Fossil Fuel Sit-in: Challenge for Trustees

I read with interest the item about the sit-in to call for Princeton to divest itself of all investments in fossil fuels (published online, Sept. 30). In my day on campus, the target was South Africa and its then-despicable apartheid regime.

The fossil-fuel complex is a much tougher target, I’d imagine, in part because many mutual funds include stocks of the major oil companies. While I have no idea of the extent of Princeton’s investments in such funds, it would seem to involve considerable complexity to make decisions on shedding them.

The presence of high school students at the campus sit-in caught my attention. The youngest generation seems to be particularly concerned about climate change — after all, it is a changed world they will inherit; even young Republicans polled cite climate change as a major issue.

As an environmentalist and nonprofit board member heavily invested in conservation, I’m a confirmed foe of fossil-fuel industries — especially mining. It’s encouraging that Princeton has already committed to divesting itself from companies involved in thermal coal or tar sands, two especially noxious technologies.

While the impact of sit-ins at elite universities may be debatable in the short term, they’re something of a canary in a coal mine (an appropriate analogy). It will be intriguing to see what the faculty panel charged with issuing a report comes up with.