Skepticism about divestment and McKibben

[Jim Lane]

2. That article supports my criticism of divestment

The author was president of Hampshire College when it became the first U.S. college to divest from companies doing business in South Africa. She wrote in 2013:

Doing business in South Africa became too expensive for U.S. companies. Moreover, it did not impact their core business.

. . . .

Today, as we mourn Mandela's death, many other divestment movements are active on campus, notably targeting fossil fuel companies. I believe the fossil fuel campaigners are having an effect, but the situation is different. They are attacking oil companies' core business. In the 1980s, no one was asking GM to stop making cars. The 21st-century divestment activists face a tougher task.

That's precisely the point I made. I wish she had elaborated on what effect she thinks the campaign is having. Have any fossil fuel companies modified their core businesses, so as to move from the "divest" list to the "acceptable" list? If other companies have been deterred from entering the field, has that reduced fossil fuel consumption? I haven't followed the issue closely but I've never heard of such an effect even being claimed, let alone established.