples as well as destruction of their homelands and waterways?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why UVic Faculty Massively Voted to Divest from Fossil Fuels It\u2019s time to walk the talk on reconciliation and the climate crisis. Therefore, we think it is hypocritical for UVic to&nbsp;present itself&nbsp;as a sustainability&nbsp;and reconciliation leader while investing in companies that are primarily&nbsp;responsible for both the climate emergency and Indigenous dispossession. For example, UVic has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[28753,328,16560,28752,28751,23884],"class_list":["post-50276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-colin-goldblatt","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-james-rowe","tag-jeff-corntassel","tag-lisa-chalykoff","tag-thetyee-ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50277,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50276\/revisions\/50277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}