
Should colleges divest from coal, oil? - dungerdunger
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0125/Should-colleges-divest-from-coal-oil
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maxharris
No. Coal and oil are vital, practical sources of energy. And there are
literally millions of things that are made from oil, many of which are vital
for the operation on a university. Think of all the plastic that's absolutely
necessary to conduct biomedical research: we can't use glass or pyrex in our
lab because the safety risks are too great (we work with pathogens you have
heard of and definitely do not want). Think also of what it takes to feed
everyone on a campus of 50,000 people, keep them warm, etc. You can't do that
without oil, natural gas and coal.

Also, look at how these fuels make the human environment cleaner: it takes
energy to filter water to make it safe to drink. It takes energy to vacuum the
floor to keep the room you're in from filling up waist-high with dust mites
and dead skin cells. It takes energy to construct buildings to shelter us from
natural, harmful solar radiation. It takes loads of energy to store and cook
food free from naturally-occuring and carcinogenic mold (especially
aflatoxins) and soot (primitive peoples cook their food over open fires - if
they'd get a lot more cancer if they didn't die early so much from other
causes).

It's true that the use of oil is an important ethical question. What isn't
true is the conventional answer given by environmentalists. Since the purpose
of ethics is to guide man so that he may enjoy himself and live, the answer to
whether we should use oil or not is a resounding _yes_.

And if it's right to use oil and coal, as I've shown, it's also right for
companies to do it, and for universities to invest their money in oil stocks.

