Why graduates of a topCanadian university are returning their diplomas | Martin Lukacs

Until it divests from fossil fuels, McGill is betting its prestige on preparing youth for the world while betting its dollars on making it uninhabitable

Students have tried petitions, research briefs, faculty letters, camping for a week on campus. But for a university that considers itself the Harvard of the north, McGill's administrators have shown little readiness to listen to reason. Or to heed the weather: February was the hottest month in a century by a "stunning" margin, according to Nasa.

As universities in England and the United States shed their oil, gas and coal investments, Canadian universities like McGill stubbornly cling to theirs. So in the fall I joined dozens of graduates in pledging to return my diploma if McGill didn't divest its endowment fund of its fossil fuel holdings - worth an estimated 70 million dollars. The deadline is March 31; we'll hand them back on April 1.