Bill McKibben

November 20, 2013 - 5:32pm
Students all over the country are pressuring their administrations to remove their investments from fossil fuels. But as time passes and the campaign gets little reaction, questions arise as to whether this approach is actually beneficial.

In October 2012, Bill McKibben, renowned climate change activist and founder of 350.org (and a personal hero of mine) kicked off the “Go Fossil Free” campaign, encouraging students to encourage their institutions to divest their massive endowment funds from fossil-fuel based companies. Roaming the country on his “Do The Math” tour, McKibben put it simply: fossil fuels are causing climate change, and unless we “rise up to stop them,” fossil fuel companies will keep doing what they do – making money by destroying our planet.

December 19, 2012 - 10:53am
A student campaign is urging the administration to avoid giving endowment funds to fossil fuel companies.

A divestment campaign has been pushed by students at Syracuse University to freeze out possible fossil fuel companies who have received money from the school’s endowments. The students are planning on working with Nancy Cantor to accomplish some form of independence from the fossil fuel industry.

October 20, 2012 - 9:20pm
Syracuse and ESF students and faculty are planning a campaign to urge the university to cut ties with companies that contribute to climate change.

After environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke at Syracuse University on Oct. 10, a signup sheet circulated among students and faculty members who were interested in accomplishing McKibben's tasks to take action against climate change. Three student groups hosted a meeting today that marked the first step toward achieving these goals.

October 10, 2012 - 8:48pm
350.org founder Bill McKibben spoke at Hendricks Chapel Wednesday night about global climate change.

Bill McKibben started his lecture with a joke.

“The Dalai Lama is a hard act to follow,” he said, garnering some laughter from the crowd.

But McKibben was greeted with a sea of audience members who packed into Hendricks Chapel Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. to see him speak as part of the first Syracuse University 2012-13 University Lectures series.