Jatinder Sandhu - Dem Now

Jatinder Sandhu

5-11-2014

Democracy Now

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/7/stanford_divests_student_led_movement_forces

Stanford has succumbed to a student led movement to divest funds from the fossil fuel industry. The students had a 17 day sit-in calling for a divestment from the coal industry. The amount of money Stanford has taken out of the industry is valued at $18.7 billion. Students have spent a long time calling for the board to divest. According to Stanford's guidelines, they can divest from companies that have corporate policies or practices that create substantial social injury. Over 2700 students voted to divest, which is surprising amount of cooperation from the student body. The article goes on to discuss the fact that this is a generational movement. Today's students want to change; they want to save the environment. The same movement is happening around the United States, students pushing for Universities to divest from the fossil fuel industry. The article even discusses Harvard divest movement; the students blockaded the president's office to hope for a meeting with the president. It seems like the campus' are focusing mostly on Peabody Energy. Peabody Energy is where most of the Universities have invested most in.

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/7/foretelling_devastating_impact_will_white_house

The White House released a Climate Report on Global Warming. The new report warns human-driven climate change is having a real effect on human health. With the White House acknowledging the fact that global warming exists, it has led to a new interest in climate change. President Obama said "The assessment is clear. Not only is climate change a problem in the future, it's already affecting Americans." This is a problem for us now; this isn't a problem that can be pushed further back. We are starting to see the effects more clearly and much more rapidly. 300 authors were in on the report; they included scientists, public and private stake holders, local communities, all identifying climate problems. The most real effects we will be seeing are weather changes. Katrina like hurricanes can become much more likely now that the oceans have become warmer. The loss of artic ice could further the changes and may even change the jet stream. The other human factor that we must look at is droughts and crop failures. We are seeing the real life effects in the state of California. It has been struck by a massive drought that is threatening to hinder crop yields. Considering California supplies most of the United States with its fruits and vegetables this will be very devastating. We must however identify that this is not only occurring for the United States. This is a global problem but we are finally seeing the effects here at home.