"Recently on campus there has been a lot of talk about how the university is "stupid" to have ~AU$1,000,000 in stocks in Whitehaven Coal, an Australian company that made nearly AU$1bn this last financial year.
Alright. Let's talk about this. I understand that there is a compulsion to support climate change action but this is not how to do it. Quite frankly, if the university were to sell its stocks, somebody else would simply buy them - you are literally not stopping anything. What you ARE doing is absolving yourself of blame, which I think is somewhat pathetic. If you're all for action on climate change, that's fine but honestly stop getting a sanctimonious 'moral release' from thinking you know more than anyone who doesn't support your antics.
Your whinging will not fix the climate. Your pathetic little demonstration last week hasn't changed anyone's mind, it's made you look like a ****wit. If you want change, do a science degree and find a way to make renewable energy a more effective and profitable option (and don't even debate this unless you know what you're talking about). I'm so sick of people with arts degrees just thinking they have a monopoly on all knowledge. You don't. You are a pretentious ****nut.
And of course, the greatest irony is that you go into your classes at uni, your house or whatever you call home and turn on the light. That light is powered by electricity, that is generated by the burning of coal, a natural resource that is so conveniently provided by companies like Whitehaven.
Good day, and no, I won't sign your damn petition on Eastern Avenue. You are literally a child. Grow the **** up."
Someone wrote this on a usyd fb page (with expletives, but I'd rather not have those here
), and did agree with it quite a bit (a lot, actually). With the government cutting funding to universities, they've gotta make money somehow, and investing in a very profitable company is a good way of doing just that.
