Fwd: [350 SV Chat] A divestment wow on YouTube

[Mark Roest]

Hello to the Willing,

Can we put another burst of creativity together around this powerful tool? See the video!

Things are moving in both the collective consciousness of the 99%, and the renewable energy and energy storage fields. I have good visibility into the latter (I'm in a battery technology start-up company now), but even without our company, the power, the will, and the momentum are becoming inexorable. A big question going forward will be how smoothly the fosil fuel stock divestment movement being started in 350.org, community leadership groups, the renewable and storage industries, the electric vehicle makers, and the energy retrofit / building rehabilitation / green collar jobs / worker owned factories movement (see Van Jones, Gar Alperovitz, Green For All, Mondragon, United Steel Workers International), can coordinate maximizing the opportunity for a massive and sudden paradigm shift.

We don't have to wait for the people at the top to issue an edict and follow through on it. Instead, we can shake our collective skin like a wet dog, and then go run in the sun and dry out the rest of the way. (In case it's too muddy a metaphor, the people at the top are the water weighing us down and making us uncomfortable.)

Regards,

Mark

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Roest <markl...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 9:33 AM
Subject: Fwd: [350 SV Chat] A divestment wow on YouTube
To: Alan Yelsey <al...@yworlds.com>

This is powerful!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Katherine Forrest <kafo...@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 11:02 PM
Subject: [350 SV Chat] A divestment wow on YouTube
To: "(list suppressed)" <kafo...@earthlink.net>

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXzAUaTUSc&feature=youtu.be

 

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[George Mokray]

On Mar 24, 2014, at 1:26 PM, Mark Roest <markl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello to the Willing,
>
> Can we put another burst of creativity together around this powerful tool? See the video!
>
> Things are moving in both the collective consciousness of the 99%, and the renewable energy and energy storage fields. I have good visibility into the latter (I'm in a battery technology start-up company now), but even without our company, the power, the will, and the momentum are becoming inexorable. A big question going forward will be how smoothly the fosil fuel stock divestment movement being started in 350.org, community leadership groups, the renewable and storage industries, the electric vehicle makers, and the energy retrofit / building rehabilitation / green collar jobs / worker owned factories movement (see Van Jones, Gar Alperovitz, Green For All, Mondragon, United Steel Workers International), can coordinate maximizing the opportunity for a massive and sudden paradigm shift.

From the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2012 Executive Summary:
“No more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2ºC goal, unless carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is widely deployed.”

This is becoming known as the carbon bubble, the idea that fossil fuel companies like Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP are wildly over-valued and their stocks are bound to collapse.

To my knowledge, this is not a significant argument in the divestment movement and most definitely should be. You can confront institutions on their fiduciary responsibility and force them to re-evaluate their stock holdings in light of the economic realities of climate change.

>
> We don't have to wait for the people at the top to issue an edict and follow through on it. Instead, we can shake our collective skin like a wet dog, and then go run in the sun and dry out the rest of the way. (In case it's too muddy a metaphor, the people at the top are the water weighing us down and making us uncomfortable.)
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Mark Roest <markl...@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 9:33 AM
> Subject: Fwd: [350 SV Chat] A divestment wow on YouTube
> To: Alan Yelsey <al...@yworlds.com>
>
>
> This is powerful!
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Katherine Forrest <kafo...@earthlink.net>
> Date: Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 11:02 PM
> Subject: [350 SV Chat] A divestment wow on YouTube
> To: "(list suppressed)" <kafo...@earthlink.net>
>
>
>
> www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXzAUaTUSc&feature=youtu.be
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "350 Silicon Valley Chat" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 350-silicon-valle...@googlegroups.com.
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>
>

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[Mark Roest]

Hello all,

Here is a good point for divestment of fossil fuel company holdings (see below, from George).

We should consider weaving the divestment attack into all of our actions, rather than maintaining it as a separate activity 'until it gets traction'. It can help the rest of our points get traction, based on this argument.

We can, for instance, start tying it to Keystone XL -- we are signatory to international agreements that will eventually compel the government to force the fossil fuel companies' hands, and the world should be both planning for the financial impact of that on society as a whole, and planning the legal and administrative structures to extract the money necessary to clean up all of their environmental and human impacts from them before they are able to file for bankruptcy, and before they are able to diversify their holdings and invest their cash flows where they cannot readily be seized to pay for clean-up. When we win some critical elections, we should also pass laws that pierce the corporate veil and take industry executives' personal assets to compensate for their tortuous behavior.

Regards,

[Mark Roest]

Hello Bill and all,

My context for moving in the 'bad cop' direction is that these companies are true pirates, who kill people who get in their way, deliberately destroy regions because it's just a little cheaper to do so than to use proper safegaurds in their operations, and continue to do so for decades, etc. As examples of etc., they pooled 2.5 billion dollars to buy up and shut down solar pioneers in the 1980s, and they sent in thugs to burn down and otherwise destroy businesses who refused and kept going despite having their bankers pressured to cut off their lines of credit.

These are not people we want to have taking major positions in the industries of the paradigm shift, before or after their fall. They would take over and run them with the same dominator mentality that they have displayed since Rockefeller and Carnegie started brutally devouring the competition ('consolidating the industry'). And if they had another chance to stage a coup in the US, they would jump at the chance, and then go back to what they were doing before, only with a vengeance.

Regards,

Mark

On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 10:00 AM, <Bigbil...@aol.com> wrote:

The argument below from Mark seems like very good strategy advice, leaning toward the "bad cop" end of the strategy spectrum.  On the "good cop" end I suggest reaching out to fossil fuel companies with the following message, delivered in a very calm manner that expresses understanding of their plight.

 

The handwriting is on the wall.  Sooner or later fossil fuel production must be severely curtailed in order to forestall disastrous progression of climate disruption.  Therefore it is in your interest to recognize this and immediately draw up a business plan for a graceful transition to a largely fossil-fuel-free future.  It is the only way to preserve the value of your company.  Any path of resistance you might choose will lead to highly disruptive consequences for you when the resistance finally collapses, as inevitably it must.  Recognizing reality and getting ahead of the problem is the best policy.

 

In other words, the bigger they are the harder they fall.

 

Bill Cutler

[Charley Quinton]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_descent

 

I'm seeing a revolution in thinking, but the wheels are turning too slowly. I guess I'm still looking for a shortcut.

 

One notable occurrence, http://wikirate.org/ which runs on Wagn software has been funded by the EU. Perhaps a universally accepted systems of checks and balances could be achieved through a crowd-sourced rating initiative like WikiRate but with some "teeth" .. not that WikiRate itself might sprout some teeth of its own at least in Europe. Changing the beastly behavior of corporations will take a lot of hands on the helm.

 

"Participation will change the world." -- Pete Seeger