[DurhamDivest] I was at the meeting for the “Consultation on the divestment of Fossil Fuels” this morning

[Susan Wesley]

Hi Everyone

I write this with a heavy heart. I was at the meeting for the 
“Consultation on the divestment of Fossil Fuels” this morning. The 
meeting was hosted by Dr Amanda Ellison and Kate Deeming, 6 people 
attended and Katie took down what was said.

I'll get straight to the nitty-gritty after the introduction was said. 
The University is not going to commit to divestment (if it ever does) 
until they have done an assessment of whether divestment is best for the 
university and students.

The University are dragging their feet on this issue, and I think they 
will keep dragging them. Dr Ellison said that (not her words) the 
University have been trying to tackle this issue for years; that's how 
long they have been dragging their feet.

So far 41 universities are in the process of divesting from fossil fuels 
so how hard can it be? I am so proud of my former university, Newcastle, 
they have fully divested from fossil fuels. I am very ashamed of Durham 
University, and I said so.

To be blunt, and this is my assessment of the meeting, simply, allegedly 
this is all about BP's research money, this is what is holding back 
divestment.

I am not surprised be any of it, I came out of the meeting holding back 
the tears, it felt like death by global warming, if you get my drift. 
Everything about the meeting was predictable.

I went to the Jumping Bean to console myself, It was as much as I could 
do to keep the tears from falling into my soup. I had to wrap up my 
lovely vegan chocolate cake in my snot ridden napkin because I had no 
appetite.

I can't tell you how many times I have sworn today after I came out of 
that meeting, it was that bad for divestment. The consultation is going 
to last a year, and probably longer!

This is positive, so far the consultation have received 600 emails that 
have answered the 2 question; and they are all going to be read 
thoroughly, “and will undergo a thorough qualitative and quantitative 
analysis in January 2017.”  A report will be forthcoming in March 2017.

I thank Dr Amanda Ellison and Kate Deeming, and Katie for hosting the 
meeting.

Pleasant dreams and best wishes

Susan


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