Over 450 separate events in 60 different countries helped make Global Divestment Day a huge success, according to the organizers of the event.
“From the Pacific Islands to South Africa, from the United States to Germany, we stood up to demand that our governments, universities and financial and religious institutions stop investing in the rogue industries that are destroying our planet,” they wrote on their website, following the successful global awareness day.
Not only was there some legitimate movement on divesting from fossil fuels, but there was some fun as well.
According to numbers provided by the Fossil Free, the group behind the campaign, an estimated $50,000,000,000 (that’s 50 billion) have been divested from fossil fuels to date. Over 181 cities, universities, and other institutions have committed to divestment.
Between February 9 and 15, 97,270,000 social impressions were tracked as well.
And, to top things off, there were 11 “Bad Borises” protesting outside London City Hall and 12 Tina Turner look-alikes singing “Simply Di-vest” in Adealide.
A number of protesters dressed up as Boris Johnson, London Mayor, and devoured “oil” for the cameras.
Boris loves oil #divest action starting at city hall pic.twitter.com/qqCMVPdG6M
— divestlondon (@divestlondon) February 14, 2015
And across the world, in Adelaide, Australia … well, you’ll see.
http://youtu.be/zwhvoBfOmM4
I maybe should have warned you. To top it all off, three protesters blocked the entrance to the International Petroleum Conference where Ben Van Beurden, Shell’s CEO, was due to make a speech.
Beware the #carbonbubble #divest now from @Shell pic.twitter.com/s3GeKY0ppk
— divestlondon (@divestlondon) February 12, 2015
All in all, despite the fun, there was a lot of good gained from Global Divestment Day — but more than that, what the Day represents, as we have seen a number of times over the past few months:
- Stanford Says No To Investing In Coal
- Divesting From Fossil Fuel Would Cost $5 Trillion
- Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement Spreads In UK
- Norway To Assess Fossil Fuel Assets Case-By-Case
- Goddard College Follows Trend, Divests Fossil Fuel Assets
- Swedish & US Universities Divest From Coal, Oxford ‘Meets To Discuss’
- Harvard Students Go To Court To Combat School Investments, Snow Cancels Hearing
- First Australian University Announces Carbon Divestment Plans
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