Divestment is a positive move

By: Chris Zimmer – Columnist, Junior

Multiple reactions were invoked when the University of Dayton announced their divestment of coal and fossil fuels from its $670 million investment pool this summer, according to the university website.

At first I really didn’t support the idea, nor did I condemn it. I just gave the school a nonchalant thumbs-up.

Some alumni unleashed their outrage on social media saying UD was just being “politically correct,” and others praised the board of trustees for following Catholic social teaching, advocating for human rights, and committing to environmental sustainability.

You would agree with the latter if you read the Meteorological Organization’s data in the United Nation’s “Greenhouse Gas Bulletin” released Tuesday, Sept. 9.

They reported gruesome news concerning what happened to our planet in 2013.

The WMO said carbon dioxide levels were 42 percent higher, and our ocean’s capacity to hold all this garbage is 30 percent less than what it was before the Industrial Revolution.

The worst part – in my opinion – was the rate at which we absorbed CO2 doubled the average from the 1990’s. This only means all the government policies, scientific research and advocates have gone to waste.

President Obama will be focusing on “industry adaption” with world leaders at the U. N. Climate Summit beginning Tuesday, Sept. 23, but I think we already know how.

Stop funding pollution.

Many universities (including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, and Cornell to name a few) are trying to quiet the mobs demanding a complete divestment in fossil fuels.

It makes sense. If you’re teaching young people, for instance, environmental science or new ways to create clean energy; wouldn’t it be a little hypocritical to be contributing to the problem?

I think UD deserves a standing ovation for their divestment. We’re one of the first universities in the country to take such a stance.

It’s a bold move that will affect future generations in a positive way.

This is a simple case of a university standing behind the values they try to teach.

We’re constantly innovating here, that’s why we have great engineering and business schools. That’s the reason why students choose to attend the University of Dayton over other schools.

We think differently. The students here today are future inventors and future business leaders, all lead by the guidance of the university. A university they will represent long after they graduate.

The truth is that the amount of money the school withdrew is irrelevant.

Whether it was one dollar, or a few million, the point is that the university is fulfilling its motto: “Learn. Lead. Serve.”