National Day of Divestment action

In 1989, Mr. Bill McKibben authored the book, ‘The End of Nature’. Many have called it the first book to be published for a general audience on the topic of climate change.

Since then, many (more) scientific papers have been released describing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and explaining the alterations this is having on the planet.

This trajectory is continuing.

Furthermore, three reports – one by the World Bank, one by the International Energy Agency and one by PriceWaterhouseCoopers – suggest that 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground to prevent high impact climate change.

Whilst political initiatives are commendable, and indeed necessary, more must be done to protect the biosphere of the planet from baking. It is for this reason that a National Day of Divestment Action is being planned in Australia on 18 October 2014.

Banks in Australia are loaning funds to companies that are extracting fossil fuel reserves from the crust of the planet and companies that are burning those fossil fuels.

In the meantime, humanity has known since the 1880s (at the latest) than enough sunlight reaches the surface of the Earth in a matter of hours to meet even today’s energy uses for a year.

Members of the general public are encouraged and invited to join in a national campaign to withdraw deposits from banks loaning money to fossil fuel companies. Due to a system known as fractional reserve banking: for every $1 withdrawn, the financial institution in question loses the ability to loan out $10-$15. For the campaign to be effective, it is essential that financial institutions are aware of why deposits are being withdrawn.

In Armidale, New England Mutual, Newcastle Permanent Building Society and perhaps other member-based financial institutions do not make loans to fossil fuel companies.