MSU Sunrise talks divestment, environment injustice

This Tuesday, Michigan State Universitys Sunrise Hub hosted a Divestment Teach-In. Guest speakers were invited to discuss the intricacies of divestment as well as environmental injustice.

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

Michigan State University is attempting to eliminate the millions of dollars in financial assistance that was provided by both direct and indirect investments to Enbridge, which has a long history for polluting our state and irreparably harming our environment.

Assistant Professor Daniel B. Ahlquist from James Madison College was one of the featured 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, who is a founding member and former Mexican American, said that the incident was all over social media.

I am always asking myself, every day, if this is the day that I wake-up and see a headline similar to this about my community? Diaz said. “To me, MSU students should not be comfortable with the knowledge that MSU is complicit with the pollution and toxicity of the explosion, the health effects, and all the other health effects that communities such as mine are experiencing each day.”

She believes that all people and communities should have equal protection and enforcement of environmental laws. Only a collaboration between frontline communities and movements that see the horrors of environmental abuse every single day can make divestment work.

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.