The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board has an extensive public relations department, yet it seemed determined to avoid relating with “How your paycheque supports fracking in Colorado.” The PR team did not respond to multiple phone messages, email requests for an interview or a list of emailed questions sent over the course of more than […]
Divestment
Posted inNews + Opinion
How your paycheque supports fracking in Colorado
I t’s a familiar story. A rich country develops oil fields in a heavily indebted nation with lax environmental rules. Local residents object, saying oil and gas extraction degrades their air, water, quality of life. Protests mount as the foreign energy company steamrolls the permitting process. The rich country tries to influence local elections in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dalhousie’s research grant money and Big Oil
Major oil and gas corporations gave Dalhousie University just short of $2 million for petroleum research from 2013 to 2015. The financial specifics, previously undisclosed in Dal’s more generalized annual funding reports, were contained in a Freedom of Information request submitted by The Coast in 2015 that was finally awarded this summer. The list of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Student-led campout put divestment back on the table at Dalhousie
A few days ago I addressed the Dalhousie board of governors on an issue that hasn’t been discussed in that room for three years: fossil fuel divestment. Students made it impossible for the university to ignore the issue any longer by staging a week-long campout on the quad in front of the iconic Henry Hicks […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Canadian universities are becoming divestment dinosaurs
[Image-1] This summer, members of the Canadian Association of Geographers made a unanimous decision to divest their financial holdings from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies. In the process, CAG became the first academic organization in Canada to divest from fossil fuels. While joining hundreds of organizations, municipalities, churches and universities that have committed to […]
