Three minutes until midnight
The Doomsday Clock provides a symbolic measurement of how close humanity is to its own annihilation. Established in 1947 by the Science and Security Board…
environment
The end is nigh
The world is burning. Over the summer, for days, the sun was veiled in smoke, a gibbous and hideous orange. At midday you could look directly at it. An old neighbour commented that he had not seen such a thing since the eruption of Mount St. Helens. That was the first time the sun was dimmed, when it was fires in Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
Vandana Shiva backs U of M fossil fuel divestment
The push to see the University of Manitoba divest its holdings in carbon-burning industries was put into a global context on Oct. 8 when renowned…
Re: UMSU moves forward with divestment campaign
I want to commend UMSU Council and vice-president external Astitwa Thapa for their trailblazing work towards divesting the University Investment Trust from the fossil fuel sector. I agree wholeheartedly with Thapa when he says “the University of Manitoba prides itself in being a leader in the 21st century – then be a leader by divesting from fossil fuels.”
UMSU moves forward with divestment campaign
Following the lead of universities, pension funds, and philanthropic foundations worldwide, the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) is building a movement to push the…
Canada needs improved environmental protections, says lawyer
Canada needs to vastly improve its environmental laws and regulations in order to protect the health and environmental well-being of Canadians. That was the primary…
Marching in Shoalidarity
On September 12, hundreds of protestors marched from the Manitoba legislature to the Winnipeg Aqueduct Monument to raise awareness for the dire water situation in…
Fossil fuel divestment: the way to the future
Although the reasons outlined above make a strong moral case for divestment, fossil fuel divestment also makes economic sense. A recent news article in the Guardian confirmed that fossil fuel free funds outperformed conventional funds by 1.2 per cent yearly according to MSCI, a U.S.-based provider of equity, fixed income and hedge fund stock market indices. Even former Shell chairman Mark Moody-Stuart said “divestment is a rational approach […] If you think your money can be used somewhere else, you should switch it. Selective divestment or portfolio switching is actually what investors should be doing.”
There are choices to be made in the near future that will have a great impact. The choices themselves are clear: we either take action toward a better future, or we allow our universities to support that future’s destruction. The right choice is clearly the former – we must choose to divest.
Landscapes of extraction
Approaching resource extraction by treating the hinterland as a provider for global economies isolates the local communities from their land, often excluding them from jobs and wealth associated with the resource industry as well as excluded from use of the physical resource. With extraction of resources increasingly for exports and global use, regionally the benefits of extraction landscapes are rarely reaped.
Protest! The conscience demands it
In heeding our conscience – and what, other than that, is the purpose of having consciousness – we will find a path clear before us. This is the path of protest, of differentiation form the norm. Not of calling out, but of turning away. True protest, the kind that seeks change, must be more affirmation than negation. It is focused on the actions we can ourselves take, not the actions not taken by others.