Divest:  Withdraw Investments from Harmful Companies

A few dozen companies cause most of the world’s social and environmental problems.  They lobby and bribe our elected officials, they influence our regulatory agencies, and they profit from our labor and the exploitation of Earth’s resources.

Energy Production Pollution by Owen Byrne

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Here are the major industries (CEFIM–chemical, energy, finance, insurance, military) with harmful companies.  Each CEFIM industry is dominated by a few companies.

• Chemical (drugs and pesticides)
• Energy (coal, petroleum, atomic),
• Finance (banks and credit card companies),
• Insurance (health, liability, life)
• Military (aircraft, weapons, ammunition, explosives).

So who are the CEFIM companies?

The Pesticide Action Network provided an infographic concerned with pesticides, seeds, and other biotechnology.  It shows how a few chemical companies dominate the global market.

All the companies are corporations whose directors and officers are highly influenced by quarterly and annual revenue/profit reports.  That is understandable, because there can be no companies without profits.  But when the actions of the companies produce undesirable consequences (declining biodiversity and human disease, debt, and deadly conflicts), their continuation is no longer desirable.

Divestment can influence large companies.  The divestment in companies doing business in South Africa was a key force in breaking down the apartheid system.   We should withdraw investments from companies whose actions harm the Earth and its inhabitants.

Can you name some of the companies in the categories above (CEFIM ) that deserve divestment?