Alumni and Parents: Tell Stanford Administrators to Divest From Fossil Fuels
Goal: 100 Letters by April 7th! COMPLETED!!
200 Letters by April 11th! COMPLETED!!
500 Letters by May 1st!
Letters so far: 309
- Simply copy and paste the template letter into the form and hit send!
- To be even more impactful, use the set of example letters and list of talking points at the bottom of the page to write your own argument. You can also always borrow arguments from our Fossil Free Report.
People who have sent in a letter so far: |
TEMPLATE LETTER
(COPY AND PASTE INTO THE FORM AT THE LEFT) Dear President Hennessy and Stanford Board of Trustees:
Please divest the Stanford Endowment from the fossil fuel industry. Climate change is disastrous. The burning of fossil fuels feeds climate change, which commits us to localized and widespread storms, floods, and droughts that seriously damage economies through lost infrastructure, lost productivity, and lost wages. These damaged economies, immediately and long-term, cause severe social injury, a result incompatible with Stanford’s goals. Divestment is effective. Thus far, attempts to steer energy companies toward cleaner energy production have been effective at only a token level. Divestment makes a motivating moral and practical statement. Stanford’s voice will support political and business leaders in promoting cleaner energy development. Further, as others follow Stanford’s lead, there will be an economic force devaluing fossil fuels and encouraging clean energy production. Divestment is fiscally sound. Ambitious divestment over a period of up to five years allows the Endowment to make sound market decisions while exercising sound climate decisions. California has already codified a 33% by 2020 Renewables Portfolio Standard, and as such legislative and market forces develop, early divestment is prudent to avoid being stuck with a stranded “carbon bubble” asset. Stanford should lead. Because Stanford has the academic stature and financial clout to make a strong and motivating statement to decision-makers around the nation and the world, and because divestment is fiscally sound and socially beneficial, Stanford should take the strong step of defunding fossil fuels and investing in clean energy. Please divest from the fossil fuel industry. Sincerely, Your Name Class of ______ Post to Facebook:
I just sent a letter to Stanford's administration calling for divestment from fossil fuels. Stanford alumni and parents go to http://fossilfreestanford.org to show the Board of Trustees that we do not believe in funding a business model incompatible with a safe climate. |
Example Letters
Feel free to cut and paste these letters, or paragraphs from these letters to use as your own! If you're willing to let us use your letter as an example, please email it to us at [email protected]
Feel free to cut and paste these letters, or paragraphs from these letters to use as your own! If you're willing to let us use your letter as an example, please email it to us at [email protected]
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Talking Points
See the report for more details
What is Fossil Free Stanford’s Request?
I call upon Stanford University to fully divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel extraction companies boasting the greatest amount of carbon in their proven reserves.
Why these companies?
These 200 companies contain more fossil fuels than can be combusted if we are to remain under the internationally agreed upon warming limit of 2 degrees Celsius. As an institution, Stanford University has the power to send the fossil fuel industry a message: we do not support a business model that promotes an unsafe climate.
Why divestment?
The fight against climate change is decades old and demands a systemic, action-oriented approach in order to achieve widespread change. While we as individuals work on pressuring our elected officials and reducing individual ecological footprints, institutions can lead the way in making a political, moral, and social statement against perpetrators of climate change.
The fossil fuel industry’s formidable lobbying efforts and close political ties make it very difficult to create a level playing field for renewable energy or to enact effective climate policy. Divestment will help weaken those ties by signaling to both policy makers and the fossil fuel industry that we are ready to move beyond fossil fuels, and that we in no way support the continued search for fossil fuel reserves.
Why is this issue of critical importance?
Climate change is threatening the biological systems and resources upon which our lives and livelihoods depend, and time is limited before the situation becomes dire.
Scientists recommend an upper limit of 350 parts per million for atmospheric carbon dioxide levels if we are to sustain healthy ecosystems, yet carbon levels have exceeded 400 parts per million. These levels will only continue to rise.
If business as usual persists in the fossil fuel industry, the impending global temperature increase of 4-6 degree Celsius would lead to widespread droughts and famine, mass extinctions of species, increases in tropical disease, severe storms and fires, and the displacement 150 million people due to sea level rise.
What are the climate justice implications of climate change?
In the last 25 years, 95% of deaths resulting from natural disasters occurred in developing nations. Countries that rely on subsistence agriculture tend to be the hardest hit.
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, and heat waves, threatening food security and human health and livelihoods.
Why Stanford?
Stanford University has an ethical, moral, and financial imperative to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Stanford was founded to “promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization,” and divestment is a clear application of our institution’s founding creed.
As a Stanford alum, I refuse to accept that my alma mater is undermining the very future of the world for which it prepares its students. I therefore demand that Stanford do its part to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change and to proactively ensure the wellbeing of generations of students to come.
See the report for more details
What is Fossil Free Stanford’s Request?
I call upon Stanford University to fully divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel extraction companies boasting the greatest amount of carbon in their proven reserves.
Why these companies?
These 200 companies contain more fossil fuels than can be combusted if we are to remain under the internationally agreed upon warming limit of 2 degrees Celsius. As an institution, Stanford University has the power to send the fossil fuel industry a message: we do not support a business model that promotes an unsafe climate.
Why divestment?
The fight against climate change is decades old and demands a systemic, action-oriented approach in order to achieve widespread change. While we as individuals work on pressuring our elected officials and reducing individual ecological footprints, institutions can lead the way in making a political, moral, and social statement against perpetrators of climate change.
The fossil fuel industry’s formidable lobbying efforts and close political ties make it very difficult to create a level playing field for renewable energy or to enact effective climate policy. Divestment will help weaken those ties by signaling to both policy makers and the fossil fuel industry that we are ready to move beyond fossil fuels, and that we in no way support the continued search for fossil fuel reserves.
Why is this issue of critical importance?
Climate change is threatening the biological systems and resources upon which our lives and livelihoods depend, and time is limited before the situation becomes dire.
Scientists recommend an upper limit of 350 parts per million for atmospheric carbon dioxide levels if we are to sustain healthy ecosystems, yet carbon levels have exceeded 400 parts per million. These levels will only continue to rise.
If business as usual persists in the fossil fuel industry, the impending global temperature increase of 4-6 degree Celsius would lead to widespread droughts and famine, mass extinctions of species, increases in tropical disease, severe storms and fires, and the displacement 150 million people due to sea level rise.
What are the climate justice implications of climate change?
In the last 25 years, 95% of deaths resulting from natural disasters occurred in developing nations. Countries that rely on subsistence agriculture tend to be the hardest hit.
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, and heat waves, threatening food security and human health and livelihoods.
Why Stanford?
Stanford University has an ethical, moral, and financial imperative to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Stanford was founded to “promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization,” and divestment is a clear application of our institution’s founding creed.
As a Stanford alum, I refuse to accept that my alma mater is undermining the very future of the world for which it prepares its students. I therefore demand that Stanford do its part to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change and to proactively ensure the wellbeing of generations of students to come.
