- Target:
- University of Melbourne Council
- Region:
- Australia
- Website:
- gofossilfree.org
Click here to view FULL OPEN LETTER
Our work in the health sciences, in public health, and in the frontline of patient-centred health care is constituted by a diverse variety of projects, but at some level we are all concerned with improving human health. This is an overarching project that climate change threatens to undermine in a fundamental way.
In Australia, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of more heat-waves, which threaten vulnerable populations in our society like the young, the old and the already ill. We are likely to see an increase in extreme weather events such as cyclones, floods, storms and bushfires which have the potential to devastate the physical and mental health of communities directly as well as the health infrastructure that supports them. Climate change also threatens to shift the profile of infectious diseases, including food-borne, water-borne and mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue fever and Ross River fever.
Beyond our own borders, the health implications of these impacts are huge for more vulnerable countries. Super-typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 will be but one in a series of extreme weather events as climate change alters the volatility of our weather systems. Beyond the calculations of death-tolls and economic costs, there emerges a humanitarian crisis with millions displaced without food, shelter or water and vulnerable to disease. Elsewhere, heatwaves and drought threaten food and water security, leading to conflict, mass migration and political and social instability.
As members of the University of Melbourne's world-leading community of health researchers, educators, advocates, professionals and students, we believe that it is crucial for the integrity of our work that the institutions which support us do not undermine our projects towards achieving better health.
In the past, the University of Melbourne has supported us in this aim by distancing itself from other damaging industries such as the tobacco industry. To this end we call on the University of Melbourne to join other leading institute, such as Stanford University in the USA and ANU in Australia, by removing its investments in fossil fuels.
In full support of Fossil Free Melbourne University, and in recognition of the consequences of inaction in the face of climate change, we, the undersigned, call on the University to:
1. Investigate and disclose its investments in companies whose primary business is the exploration, extraction, processing and transportation of fossil fuels;
2. Stop any new investments in these companies;
3. Develop a plan to end its investments in the fossil fuel sector within 5 years, with ongoing transparency of its investments.
The University of Melbourne Fossil Fuel Divestment petition to University of Melbourne Council was written by UniMelb Health and Medical Community and is in the category Health at GoPetition.