Bill spoke with two leaders in the climate change divestment movement who are urging institutions to sell their shares in polluting industries and reinvest in companies committed to solutions. Ellen Dorsey is executive director of the Wallace Global Fund and a catalyst in the coalition of 17 foundations known as Divest-Invest Philanthropy and Thomas Van Dyck is senior vice president – financial advisor at RBC Wealth Management and founder of As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy foundation. Below are highlight clips from their conversation.
On Isolating the Fossil Fuel Industry as a “Moral Pariah”
“By putting the target on the fossil fuel industry, the goal is not to have an immediate economic impact … but to isolate it as a moral pariah like apartheid, like tobacco,” Dorsey tells Bill.
On Getting Best Buy, Dell and Apple to Recycle Computers
Van Dyck explains how his shareholder advocacy group convinced a number of tech giants to recycle computers. Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, was a hold out for years but then changed his mind. Van Dyck explains why.
Fossil Fuels as a Financial Bubble
To avoid possible catastrophe, the scientific community says the Earth’s temperature cannot increase by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius). That means fossil fuel companies cannot burn most of the reserves that appear on their balance sheets, which Van Dyck concludes is a huge risk to investors.
Watch Bill’s full interview with Ellen Dorsey and Thomas Van Dyck »
