***On February 9, 2023, the Carleton Board of Trustees voted to eliminate all direct holdings of fossil fuel companies and to phase out all private funds that focus exclusively on oil and gas extraction. You can read their letter to the Carleton Community here.***
If you would like to sign the Divest Carleton petition, you can do so online here!
We are a committed group of alumni, faculty and students calling on Carleton College to divest its endowment from fossil fuel companies, military industries, and commit to never investing in private prisons. We join others at more than 300 colleges and universities around the country in asking our administrations to take the next step toward real action on climate change and a just future for students.
We presently (as of December 1, 2022) have 3,753 names on our petition. This includes 580 current students and 3,044 alumni from 71 classes. Please join us! For a full description of what we are demanding, read our divestment proposal.
Climate change is now one of the most pressing issues facing the world. A third of Pakistan went under water in the summer of 2022; the state of Kentucky was hit with some of the worst flooding in its history; most of the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa experienced record temperatures of above 120 *F. The United States and European Union are responsible for over 25% of global carbon emissions, making it our responsibility to do our part in putting our resources away from extractive fossil fuel corporations and toward real climate solutions. Divest Carleton aims to accomplish this goal by demanding Carleton College sell its stocks in coal, oil, and gas extraction and distribution, presently worth $58 million dollars. This will financially and politically make it more difficult for fossil fuel companies to continue their destructive extraction.
Divestment is an international movement, with various funds totaling over $40 trillion dollars having committed to never invest in fossil fuels. Many groups are now also calling on universities to divest from corporations that profit from war and from private prisons. Divest Carleton is a part of this movement. We believe that our institution must act on the values it teaches us in the classroom. Carleton College cannot claim to provide a healthy, inclusive space for learning when its endowment is invested in industries that destroy our communities through climate-induced disasters and wars, which disproportionately impact frontline BIPOC communities, particularly in the Global South. The endowment is controlled by the Carleton Board of Trustees, an opaque decision-making body made up primarily of wealthy hedge fund managers, leaving the lives and futures of us students in the hands of people who are the last to be affected by climate disasters and war. Divestment aims to move resources toward a just and livable future for all.
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