Snowmageddon and the Case for Divesting Now

Nothing could make the case for Harvard’s divesting from fossil fuels now more forcefully and eloquently than this winter’s Boston weather. Granted, nobody knows with 100 percent certainty that global climate change caused the many weeks of snowfall and frigid temperatures. However, even those who formerly scoffed have to admit that something very strange and ominous is happening to weather patterns around the world. Climate change is no longer a problem we can pass along to our children and grandchildren; it is here now.

For anyone who wishes to understand the connection between Boston’s Snowmadeggon and global warming, I refer them to an article in the Washington Post entitled “What the massive snowfall in Boston tells us about global warming.” It has to do with warmer than usual waters in the Atlantic off New England.

The freakish New England winter has already caused billions of dollars in lost productivity, transportation shutdowns, traffic accidents, hospitalizations, snow removal, and building damage from collapsed roofs. Harvard University itself must bear some of these costs. How many more catastrophic weather events must we endure before we find the courage to act?

Two recent scientific studies underscore the urgency of divesting now. The Washington Post recently published an article entitled, “The rate of sea-level rise is ‘far worse than previously thought,’ study says.” CNN also released a news feature entitled “Risk of American 'megadroughts' for decades, NASA warns.”  Both provide a preview of the perilous climate changes caused by mankind’s unchecked bad habits.

The new chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee is Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Inhofe has declared climate change to be the greatest hoax played on mankind.  With control of both houses in Congress, Republican climate skeptics like Inhofe will do all they can to undermine any attempts to deal with climate change for as long as they are in power.

The world counts on the U.S. to take the lead on this, the most important challenge of the 21st century.  President Obama has made bold moves to reach out to China and India in order to end the impasse between developed and developing nations on climate change strategies. With his leadership, we have taken some significant strides in addressing this issue. But he cannot do it alone and he has less than two years left in office. The forces arrayed against him are formidable. And governments—whether federal, state or local—cannot drive these changes without help from our institutions of higher learning with their intellectual and moral leadership aligned with their endowment portfolios.

Harvard is in a unique position, as the most prestigious university in the world, to lead the divestment movement. How will we explain to our children and grandchildren that, when there was still time to save the planet, we elected to do nothing? Not to decide is to decide.

Once Harvard divests from fossil fuels, many other universities and institutions will follow. How will we feel 10, 20, 50 years from now when they write the history of this era? Will Harvard be seen as a leader or a follower? Global climate change affects every person on the planet and will determine how habitable our world is for centuries. Is this cause any less important than South African apartheid, tobacco use, or discrimination against gay men and women in the military, all issues on which Harvard has taken an institutional stand in the past? At the time, those seemed like tough decisions, too. In hindsight, they appear obvious. Will we stand on the right side of history this time? What does your conscience say?

I urge you to visit the website of Divest Harvard and sign the petition, if you haven’t already. With enough pressure, I have confidence that President Faust and the Harvard Corporation will do the right thing—very soon.

George K. Chaffee ’64 is a retired regional sales manager for manufacturers of air pollution monitoring instrumentation.