Professors at Stanford are urging the university to divest its holdings from all fossil fuel companies, Climate Progress reported.
A group of 300 Stanford professors, including two Nobel laureates, sent a letter to the university outlining the threat climate change poses to the earth and how fossil fuel holdings increase that threat.
“To prevent widespread ecological and icesheet collapse we must limit global warming to two degrees,” the professors wrote in the letter. “Scientific consensus indicates that to stay within this two degree margin, we must cap carbon dioxide emissions at 565 gigatons. Because companies currently own fossil fuel holdings sufficient to produce 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide, the risk is clear: 2,795 gigatons is five times the scientifically designated limit.”
Stanford announced in May that it would divest from coal companies. However, the school has invested in three more oil and gas companies a few months after announcing its break from coal, according to the Guardian. The professors are asking that the university completely divest from all companies with any fossil fuel holdings.
Stanford has an endowment of $21.4 billion, according to the university’s website.
