Kathryn Palmer At an epicenter of the country’s water crisis, some University of Arizona students are calling on the UA Foundation to take a firm stance against climate change and pull the $82 million it has in fossil fuel-related investments by 2029.
When members of UADivest finally did get a formal meeting with the foundation in August, they didn’t get the feedback they’d hoped for. 'Losses loom large'The UA Foundation’s reluctance to publicly support divesting in fossil fuels hasn’t stopped Wetherell and the other members of UAZ Divest from continuing to gather signatures for their divestment petition and publicizing their cause.
“A lot of climate policy has focused on the science and technology of new . But we actually need to resist and focus on phasing out fossil fuels. For a big transition you need both,” Stephens said. “That’s where the case for fossil fuel divestment is strong and growing.” “Fossil fuel divestment at universities is one way of demonstrating resistance to reliance on fossil fuels and acknowledging the science that supports that,” Stephens said. “Each university builds part of this solidarity that’s resisting. The idea behind it is acknowledging the power and influence the fossil fuel industry has had and taking back some of that power for the public good.”
The university’s biggest accomplishment to date, Ledbetter said, was the agreement it made in 2019 with Tucson Electric Power to source all electricity the UA uses from renewable resources, which at the time was the largest agreement of its type in North America.
At one time, educators boasted that their role was not to teach students what to think but how to think. Today, their role is far too often to teach students what to think on everything from immigration to global warming to the new sacred trinity of'race, class and gender.TSowell