Jack, “First, Do No Harm”–that is the foundation of health professionals. So why is the healthcare sector still investing in companies that are destroying our collective and planetary health?

It’s time for healthcare pensions to take the lead and divest from fossil fuels once and for all. Sign the petition: The health care sector must divest.

SIGN THE PETITION
Four major private hospitals in the U.S. hold over $4.6 BILLION in fossil fuel investments. Nationwide, it is likely that private U.S. hospitals have well over $10 billion invested in the fossil fuel economy.

Climate change has direct, harmful impacts on our health. Investing in and driving further use of fossil fuels, which will further exacerbate climate change, is antithetical to protecting and caring for and about our health.

In the 1990s, healthcare pensions divested from tobacco because of the risks it poses to our wellbeing. We can do it again, we must urge private hospitals to divest from fossil fuels and set an example for others to follow.

Sign the petition: The health sector institutions must divest from fossil fuels.

SIGN THE PETITION
Thanks for all you do,
Erin Tulley, Daily Kos

P.S. Below is an email we sent out earlier urging the healthcare sector to divest from fossil fuels.:

Jack, sign the petition: The healthcare sector must divest from fossil fuels.

SIGN THE PETITION
Human-driven climate change is an existential threat to the health and wellbeing of humanity. It is a problem we are not close to solving. Even with the recent wins by the climate movement, current policy in the U.S. and internationally still has the world on track for catastrophe.

The healthcare sector has responded to this threat in many laudable ways. Many hospitals and major health organizations are changing their own operations to reduce emissions. Some have even issued strong policy statements endorsing the international consensus that temperature increases should be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Yet, amid those adjustments and pledges, four prominent hospital systems–Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic Health Systems, HCA Healthcare, and Ascension–continue investing in fossil fuels. A first-of-its-kind report finds pension funds of the major health networks have over $4.6 billion invested in fossil fuels.

Sign the petition: The healthcare sector must divest from fossil fuels.

SIGN THE PETITION
Fossil fuel companies are the chief drivers of our climate problem, and climate change directly impacts our health. By investing billions of dollars in these companies, hospital systems are not living up to their own standards. They are operating against their stated missions, their written sustainability policies, and the ethical foundation of modern medicine. If they continue to invest in fossil fuel companies, they will do so in contradiction to themselves.

It’s time for the healthcare sector to divest from fossil fuels. Climate change is happening now, and delays have consequences that could make all of us sicker for decades to come. They need to act now.

Sign the petition: The healthcare sector must divest from fossil fuels.

SIGN THE PETITION
Thanks for all you do,
Erin Tulley, Daily Kos