Divestment at the Dinner Table
(This is MIDANA CAPITAL’s Thanksgiving 2013 Message, which was sent to our E-Newsletter subscribers. You can click here to sign up, if you’re not already on the list!)
Dear friends,
When the dinner table talk turns to the unseasonably cold weather, current events, or maybe even the recent devastation in the Philippines, it’s worth remembering the connections to climate change. But don’t despair. This may also be the perfect opportunity to bring the conversation to a spark of hope: the growing fossil fuel divestment movement.
Here are some key points you may find helpful:
- Climate change is causing more intense storms, droughts, and global resource shortages today – not just in the future, according to UN experts. Typhoon Haiyan is one sobering reminder of what this looks like.
- Divesting from fossil fuels can be a great way to align your investments with your values.
- Investing fossil fuel free also makes a strategic difference, by focusing political pressure on the fossil fuel industry. A big obstacle to passing strong global warming policies is the power that the fossil fuel industry has over Congress. In 2012, Chevron* made the single largest corporate political donation in history.
- And divesting is catching on: in addition to campaigns at over 400 colleges, cities, and religious institutions, the fossil fuel free movement also now includes the Massachusetts Episcopal Diocese, Reverend Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Ed Begley, Jr.
Help start more conversations! Please share this resource with others:” on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, or by forwarding our email.
If your dinner companions already have divested some or all of their money, encourage them to get their action counted at 350.org’s Personal Divestment Counter. You might even pull out your phone while everyone relaxes after dessert. And make sure you are counted too!
If they want to learn more, tell them about Extracting Fossil Fuels from Your Portfolio: A Guide to Personal Divestment and Reinvestment, published by MIDANA CAPITAL, 350.org, and Trillium Asset Management. The guide, available at this link, outlines the why and how of moving money from oil, coal and gas companies into businesses that are building a more sustainable future.
Enjoy your holiday, eat plenty of vegetables and dessert, and thanks for spreading the word and building the movement. All the best from MIDANA CAPITAL.
* Securities mentioned were not held in the portfolios of the MIDANA CAPITAL Balanced Fund or the MIDANA CAPITAL Equity Fund as of September 30, 2013. References to specific securities, which will change due to ongoing management of the Funds, should not be construed as a recommendation by the Funds, their administrator, or their distributor.
You should consider the Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a Prospectus that contains this and other information about the Funds, please click here, email info@midanacapital.com, or call 1-800-93-GREEN. Please read the Prospectus carefully before investing.
Stocks will fluctuate in response to factors that may affect a single company, industry, sector, or the market as a whole and may perform worse than the market. Bonds are subject to risks including interest rate, credit, and inflation.
The Midana Capital are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC, 11/13
