  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2012
Contact: Kim Teplitzky, 267-307-4707,
kim.teplitzky@sierraclub.org
Students Call for Universities to Divest from Coal
Students call
on universities to move millions of dollars in new campaign to distance schools
from dangerous, dirty fossil fuel investments
URBANA, IL - Students from North Carolina to Illinois are uniting in a
call to move millions of dollars in university endowment funds out of the risky
and dirty coal industry. Through actions including street art, Twitter
campaigns, photo petitions and interactive movie screenings, students are
aiming to make universities put their money where their mouth is on sustainability
and send a clear signal to the coal industry that this generation of activists
means business.
“Big coal is making people sick all across the country. It’s
time to align our university’s commitment to sustainability on campus with
their long-term financial investments. We want to show that making money by
polluting our air and water is not acceptable,” said Katrina Underwood a junior
at the Univerity of Illinois-Urbana-Champagne. “We know we can have a
profitable endowment fund that provides for the future of the university and
protects our school from the risks of the fossil fuel industry.”
The campaign, a joint effort of both financial and
environmental groups, is calling on schools to move their money away from the
“Filthy 15” a list of some of the dirtiest coal-burning and coal-mining
companies in the nation – including Peabody, Consol Energy, Alpha Natural
Resources, Ameren and Duke Energy.
“Students have been at the forefront of every major social
movement in recent decades and the fight to move our nation beyond coal to
clean energy is no different,” said Mary Schellentrager, Coal Divestment
Coordinator for Energy Action Coalition. “Young people are constantly finding
creative new ways to challenge the status quo – fighting against the Vietnam
War in the 70’s, apartheid in the 80’s and now ending our nation’s reliance on
dirty and dangerous fossil fuels.”
Actions this week include a chalk street art project at the
University of Illinois, a social media campaign to tweet at Chancellor Thorp
and share a student-made video at the University of North Carolina and engaging
students one-on-one with photo petitions at Colby College in Maine.
Other participating schools include Swarthmore College in
Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Earlham College in Indiana and College of the
Atlantic in Maine.
“We’re standing up to show both our universities and Wall
Street that our generation is serious about moving away from coal and building
a clean, healthy energy future. We can no longer afford to bankroll the coal industry’s
destruction of our land, water, air and communities,” said Underwood.
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Divest Coal Coalition includes these environmental and
financial justice organizations: As You Sow, California Student Sustainability
Coalition, Energy Action Coalition, Responsible Endowments Coalition, Sierra
Student Coalition, and Sustainable Endowments Institute.
For more information the campaign:
wearepowershift.org/divestcoal
Connect with the Sierra Club:
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Sierra Club
