MSU Sunrise talks divestment, environment injustice

This Tuesday, Michigan State Universitys Sunrise Hub hosted a Divestment Teach-In and welcomed guest speakers to discuss environmental injustice and divestment.

Jakob Levengood, Sunrise MSU Core Team Divestment, explained that divestment is the “stopping of investment in companies which engage directly or profit from the exploration, refinement transportation and distribution of fossilfuels.”

This means that Michigan State University will eliminate millions of dollars of financial support to companies like Enbridge, which have a long history in polluting our state, and irreparably destroying our environment.

Assistant Professor Daniel B. Ahlquist, James Madison College, was one of the featured guests speakers. He shared similar concerns.

Yes, exiting our investment into the fossil fuel industry could lead to short-term financial sanctions, he stated. But, knowing what we know, how do we justify dragging our feet on worries about short-term losses of a fraction of one percent of our four billion-dollar endowment.

They spoke about March 18, 2019, when nine chemical tank fires erupted near Deer Park in Texas.

Jessica Diaz, a founder member of the MSU Sunrise Hub, stated that this was all over her social media. She is a first-generation Mexican American and a Houston, Texas, native who grew up in a Houston, Texas, frontline community.

Every day, I am wondering if this is the day that I wake-up and see a headline about my community. Diaz said. “It is unacceptable for students at MSU to be complicit in the pollution, toxicity, explosion, and all the health effects that communities like mine are experiencing every single day.

She believes that all people and communities should have equal protection and enforcement of environmental laws. If movements work in partnership with frontline communities who see the horrors and abuses that environmental abuse causes every day, divestment will only be possible.

Hazel Anderson, a first-year Ph.D. student in Integrative Biology and the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program, stated that the average temperature is increasing, ocean acidification, rise in sea levels, drought, flooding, and other extreme weather events. The temperatures in Michigan have increased by just a little more than two degrees Fahrenheit over the past decade and are expected to rise even further by the end of this century.

Sunrise MSUs has launched a divestment campaign asking the MSU Board of Trustees for immediate termination of all current investments in companies profiting from fossil fuels. Levengood also asked for a commitment to stop future investments in these companies.

He also stated that lake levels are expected to decrease. This means that there will be more rainstorms and less rainfall during the summer months. The Great Lakes will see more dead zones due to longer summers. This will have a cascading impact on the environment and species in the area.

Ahlquist said that we are one the largest universities in the nation.