Category: Toronto
Divest McGill arguments rejected
A committee formed by the administration of McGill University has rejected the argument from Divest McGill that the school should sell its stock in “corporations involved with the production, refining, transport and sale of fossil fuels” and “financial institutions which have not adopted a policy of making no further loans to corporations that produce, refine, transport of sell fossil fuels”.
Rather startlingly, the committee concluded that: “Since the Committee is not satisfied that ‘social injury’ has occurred, no action was considered or is recommended.”
Given that climate change is the ‘greatest market failure the world has ever seen’ the case that fossil fuel companies are doing social harm is very strong. While the committee’s decision is disappointing, it is useful for Toronto350.org insofar as it shows what sort of things the committee that will eventually be formed here is likely to focus on. For instance, no discussion of science and a strong emphasis on law. Knowledge that we derive from this response will help us make our own brief stronger.
We are also calling for a different set of actions from the University of Toronto, which I think will make it easier to establish our case. Specifically:
- Make an immediate statement of principle, expressing its intention to divest its holdings in fossil fuel companies within five years,
- Immediately stop making new investments in the industry,
- Instruct its investment managers to wind down the university’s existing holdings in the fossil fuel industry over five years, and
- Divest from Royal Dutch Shell by the end of 2013.
This seems easier than asking a Canadian university to divest from all financial institutions which invest in fossil fuel companies, which probably includes all those in Canada.
The McGill committee never got to questions of practicality or financial impact on the university, since they rejected the basic claim that fossil fuel companies are doing social harm. If we are able to establish the second point to the satisfaction of the University of Toronto, we will still need to address concerns in the first two areas.
Our brief still requires a lot of work, so if you know anyone in Toronto who would be willing to help, please encourage them to get in touch with us. We could especially benefit from anyone with expertise in law or finance.
Trees and shadows
Swan on the Toronto waterfront
Toronto lakefront path
Toronto cherry blossoms
During the week when I was living with my aunt and uncle, I shot a bunch of RAW files around Toronto.
Here are the first few I have processed and uploaded: daytime photos of the cherry blossoms in High Park.
I will upload some nighttime shots soon, along with some others from that week generally.
Toronto350.org highlights climate risk to giant pandas
Toronto350.org visited the Toronto Zoo to raise public awareness about the threat climate change poses to pandas and other endangered species. We also circulated a petition to the Chinese Ambassador to Canada and Canada’s Prime Minister, calling on both countries to do more to combat climate change and protect endangered species.
- Text of our petition to Ambassador Zhang Junsai and Stephen Harper
- More photos
- Tuanmu, Mao-Ning et al. “Climate-change impacts on understorey bamboo species and giant pandas in China’s Qinling Mountains.” Nature Climate Change 3, 249–253 (2013).
- Warren, R. et al. “Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss.” Nature Climate Change (2013) doi:10.1038/nclimate1887
Massey’s final 2012/13 party
I am frantically packing to move out of Massey College tomorrow (having just returned from Montreal a few hours ago), but I am also uploading some photos from the recent Staff Appreciation BBQ at Massey College.
Elocution
Jordan Peterson – Reality and the sacred:
Wrapping up the year
There is still a lot left to do this year: marking, two term papers, and an urgent decision about when to write my Canadian politics comprehensive exam.
In a way, it is very helpful to be beyond classes and free to structure time however I prefer. At the same time, the structure from classes can actually be helpful in encouraging me to use time effectively.