Stanford’s trustees recently voted to divest all holdings of fossil fuel stocks and Peter Wood has a splendid essay exploring that decision here.

The leader of this crusade is environmentalist Bill McKibben, who envisions a world free of fossil fuel usage and thinks that he can demonize coal, oil, gas and so forth (how about peat?) through his campus events. Once people realize that our very planet is at stake, they’ll stop using all that horrible stuff.

Or is it just hokum? The Stanfordians aren’t giving up cars or computers or warm buildings. They’re just making a pointless gesture. McKibben enjoys a comfortable life, flying around in airplanes that use jet fuel. I think he’s found his comparative advantage as an environmental zealot and is milking it for all it is worth.