[DurhamDivest] Reporting news about a divestment protest lead by People and Planet

[Susan Wesley]

Hi Everyone

Reporting news about a divestment protest lead by People and Planet 
yesterday evening and supported by me.

If any People and Planet are reading this well done you were inspiring! 
magnificent! and determined!

Below is an email I sent to the Vice Chancellor today, reminding him 
that the Durham University divest from fossil fuels campaign is alive 
and kicking.

“Dear Stuart

Yesterday evening I supported a protest at the Calman Learning Centre, 
“The role of oil and gas tomorrow” given by Olaf Martins.

It was a peaceful protest by People and Planet support by me, and we 
fight this cause for divestment of fossil fuels including oil and gas, 
for everyone including Olaf Martins; who was gracious but understandably 
disappointed to have to abandon the lecture.

The protest could have been avoided if the university would stop 
dragging their feet in their decision to divest from all forms of fossil 
fuels. The lack of information from the university on this subject 
fuelled the protest.

It is clear that the majority of students and university employees want 
the university to divest for the good of humanity, and all life on our 
world.

The focus should be on renewable energy, it is vital we do that now! 
Time is running out, the CO2 is rising, and so is the heat and the 
oceans. My solar panels fired up this afternoon, I was astonished, that 
hasn't happen this early before.

I presented evidence that oil companies were warned about global warming 
by Edward Teller in 1959.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am to talk to you about energy in the future. I 
will start by telling you why I believe that the energy resources of the 
past must be supplemented. First of all, these energy resources will run 
short as we use more and more of the fossil fuels. [....] But I would 
[...] like to mention another reason why we probably have to look for 
additional fuel supplies. And this, strangely, is the question of 
contaminating the atmosphere. [....] Whenever you burn conventional 
fuel, you create carbon dioxide. [....] The carbon dioxide is invisible, 
it is transparent, you can’t smell it, it is not dangerous to health, so 
why should one worry about it?

Carbon dioxide has a strange property. It transmits visible light but it 
absorbs the infrared radiation which is emitted from the earth. Its 
presence in the atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect [....] It has been 
calculated that a temperature rise corresponding to a 10 per cent 
increase in carbon dioxide will be sufficient to melt the icecap and 
submerge New York. All the coastal cities would be covered, and since a 
considerable percentage of the human race lives in coastal regions, I 
think that this chemical contamination is more serious than most people 
tend to believe.”

“At present the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 2 per cent 
over normal. By 1970, it will be perhaps 4 per cent, by 1980, 8 per 
cent, by 1990, 16 per cent [about 360 parts per million, by Teller’s 
accounting], if we keep on with our exponential rise in the use of 
purely conventional fuels. By that time, there will be a serious 
additional impediment for the radiation leaving the earth. Our planet 
will get a little warmer. It is hard to say whether it will be 2 degrees 
Fahrenheit or only one or 5.

But when the temperature does rise by a few degrees over the whole 
globe, there is a possibility that the icecaps will start melting and 
the level of the oceans will begin to rise. Well, I don’t know whether 
they will cover the Empire State Building or not, but anyone can 
calculate it by looking at the map and noting that the icecaps over 
Greenland and over Antarctica are perhaps five thousand feet thick.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/01/on-its-hundredth-birthday-in-1959-edward-teller-warned-the-oil-industry-about-global-warming

CO2  globally stands now at 403.96 ppm by October 2017 and it continues 
to rise.

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html

If as a University you can not see the desperate situation we are in 
then what is the point of you!

Yours truly

Susan”

All the best everyone; People and Planet your were awesome!

Susan