History has proven it to be true that young people have the capability to harness their energies and become collective agents of change. My parent’s generation mobilized in protest of the war in Vietnam, and a decade later the next generation of students rose in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Many of our nation’s most important social movements, such as the women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, or rise of environmental ethics, started on college campuses across the nation.

Our elders have pegged my generation as one marked by apathy and indifference. They say we are too overwhelmed by technology and consumerism to make any meaningful contributions to the society in which we live. As a student at Dickinson, I believe that I have the authority to challenge the negative presumptions about my generation and say that my peers have the passion and will to change the world, if only others would listen.

The movement that has made me optimistic about the prospects of my generation is the divestment movement. In its pure economic sense, “divestment” is, quite simply, the opposite of investment and involves the selling of stock. Today, “divestment” on college campuses often refers to the act of divesting from fossil fuel companies. Colleges and universities are often run in part by an endowment, and, as is the case at Dickinson, many colleges and universities hold stock in fossil fuel companies such as Exon Mobile or Shell.

Why divest from fossil fuel companies? Isn’t the value of one school’s investments just a drop in the bucket for these giant, multinational corporations? The answer to the latter question may be ‘yes,’ but divestment is a sign that my generation isn’t willing to sit idly by when it comes to our environment. Scientific evidence is overwhelming: in coming years we will be forced to grapple with extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels, and myriad other manifestations of climate change. More often than not, those who will be affected will be those in poverty or those living in developing countries. Even so, climate change is everyone’s problem. As citizens of the United States, the nation that has been one of the biggest contributors to climate change, we have a moral responsibility to act for our earth while we still can.

This brings us to the topic of divestment. To echo my previous question, why should we talk about divestment? Though divesting from fossil fuel companies won’t have an immediate effect on climate change, it would be a symbolic measure. As leaders in sustainability initiatives and education, Dickinson could set an example for other institutions to follow suit and divest in fossil fuel companies as well. Even though our divestment would be small, if all colleges and universities in the United States were to divest the fossil fuel industry could lose more than $400 billion. In no circumstance or hypothetical situation can a single person or institution rival the potential of a collective effort.

The divestment movement is led in large part by 350.org, an international environmental organization run by Bill McKibben. As instrumental as McKibben has been in the divestment movement, the credit overwhelmingly belongs to students. At more than 300 colleges and universities nation-wide, students have circulated petitions, met with administrators, and hosted information sessions to demystify economic jargon and practices that one must understand when talking about divestment. Here, a student group called Reinvest Dickinson hosted an information panel with perspectives from professors, administrators, students, and the founder and CEO of the third-party company that runs the school’s endowment. The event was the final result of what must have been countless hours of preparation and planning. The effort is laudable to say the least, and is an example of initiative that ought to challenge the notion that kids these days can’t be bothered to stand up and take action for a cause.

The next time someone indicts my generation for its supposed apathy and inactivity, I challenge that person to consider, just for a moment, the problems we have inherited from our predecessors. We are tasked with reversing the rapidly charging course of global climate change, and it is no small feat. However, we’re up for the challenge.