Tag: environment

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.”

Following the lead of universities, pension funds, and philanthropic foundations worldwide, the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) is building a movement to push...

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...

On September 12, hundreds of protestors marched from the Manitoba legislature to the Winnipeg Aqueduct Monument to raise awareness for the dire water situation...

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.