Today the Stanford faculty senate voted on whether to recommend divestment from fossil fuels to the board of trustees. They voted overwhelmingly to *keep* investing in fossils.

I watched the meeting. Three words to sum it up: ignorance, excuses, & cowardice.

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Two big takeaways from the meeting:

1) Faculty at Stanford - one of the most prestigious universities in the US - remain ignorant of the basic realities of climate politics.

2) Fossil industry funding has bought off researchers.
On the second point: numerous faculty voiced fear that if Stanford were to stop investing in fossil fuels, Big Oil would retaliate by pulling funding.

Researchers aren't even hiding that they've been bought. So long as they receive Big Fossil money, they won't take a stand.
What is incredible is not that funding has an effect - we know it does from lots of historical examples, industry's own documents, & ample psychological research - but rather that the faculty working in climate see *nothing wrong with being bought*. They see it as normal & fine.
Additionally, there was an incredible number of misleading industry talking points on display, demonstrably wrong but internalized by the Stanford faculty (and, unfortunately, unable to be refuted in a faculty senate meeting in which only faculty can speak):
For instance:

- Oil co's are good because they make hand sanitizer (really)

- Oil co's are leaders in developing clean energy (reality: 99% of the industry's capex is in fossil fuels)

- Less investment in fossil fuels could cause more fossils to be used (clue: makes no sense)
- Divestment doesn't affect fossil fuel co's at all (reality: fossil co's admit divestment affects them in shareholder reports)

- Because "we're" not trying to reduce fossil consumption, it's wrong to reduce fossil investments (reality: many are, & if you're not, you should be)
- Only consumers affect energy infrastructure, investments don't (this as far as I can tell is entirely made up)

- We NEED carbon capture, & only Big Oil can give us carbon capture, so we need to keep investing in Big Oil (reality: opinion, & not very informed one)
- We have to frack more natural gas so we can balance out solar & wind (reality: less than 5% of natural gas is used for this purpose)

- Because fracked gas is so cheap, "we" have more money to build solar & wind, so we need more fracked gas (clue: also makes no sense)
And on and on.

Missing from many Stanford faculty's mental universe:

- The IPCC, International Energy Agency, & peer reviewed research all show that to meet Paris agreement, divestment from fossil fuel production is *necessary* - as a matter of fact.
Also missing:

- Decades of industry-wide obstruction, disinformation, & delay with devastating consequences.

Most of the faculty claimed "the industry can't all be that bad, maybe there are one or two bad ones" -- wrong. The malfeasance is industry-wide, decades-long & ongoing.
As someone who studies the industry for a living, I found it fascinating to see professor after professor taking the mic & speaking falsehoods with full confidence, even imperiousness.

Yet their main knowledge of the industry comes only from the fact that it

gives
them
money.
If anyone has any doubts whether Big Oil funding affects actual beliefs, decisions, & positions taken by researchers in the climate space, let today's display of selective ignorance & ethical vacuity, in one of the country's most elite institutions, put those doubts to rest.
The students understand: their futures are on the line, & they don't have the conflicts of interest their professors have indulgently normalized

The faculty are the ones who need to be educated - if they can be. Many, long on industry's payroll, have internalized its half-truths
It's easy to feel discouraged at such a display. But discouragement is the wrong response.

This level of self-serving ignorance and co-option was already there, doing its work. Now it's visible, thanks to the divestment campaign at Stanford.

And now it can be counteracted.
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