About a dozen students from Sunrise Brown interrupted a Brown Investment Group keynote speaker event Monday evening to draw attention to the detrimental impacts of fossil fuels and related investments.
About 80 students were in attendance to hear Rowdy Stillwell, a petroleum engineer from Texas, speak about his experiences working and investing in the oil and gas industry, according to an Instagram story on BIG’s account.
The students stood up and held signs saying “Big Oil kills” and “death by fossil fuels.” The signs were also promoting Sunrise’s DIRE campaign, which calls for University dissociation from the fossil-fuel industry. Some protesters pointed to the human cost of investment in the oil and gas industry, and shared how they’ve been personally affected by climate change-related wildfires.
“We have to have fossil fuels to put out fires,” Stillwell responded, referring to planes, fire trucks and other vehicles that do not use clean energy, but are vital in saving communities affected by climate disasters. “I respect your position … but let’s have a conversation.”
After about five minutes, BIG leaders called for decorum and demonstrators left the event. Stillwell acknowledged the demonstrators’ calls to discuss the social impacts of fossil fuels when investing. The question of human impact is “super valid,” he said. “We need to have these conversations … and I’m not afraid of having them.”
But he also poked fun at the protestors. “That was the first time I’ve ever been protested,” Stillwell added. “That was pretty cool.”
The University has halted investments in companies that extract fossil fuels and does “not plan to make new investments in fossil fuel companies unless and until they make significant progress in converting themselves into providers of sustainable energy,” according to a March 2020 letter from President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20.
BIG is the University’s “largest and oldest student-run investment fund,” with over $600,000 in assets under management across two funds, according to BIG’s Instagram account. BIG leaders said that the club, whose funds comprise part of Brown’s endowment, does not invest in the fossil-fuel industry in accordance with University policy.
Avani Ghosh is a Metro editor covering politics and justice and community and activism. She is a junior from Ohio studying Health and Human Biology and International and Public Affairs. She is an avid earl grey enthusiast and can be found making tea in her free time.
