Category: Economics

Matters of money

Divestment discussed by the Governing Council

U of T: the President and the Governing Council

U of T President Meric Gertler’s decision to reject fossil fuel divestment in favour of ESG screening was formally presented to the Governing Council today.

UofT350.org held a rally outside, and Gertler’s remarks were followed both by questions from governors and a five minute presentation from Graham Henry, a second-year law student who has been deeply involved in the divestment campaign and spoke against the president’s choice.

In the questions (which came before Graham’s remarks), most of those who spoke commended the decision. One even thanked the president on behalf of steelworkers in the fossil fuel industry. A couple had limited questions about timelines, and one spoke out clearly in favour of divestment.

I was disappointed that what I see as the central issue never came up: the implications of further investment in long-lived fossil fuel infrastructure. Many people mentioned the 1.5 ˚C warming limit from the Paris Agreement, but nobody drew the contrast with the billions of dollars the fossil fuel industry continues to invest in projects that only make sense if we intend to warm the planet by much, much more. The issue, therefore, is less that the conduct of the fossil fuel industry in the past has been severely injurious to people all over the world (though it has) and more that their future plans are catastrophic for people everywhere, ecosystems, and all the life we know about in the universe.

President Gertler criticized divestment as empty symbolism, less meaningful than having U of T’s secretive and unaccountable financial managers in the U of T Asset Management Corporation adopt some new screening criteria. The symbolism with the potential to be highly meaningful would have been pointing out the reality that the fossil fuel industry has no long-term future, or at least none compatible with planetary safety.

If U of T had come out to say that investors everywhere are behaving dangerously and irrationally by continuing to fund fossil fuel development, it could have had a positive impact all over the world. By saying instead that climate change creates some minor financial and ethical issues which can be addressed through existing processes, U of T is fuelling our collective complacency in the face of a slowly-unfolding but nearly unstoppable catastrophe.

U of T’s investments are burning up the futures of their students, but with this decision such conduct has become just one of many minor factors to be considered by financial experts behind closed doors.

UofT350.org

From the perspective of UofT350.org, the group needs to decide what the most plausible strategy is for reversing this decision and what tactics would support that outcome. It also needs to do some deeper thinking about what the group is for, now that divestment has become an even more unlikely prospect. People have very different ideas — for instance, about ‘intersectionality’ as a strategy for success versus a rabbit hole of distraction (this connects to a broader debate about climate change as a leftist versus a pan-ideological issue). There’s also the question of what can be accomplished via protest tactics, particularly when confronting a conservative institution with strong constituencies favouring the status quo and skilled at using cover from superficial actions to placate those who care slightly.

Working on climate change activism generally requires experiencing failure over and over, and in the face of an ever-worsening crisis. How can we do that (a) while continuing to reach out to moderates and decision-makers and (b) changing real-world outcomes, rather than becoming an increasingly radicalized and angry sub-population who are easy to dismiss, ignore, or undermine with trivial policy changes?

ESG screening isn’t a substitute for fossil fuel divestment

Following up on their public criticism of President Gertler’s decision in The Varsity, eight out of eleven members of the ad hoc committee published a letter in The Globe and Mail:

Quoting from our report: “The committee recognizes that fossil fuels will remain indispensable and a contributor to social welfare for many years.” We did not recommend universal divestment.

Instead, we called upon the university to lead an effort to, in The Globe’s language, “gradually ratchet down fossil-fuel use worldwide,” beginning with the worst offenders, whose behaviour we should not tolerate. Much like the apartheid regime, the worst offenders need to be identified and isolated. These fossil fuel companies are the ones blatantly disregarding the international effort to limit the rise in average global temperatures to not more than 1.5 C, thereby greatly increasing the likelihood of catastrophic global consequences. These are the companies that are properly the focus of divestment and such a targeted strategy is an application of what has become known as the Toronto Principle.

We tried to get an op-ed, but the G&M was unwilling.

On Thursday, a member of the campaign will be addressing the Governing Council. Before their meeting begins, we will be holding a rally outside.

Fossil fuel divestment on As It Happens

Responding to an earlier interview with U of T President Meric Gertler (in which the host was impressively spirited and well-informed while pushing back), UofT350.org media representative Amanda Harvey-Sanchez was on CBC’s As It Happens today.

She highlights a key point about how the proposed ESG approach is less effective than divestment: it will be implemented by the people at the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) who have preferred to do nothing all along.

U of T President Meric Gertler rejects fossil fuel divestment

Back in December, an expert committee appointed by President Gertler recommended divestment from fossil fuel companies based on a range of criteria.

Today, that approach was rejected by President Gertler, who proposed instead a vague eventual screening of investments based on “environmental, social, and governance” factors.

Toronto350.org has a press release, and is working on a broader response.

Between the committee’s recommendation and the president’s decision, we issued a Community Response, which is essentially not addressed in the president’s decision.

2016 Walter Gordon Symposium — Indigenous reconciliation

The 2016 Walter Gordon Symposium (Word document) was about indigenous reconciliation in Canada, following the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I attended every panel, and I am working on processing and uploading my photos.

A complex confluence of factors seem to have combined to make indigenous issues critically important politically all around the world. In particular, the resurgence of aboriginal peoples is deeply bound up with our best hopes for avoiding destroying human flourishing and life as we know it through climate change.

Jeffrey Goldberg on Obama’s foreign policy

The Atlantic has a long and interesting article about Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

It discusses the use of chemical weapons in Syria; Obama’s take on Churchillian rhetoric; Obama’s appreciation for elements of the George H. W. Bush foreign policy; disagreements within the Obama foreign policy team; Obama’s views on Israeli security; Obama’s “secret disdain” for the Washington foreign policy establishment; his limited respect for foreign leaders (aside from Angela Merkel); a bit of his perspective on climate change (a “comparatively slow-moving emergency” and “a potential existential threat to the entire world if we don’t do something about it”); Obama’s views on ISIS (which he compares to the Joker in The Dark Knight); his perspective of the central role of U.S. leadership in international cooperation; the use of drones with “near-certainty of no collateral damage”; Pakistan as a “disastrously dysfunctional country” and questionable U.S. ally; the impact of tribalism and misogyny in the Middle East; America’s misunderstanding of Reagan and the Iran hostage crisis; America’s overblown fear of terrorism (“Obama frequently reminds his staff that terrorism takes far fewer lives in America than handguns, car accidents, and falls in bathtubs do”); his frustration with “free rider” allies who don’t contribute to the costs of U.S. foreign policy objectives they support; and his views on the scope of executive power in foreign policy.

It describes the resentments which Obama had developed by 2013:

He resented military leaders who believed they could fix any problem if the commander in chief would simply give them what they wanted, and he resented the foreign-policy think-tank complex. A widely held sentiment inside the White House is that many of the most prominent foreign-policy think tanks in Washington are doing the bidding of their Arab and pro-Israel funders. I’ve heard one administration official refer to Massachusetts Avenue, the home of many of these think tanks, as “Arab-occupied territory.”

On climate change, Obama is quoted saying:

“As I survey the next 20 years, climate change worries me profoundly because of the effects that it has on all the other problems that we face,” he said. “If you start seeing more severe drought; more significant famine; more displacement from the Indian subcontinent and coastal regions in Africa and Asia; the continuing problems of scarcity, refugees, poverty, disease—this makes every other problem we’ve got worse. That’s above and beyond just the existential issues of a planet that starts getting into a bad feedback loop.”

The article also includes some interesting analysis of how Obama adjusted his strategy in response to particular events, as well as interpersonal disagreements among his key advisors.

Another interesting comment is that Obama sees the Middle East as “soon be of negligible relevance to the U.S. economy” “thanks to America’s energy revolution”. It would be interesting to know if he means the noble course of improved efficiency and the deployment of climate-safe energy sources, or the massive expansion of oil and gas production which he has helped drive.

Repairs

In addition to the standard advice about reducing the amount of environmental harm you’re imposing on others (limit driving, avoid flying, avoid meat, etc), a recent Grist article suggests that you “use everything you own for so long that it turns into dust”.

As a general philosophy, I am trying out the following:

  • Avoid acquiring entirely new types of things, especially those that require a lot of resource use to support.
  • Where possible, repair gear that has become damaged.
  • When necessary, replace gear. If it’s gear in frequent use, replace it with something tougher

Recently, I sent my 10+ year old hiking boots off to be re-soled. I have decided to keep using my five year old iPhone 4 until it suffers a critical failure. Today, I was able to replace the battery (which had only been good for 30 minutes of talk time and prone to fail instantly in the cold) at the Apple Store for $111.87. Strangely, Apple will not replace the battery in a 160 GB iPod Classic. Instead, they will replace the whole device for the cost of the battery, something I also did today for $84.75. The charging cables for both my iPod and iPhone have nearly completely fallen apart, but I will keep using them until the last one fails. I need to replace my iPhone case, since it is falling apart. No physical stores sell such old cases, so I will need to find one online.

My collection of inexpensive watches is down to a single usable item. The Eddie Bauer watch my grandparents gave me in high school won’t run even with a brand new battery. The Mondaine watch I bought at the MoMA now loses about eight minutes per hour, making it useless. The Marathon watch with tritium tubes, which they have already repaired once, has a loose tube (full of radioactive gas) shaking around in the case and needs to go back again. My Timex Expedition‘s plastic face is all scratched up (like the Marathon watch) but it still functions perfectly.

Yesterday, I replaced one of my FEIT Electric 1600 lumen (100 watt equivalent) LED bulbs with a new one that doesn’t buzz all the time. My Barbour Beaufort jacket has growing holes in the waxed cotton along the bottom of the sleeves, as well as lots of damage along the back where I often sit on it (despite several prior repairs). My MEC merino wool long johns have big holes in the bottoms, and both of my pairs of MEC cargo pants have at least one failed zipper. I already replaced my Hedgren laptop bag with a Briggs & Riley verb bag because replacing all the failed zippers would have been costly and impractical.

There are a lot of other bits of gear with issues. The headphone out port on my nine year old iMac is dodgy, but the computer as a whole has worked remarkably well. The iPad Mini on extended loan from my brother Sasha has a cracked screen, but it doesn’t cause any problems. My Canon 5D Mk II still suffers from the consequences of its tragic injury. In particular, the shutter release on the battery grip doesn’t work. My used 5D Mk III has stranger problems. Sometimes it refuses to release the shutter, apparently because it doesn’t realize that autofocus has already happened. Sometimes, focusing on something closer and then switching back fixes the problem. Sometimes it requires a power cycle. Oddest of all, it sometimes produces corrupted RAW files, something I have never experienced with any other digital camera.

All my lenses are in good working order, as are my flashes and the radio triggers for them. My MacBook Pro and Fuji X100s are similarly at full capacity. My Sennheiser HD595 headphones are working, along with my Pro-Ject headphone amp and my Shure SE-215 earbuds (having already replaced the cable once).

One new thing I definitely need is the largest possible bookshelf for my new room. Until I can find something that I will be able to get up the three flights of stairs, my books are sitting in a stack of 15 banker’s boxes. I also want to fix the hinge on my wardrobe. In the longer term, I am thinking ahead to the research trip for my PhD. Whether I end up subletting my room for those weeks/months or not, I will want somewhere secure to store photo and computer gear, as well as backups, when I am away. Maybe I can modify the wardrobe to lock, or add a locking compartment.

I will also eventually need to replace the creaking complaining futon which I bought from the previous inhabitant of this room – ideally, with a bed which includes built-in storage underneath.

(Note: There is an extensive earlier discussion about abstinence from harmful activities and resistance against the societal structures that permit them as alternative approaches to mitigating environmental problems.)

Divestment and “The Toronto Principle”

An article in The Harvard Crimson focused on the recent report of the president’s divestment committee at U of T:

Last December, a committee at the University of Toronto released a report on the issue of divestment, drawing a clear line by aligning itself with the needs of the Paris agreement. It recommended that the university not finance companies whose “actions blatantly disregard the international effort to limit the rise in average global temperatures to not more than one and a half degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages by 2050…These are fossil fuels companies whose actions are irreconcilable with achieving internationally agreed goals.”

Hopefully, this principle will be re-affirmed when President Gertler makes the final decision. We expect that at the end of March.