Posted on 02/02/2020 7:56:57 PM PST by karpov
...
[E]ven the brainiest sometimes need a lesson in common sense.
That’s exactly what the bursar at St. John’s College—the most richly endowed college at Oxford—delivered when he responded to students occupying his 15th-century quadrangle and refusing to leave until the college divested its oil-company shares. The students want the college to sell the more than $10 million of its endowment now invested in Shell and BP, and they want it now.
The Times of London reports that bursar Andrew Parker made them a counteroffer. “I am not able to arrange any divestment at short notice,” he wrote. “But I can arrange for the gas central heating in college to be switched off with immediate effect. Please let me know if you support this proposal.”
The idea that the students themselves make a fossil-fuel sacrifice did not go over well. One protest organizer complained that Mr. Parker was being flippant, noting that “it’s January and it would be borderline dangerous to shut off the central heating.” Another suggested Mr. Parker was being provocative.
Again the bursar responded with wisdom: “You are right that I am being provocative but I am provoking some clear thinking, I hope. It is all too easy to request others to do things that carry no personal cost to yourself. The question is whether you and others are prepared to make personal sacrifices to achieve the goals of environmental improvement (which I support as a goal).”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
BWAAHAHAHA!
Sadly, I cannot finish the article.
There was only one more sentence in the editorial: "Surely a worthy lesson applicable far beyond the colleges of Oxford."
My wife’s cousin just proudly purchased a Tesla. Tonight she told me he posted a story about some guy who said investing in fossil fuels is a loser idea.
I asked her to check with her cousin and see if he has any idea how electricity for his Tesla is generated.
To be fair, where we live, some of it hydro power and some is nuclear along with natural gas.
Some years ago my sister was going on about CFC’s destroying the ozone. I got tired of it and finally offered to borrow the equipment and come down and pump down her home and car A/C, and fridge and properly dispose of the CFC’s.
She never mentioned it again.
Love it!
Let them put into action what they are demanding of others.
pwoned.
and exposed as eco-hypocrites
Hydropower destroys millions of productive land, so it isn’t better environmentally.
WOW!
Good for him.
I wonder how long he will have a job.
Hydro-Power most of the time comes from a damned up man made Lake with water piped down by gravity to turn a turbine to generate electricity. The lake then becomes a welcoming environment for fishing, boating, swimming, and social gatherings. In other words hydro power is a very effective method of Earth utilization.
I love old-fashioned, brainy, witty Brits. Thank God there still ARE some.
The next day was a Friday and she was running late as usual. She came to me said, “We gotta go, I have to go to school.” I told her that I had been thinking about what she had said the previous evening and told her that I was going to work from home that day in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint. She said, “But Dad, I have a Bio test today, we have to go.” I told her that saving the planet was more important than her Bio test. She was livid, and called some friends to see if she could get a ride. No luck. She stayed home that Friday.
I suggested she spend the weekend doing some research on global warming and energy use and see if what her teacher seemed right. She did and spent two days writing a paper for her history teacher that debunked human caused global warming. It was not an assignment but she gave it to the teacher anyway. It came back with a note at the top that said “I'll have to think about this.”
I seem to remember that she was able to take her Bio test on Monday, but the perspective and discernment she gained was more valuable than anything.
Damn prevent massive flooding. Flooding that makes large tracts of farmland unusable.
Our town remove several damns a few years ago. The guy in charge had his house flooded just after it was done because the damn was no longer there.
Damn is suppose to be dams.
I read somewhere that 500,000 KG of dirt and rock need to be mined, moved and processed to obtain the lithium and other materials needed to make one Tesla car battery.
^5, excellent parenting there.
There’s a terrific comedy routine about dams, looking for it now.
the school should tell them they will meet the kid’s demands but only IF those students drop out, become homeless, and never use fossil fuels of any kind, or any products created using fossil fuels-
IF they can’t agree to that then they need to shut the heck up about fossil fuels-
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