The Executive of Cambridge University, England, which was originally founded in the year 1231, has rejected a demand by academics to divest from fossil fuels, because they are worried such divestment will impact future ability to fund teaching and research programmes.
Cambridge clashes with own academics over climate change
University executive refuses to implement governing body’s carbon divestment motion
The University of Cambridge has become embroiled in an internal battle after executives at the UK’s richest educational institution clashed with academics over proposals to divest from fossil fuels.
Last month the university’s governing body, which is made up of senior academic and administrative staff from its 31 colleges, passed a motion to divest Cambridge’s £5.8bn endowment from fossil fuels.
The decision came amid investor concern that fossil fuel companies will suffer large losses as governments around the world seek to tackle global warning.
But in an unprecedented break from university tradition, Cambridge’s council, its executive arm that sets policy, has said it will not follow through with the governing body’s calls for divestment within the next 12 months.
The council is reluctant to cut investments in fossil fuel companies without assessing how this would affect funding for its teaching and research programmes.
…
Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/ee5200c0-e972-11e6-967b-c88452263daf
According to the Cambridge Zero Carbon Society, the following is the text of the divestment motion;
“That the Regent House, as the governing body of the University, resolves that none of the University’s Endowment Funds should be invested directly or indirectly in companies whose business is wholly or substantially concerned with the extraction of fossil fuels, and requires the Council to publish a Report to the University within twelve months setting out how this is to be achieved”.
Source: http://zerocarbonsoc.soc.srcf.net/?p=4146
Cambridge is the university which brought us the irrepressible arctic ice alarmist Professor Wadhams.
While I acknowledge the effort by the executive to protect the integrity of the research and teaching fund against pointless virtue signalling, I believe in democracy. People in a cooperative institute like Cambridge should be free to vote their own financial self destruction, even if the institute in question has lasted almost 800 years.
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As they say, you just can’t cure stupid.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. – commonly credited to Albert Einstein
I have always heard it as ” there are 2 thing universal on earth, hydrogen and stupidity”
What do fossil fuels have to do with climate change?
CO2
David,
Fossil fuels and CO2 have nothing to do with climate change, despite the dumbness displayed by SMC.
They allow you to fly from the Sahara to the Antarctic highlands in less than 24 hours, which will get you a 150 deg. C climate change, if you do it about now.
G
@toorightmate
I should have been clearer. CO2 is what the Watermelons claim causes CAGW. Fossil fuels produce CO2 when burned. That’s the connection, as far as the Watermelons are concerned.
-What do fossil fuels have to do with climate change?
Communism.
Nor arrogance.
People who make a living (and often a fortune) in the stock market make their selections on the FUTURE prospects of a company. The sum of those selections at any one time is the “price”. If a company is to suffer in the future, for any reason, it will be reflected in a reduction in the price of its stock.
These days investment houses have specialists who deal only in a narrow group of companies (e.g. energy). They live, eat, and breathe in those segments.
Cambridge Academics think they can judge future potential of companies better than the brokers who specialize in that market segment.
Hmmm, was it brokers who specialize in the energy market segment, or blind faith Carbon fundamentalist faculty pushing for divestment?
The PhDs know an awful lot about b****r all. When they hope the share price of fossil fuel companies falls the first to dive in and buy them cheaply will be the likes of Soros.
Their electricity supply should be restricted to renewable sources of solar and windmills. Cambridge is the Fens answer to the US windy city.
Incidentally, when I was there in the1960s I attended a talk on sustainability, and the speakers main thrust was that the ideal UK population would be 35m rather than the then population of 60m. (Now 70m +)
The pity is that the English Literature professors at Cambridge seem to think Wadhams is an eminent climate scientist.
Well, it seems they let the faculty shoot their Wadhams and then made the sensible decision.
Always remember….
1 Wadham = 1 million km² 🙂
Universities have student sabbaticals that run their Student Unions (SUs). The sabbaticals are supposedly in charge of the SUs. But in reality the control is held by the people who pay.
That’s the University administrators.
This patronising attitude now seems to have been extended to the administration of the grown-ups.
Understandable.
I regret to say I’m a graduate of Cambridge.
Wadhams and the rest of the idiots who voted for this insanity obviously have money than sense.
Dear B&T,
Do reconsider your regret, dear Tab. You should be very proud to have been accepted to and completed your education at one of the finest universities in the world.
Here. Perhaps (and I hope!), this will remind you of the good things about your alma mater, there are so many of them….
Cambridge University (until ~ 11:00, history; ~11:00 on, glorious music! 🙂 )
(youtube)
With admiration for your distinguished academic accomplishments,
Janice Moore
CORRECTION: Above video relates some history, but is MOSTLY about music at Cambridge, with much video of architecture and some history (but, much narrative is about the music itself). You may find it to be “too much music” — I liked it! 🙂
Well and the Cambridge boat team got whipped by The Oxford boat team in the boat race.
I almost forgot; the Oxford Ladies boating team also clobbered the Cambridge ladies boat team.
The former Vice Chancellor of MY alma mater became the VC or maybe the C of Oxford University.
G
I’m proud to say that my daughter graduated from Cambridge.
And I was at Riversdale College of Technology.
You need to say that with a scouse accent, as it was in that magnificent city – Liverpool.
A long way from Cambridge or, indeed, Oxford. But very special!
Went back to do a degree at Liverpool Polytechnic.
Was there when the Hillsborough Disaster happened. Incredible sense of community. I have not experienced that city-wide. Locally, yes – perhaps a dozen neighbours.
But that was city-wide – both sides, Blues as well as Reds [Everton and Liverpool, not the political parties].
Auto
Easy to vote for divestment when it isn’t their money that is affected.
Board members who vote for divestment, should clean their own houses first.
YOU are embarrassed? I was at Jesus College at the same time as John Houghton, Gavin Schmidt, and Ed Davey….
Hell I was next to Prince Charles in my first year!
I wonder if the cretins are in favor of riding on stone block or log roads? Without oil, there is no asphalt. Without coal, there is no cement.
No steel either
The old university towns tend to have a lot of cobble stone roads, so they might actually prefer that…
🙂
… walking along in their “sustainable” kelp sandals. No deodorant. Teeth falling out. Fingers calloused from using abucuses to try (try — I didn’t say they ever managed to complete the course; most drop out after the first 2 years of trying….) to do their Advanced Calculus and Physics II homework….
Oh. And with their giant magnifying glasses, wine flasks (no clean drinking water for miles), and bamboo knives (for cutting the nettles for their soup), hanging from their woven kelp belt, clanking dismally as they stride along the cobblestones.
Without Petrochemicals and mining, there are no houses, no computers, no iphones, no cars (electric or not), etc, etc. Because you are a Professor, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are intelligent.
I should say no affordable modern houses (steel beams, aluminum, fittings, etc.
You were correct to say “houses,” John. “Hovels” are what they will end up with.
@ur momisugly ShrNfr, and I wonder how they are going to send research teams all over the world and get up to date information without computers, GPS, planes, and other methods all possible because of fossil fuels, if this place was founded 800 years ago I wonder how they kept it going for that length of time.
Hot air?
“The decision came amid investor concern that fossil fuel companies will suffer large losses as governments around the world seek to tackle global warning.”
Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason. “Investor concern”. I mean, what else could it be? Governments around the world surely must be chomping at the bit to commit economic suicide, just so they can say “See? We’re helping to save the planet, no matter how much it hurts us.”
The stupid, it burns.
Yes, the Governments want to virtue signal, and the more cynical ones just play along because they are hoping to pilfer ‘green’ money from the citizens of the First World.
The reality is that the Governments (which mean, the bureaucrats, politicians and their crony backers) never ‘hurt’. Their pensions remain, their salaries increase for the ‘important work’ they are doing. The people who do suffer are the poor and the politically disfavored (that is, the productive classes, and especially straight white men who pay into the system but are discriminated against for getting any benefits out, the benefits are all targeted for everyone else).
This is why the bureaucrats are not displaying personal ‘virtue’ but are exhibiting the Left’s substitute for it, ‘virtue signaling’ – the bureaucrats are prepared to suffer private planes to Davos and taxpayer-funded lobster and champagne gabfests while they plot how to regulate and tax the citizens more and more to pay for their narcissistic (and anti-scientific) positions.
They are ignorant (following Karl Popper’s famous definition of the term), and it is said to “Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence”, but in the case of people like Christina Figueres it is clear these people understand exactly what they are doing – extorting the wealth of the productive through involuntary means and deliberate deception. That makes them not only stupid, but EVIL too (where evil is the desire to impose one’s will involuntarily on an unwilling victim).
As they said of the orchestrated Occupy Wall Street invasion, It is “the silly, lead by the sinister”. The lower-level folks are stupid, but the higher-level people are mistaken at all, they are simple EVIL. See the banality of evil now (most people can only identify evil in the historical past, the trick is to see it in the present).
+1 ponerology
Moa, yes: It was a political (leftist/progressive) vote and virtue signaling of the worst sort –> Trying to influence others in a harmful manner without adequate justification.
They have taken a “scientific” position based on authority. Had they even looked at the issue in a cursory manner, they would have realized there are legitimate questions about climate harm from human activities. It is proven that IPCC climate models are bunk and inadequate for the purpose of fundamentally changing our economies, societies and energy systems.
I wonder if any of them realize the harm caused by subsidizing renewables and penalizing coal, oil and natural gas? [Evidence Germany and others.] Do they simply take it on authority that renewables are a better investment? What happens when the subsidies end? President The Donald, anyone?
[OT, but does anyone else see the manner of the New England Patriot’s Super Bowl win as a metaphor for President Trump’s?]
I think you meant to say no matter how much it hurts my constituents. I will will be safe and warm in my own house. You don’t expect me to comply with the same laws the normal people have to; do you?
“Moa February 5, 2017 at 4:50 pm
…and especially straight white men who pay into the system but are discriminated against for getting any benefits out, the benefits are all targeted for everyone else…”
You got that right! Many years ago I applied for a volunteer position at the UN to help people in Africa and India with computers etc, I had the skills required. I was not accepted. The short versions of the rejection reply was that I was not a poor black woman.
Good for you! There are many NGO’s who would appreciate your contribution. Keep trying.
I wonder if there will be a revolt by the alumni. That might concentrate their minds.
Well I believe Lord M of B is an alumnus of Cambridge. So it isn’t fatal. There are some voices of sanity.
That Institution will probably make it to 2231 despite the goofballs.
G
All institutions suffer highs and lows.
As long as the lows aren’t too low, the institution will live to teach another day.
People (especially the “most academic”) shouldn’t drive or fly or heat their homes or anything else that involves fossil fuels if they’re so willing to lie about CAGW.
That’s what the administrators should have asked the academics…have you personally gotten fossil fuels out of your day to day lives? If not, why not, and why do you expect us to do it?
Cambridge, like all Universities, splits into Academic & Functional/Administrative departments.
Were the latter to inveigh upon the former in like-terms, CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE THE REACTION!
My case rests …..
I long ago learned there is virtually no relationship between educational level or I.Q. and “gullibility”.
Actually Richard Lindzen said that the common man can see right through the climate scam but the educated are quite vulnerable to it.
If anything, the highly educated/intelligent are easier to dupe. And have a harder time admitting it when they have been. The smarter you are, the better you are at lying to yourself, and the better you are at rationalizing behavior that could be questionable. Without a disciplined ego and a genuine humility about your own abilities, intellectual dishonesty is almost inevitable.
I disagree somewhat. In my experience, the really smart people know how little they know and are happy to change their opinion when new data comes in. It’s the midwits–the kind of people who end up filling most of academia–who are convinced they know everything and should be telling everyone else what to do. Their entire being is based around how ‘smart’ they are, even though they’re dimwits compared to the really smart people.
It seems to me that IQ and functional/actual intelligence are often very different . . Approximately; Intelligence equals IQ over freedom of the mind . . It don’t matter much how big your boat’s engine is, if it’s always tied up to the dock . .
On further reflection, I think I ought to have said freedom of the mind over IQ . .
Smart is not the same as wise. Educated and foolish are not always opposites.
It sounds to me like Cambridge’s bi-cameral, quasi-constitutional democracy, is working just as its founders intended. The checks and balances, similar in many ways to those in the representative democracy of the Republic of the United States of America, are doing their job.
And I feel quite certain that C. S. Lewis, one of Oxford University’s and then, Cambridge University’s keenest minds, would agree.
Excerpt from a February 21, 1953 letter —
Your question about Communists-in-government really raises the whole problem of Democracy. If one accepts the basic principle of Govt. by majorities, how can one consistently try to suppress those problems of public propaganda and getting-into-govt, by which majorities are formed. If the Communists in this country can persuade the majority to sell in to Russia, or even to set up devil-worship and human sacrifice, what is the democratic reply? …
Perhaps pure democracy is really a false ideal.
God bless you all. In great haste.
Yours ever
C. S. Lewis
(Source: Letter to Mary Van Deusen from C. S. Lewis in C.S. Lewis — Collected Letters, vol. III at 296)
He is right. Pure democracy is not the best guardian of either liberty or of truth.
And even the best constitutional democracy will fail in the end unless good people stand up for what is right.
Thus, I say, WELL DONE, CAMBRIDGE EXECUTIVE!
Democracy is a good servant. Don’t make it your Master.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
These days a quick look at comments on YouTube is enough to convince me.
Now, now, Jer0me, limited democracy has worked quite well. It has its faults, I agree, but, it’s the best thing going (benevolent dictatorships always going wrong in the end, I mean). The People, properly educated, bring to bear much native morality and commonsense. To wit:
1) BREXIT PASSED!
2) TRUMP WON!
#(:))
Your loudmouth American friend,
Janice
Such arrogance !
At least the average voter doesn’t hold themselves superior to their fellows. Only deluded elitists do – and it turns out (like the EU’s Martin Schulz) they are quite often intellectually inferior to a significant fraction of the public. The bureaucracy is the only chance that many mediocre people have of attaining resources (by siphoning off those the productive class create in the Free Market of voluntary exchange).
It is attitude like yours that are the best argument for democracy – in a democracy the votes of the arrogant are deluded by the mass of much more pragmatic and humble people.
Why don’t you sod off to North Korea where your attitude would be welcomed ?
I agree, Janice. It’s the worst system invented, apart from all the other systems 🙂
Moa, I can be much more arrogant, believe me. I try not to be so rude, however. Try not taking it so seriously, maybe?
Moa. ??? Even though I disputed what Jer0me said to a degree, he DID have a good point. His evidence is, sadly, fairly compelling, too.
Re: you at 4:50pm — APPLAUSE! for calling Big AGW what it is: “evil.”
Looking forward to more unvarnished writing from you (and also, I hope….. a bit of an apology to Jer0me…. over what I am sure was just a misunderstanding…..).
Thank you for your gracious reply, Jer0me. Yes, we are on the same page! (I didn’t think you sounded arrogant, btw — just exasperated)
Moa, there is a valid point in that cooler heads must prevail. The average voter is subject to the winds of change and tides of public opinion that rise and ebb faster than the tides.
By having dedicated officials hold office for several years, they can both be better informed than a typical person (either personally or via support staff), and since they have responsibilities over several years, they must look to the long term (or at least medium-term) effects of their actions.
For the best example, look to the early 90s, when California voted themselves a 50% reduction in property taxes by direct ballot. This killed the school systems for years until it was rolled back by elected officials. Direct democracy has it’s drawbacks. On the other hand, it is sometimes a necessary fallback to avoid corruption.
I was under the impression that The USA is not a democracy.
I thought it was a Democratic Republic. And is there not a difference? Please correct me if I am wrong.
The best argument for democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average politician.
ben, it wasn’t proposition 15 that killed the school system, it was the politicians and the teacher’s unions.
BTW, prop 15 was voted on in 1978 if I remember correctly.
During the previous decades, rapidly rising property values, and the unwillingness of politicians to adjust property taxe rates to compensate had resulted in sky rocketing property taxes. This was a boon to politicians who got to spend lots of other people’s money, and to real estate agents who made a fortune off of individuals who were forced to sell because they could no longer afford the property taxes.
The schools only suffered because the politicians diverted money away from them in order to create pressure on people to rescind the tax cut.
Democracy does have failure modes, for example one of my concerns about the climate “crisis” is that it is a moral slipper slope – nothing is out of bounds, if you believe you are working to prevent the destruction of the world.
But in this case I think the professors should be free to sample the rewards of their own stupidity.
Was it a Winston Churchill saying that ” Democracy is the best form of Government; except for all the rest !”
or was that Yogi Berra ??
G
It was Churchill, yes (I’m assuming you meant ‘worst’, not ‘best’ BTW)
Good comments, Janice – as always.
My grandson started his course in the Natural Sciences at CU last October. Over the years he is well aware of my views on the GW/CC fraud and also realised that you could only answer exam questions on CC the “right” way. No doubt he will meet some of these academic charlatans and it will be fascinating to hear his observations.
If the current generation of Veterinarians is anything to go by, I am prepared to be disappointed in how his beliefs develop.
Michael Oxenham
I suggest the “academics” demanding divestment be required to work under the same conditions their eighteenth century predecessors worked under – no electricity in their offices and homes, no automobiles or any other kind of transportation based on internal combustion or electricity, and so on. Limit them to candles for lighting, wood for heating, and transportation by horse or on foot.
This is simple, setup 2 pension funds. One divested and the other not. Employees, academics can opt for either one.
As to Pensions, good idea, but there’s a variety of Endowment Funds, some particular to individual Colleges (the richest of whom manage them independently) and some (the rest?) managed by the Estates Management Dept. (my bro, was a Senior Mgr. 30 yrs ago.)
The fiduciary duty (does anyone subscribe to this antediluvian concept any more?) of the Estate Mgrs. is to maximize the Asset-growth and Income-return, just as any good, honest Funds Mgr. wd do.
These airy-fairy academics rely on the performance of these funds. They may be inviting a bounced cheque from the University!
And I’d crack my ribs laughing at their self-induced fate!
Even better, professors with named chairs funded by a specific endowment can decide whether they want their pay to come from returns on either option, but that will be their pay, regardless of what happens. Eat your own dog food.
I think the problem is deeper than that .
If it were just individual pensions then individuals could opt out of fossil fuels.
However the funds support the whole University, its teaching and presumably maintenance of buildings.
Back in the day at Sydney Uni the problem for block grants and estate distributions was that often money was left to build something with naming rights, but nothing was left to actually run, maintain and staff the building. Money the Uni then had to provide.
These trusts are so large they could be used now to give free education to students for many years, until it runs out.
However prudence warrants them not to do this.
If they decide to divest in a whole class of investments then those benefactors with them, say coal, will not endow to Cambridge, as Cambridge would have to refuse them.
This would tend to mean that other worthy institutions would be the beneficiary.
In the meanwhile, with a known policy of divestment,a big pool of funds available to be sold for ‘moral ‘ reasons, they will have to accept the ruling price now, rather than picking the eyes out of the market when they sell.
Not good in a downturn.
Here in Canada there is similar pressure put upon pension funds to divest from fossil fuel companies and invest in “carbon-free” technologies. It is all part of a campaign to starve oil and coal companies of investments, and drive them toward bankruptcy. For an insight into the deluded chain of suppositions driving the activists, see:
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/behind-the-alarmist-scene/
This is a serious maneuver, Mercer has published a handbook for institutional investors, and they are taking it on board.
Sounds more like they want to drop stock prices. Since there are investors out there who will snap up the stocks the academics divested all the academics accomplish will be to lower the value of their portfolio – NOT starve the companies of investments.
Re: Activists in Canada
McGill Reporter, May 30, 2002
‘Creating a dynamic new law centre’
“The Centre for International Sustainable Development Law”, Montreal
http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/34/17/segger
This is what the CISDL has now become. A centre for activist lawyers.
http://www.cisdl.org
Montreal/Quebec has become a hub for Canadian activist organizations.
Baraba, as usual canada runs a few years behind, so I hope 3.5 years from now we will elect O’Leary to straighten things out. As far as Universities divesting away from fossil fuels? I am watching the market . There could be some good buys although I doubt the managers of those funds are going to change anything a political science Prof. tells them!
“This is what the CISDL has now become. A centre for activist lawyers.”
What else would you expect a ‘Centre for International Sustainable Development Law’ to be?
The sooner Quebec is kicked out of Canada. the better.
Quebec residents may not be informed as to what goes on in their province anymore than residents of other provinces are.
They ought to leave this decision to a stock broker.
Cambridge, as well as other elite universities, need to divest from stupid.
We create financial instruments based on debt, so can we create financial instruments based on stupid (which is a sort of debt)? There would be lots of money to make in that sector, yes?
Cambridge academics appear to be eager to return to dustroads and horse traction. With the hoi polloi clearing the dung, of course.
It’s all about relative power. The left would rather be king in a pre-industrial society than paupers in a post-industrial utopia.
Religion is taking over the universities again just like in the Dark Age.
That’s not completely crazy. If governments act in an insane manner, it could hurt fossil fuel companies.
On the other hand, we have yet to see any national government willing to die on the CAGW altar. I think the worry about government action is just a rhetorical tool. In the case of America, there is very little possibility that President Trump’s government will do much that is harmful to the fossil fuel companies.
Amusing Freudian error – “warning” instead of “warming”?
Yep I reckon every government should come down hard on all these peddlers of warning.
FT article via Google.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjd2PLwoPrRAhXrlFQKHRLEB6IQFggfMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2Fee5200c0-e972-11e6-967b-c88452263daf&usg=AFQjCNE4gK99xFQO07PEUPXqHzlA8FlR-w&bvm=bv.146094739,d.eWE
Oh my!
Chris Galpin, campaigns officer at Cambridge Zero Carbon, a student society
Does Chris actually “study” at Cambridge? I would like to find out.
Oh my! I went and googled the fellow, he doesn’t sit still!
I’m not exactly sure how to express it, but there just seems to be something fundamentally wrong with universities wanting to invest in companies/industries that are being subsidized or otherwise funded by government/taxpayer money. Almost as if they’re expecting the gov./taxpayer to guarantee good and safe returns on their investments, the taxpayer be damned.
Now think about this in terms of the corruption of science. Having made a big financial bet that hydrocarbon companies are a bad investment you have great motivation to make the bet pay. It just so happens that you produce the science which informs the very government policies that will validate your bet. Not difficult to see how inappropriate all this is and frankly how obviously self-dealing its all been from the start.
I’m afraid we are dealing with the worst type of temple priests in all of this. Blinded by ideology and hubris they casually violate ethical standards. The executive should stand its ground as the protector of the institution against passions of the moment. The government which I am sure shovels money into the university one way or another should legislate a separation of faculty politics and investment management. If that isn’t possible pull funding until the profs get back to the work they’ve been hired to do.
OMG, I can scarcely contain myself at the thought of “Trainwreck TV: Climate Academics Managing Their Own Pension Funds.”
Divest in fossil fuels? Try defunding climate change research focused on CO2?
Climate “Science” on Trial; If Something is Understood, it can be Modeled
https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/climate-science-on-trial-if-something-is-understood-it-can-be-modeled/