But people with these agendas often also have such a narrow and ignorant view of the world. The reality is many oil and gas companies are investing in other means of producing energy. Oil and gas is only the thing that got them started and keeping the business going. Afterall, its a matter of survival for them as well as a corporation, to change and adapt. Some of them have investments in solar and wind and all that stuff but when it comes down to it, gasoline is just superior and more ideal in many applications as fuel. Its also about investing your own money, not somebody else's. I have no problem with people wanting to divest their own money, but when it comes to student activists, they are advocating others to do with other people's money. Thats just wrong. Don't tell people how to use their money. Go risk your own money if you're got such a big mouth. Finally, I don't see how staying invested in oil and gas is in any way some how "propping up unclean resources" as it is so claimed. Its just a very ignorant view of reality here. Oil and gas companies are mostly fully developed companies and well capitalized. Most of them are at a stage where they are merely giving back to shareholders via dividends. There is no need for them to do secondary offerings to raise money. So all this "buying oil stocks to prop up the price" does not affect anything. The oil companies arn't even looking to use their stock to raise cash. All they are doing is giving cash back to shareholders from their earnings, because the industry is so established. So it is ignorant to saying "staying invested is helping oil and gas companies". Oil and gas companies don't look at or care what the secondary market is doing by way of share price (other than keeping shareholders happy of course). So selling your shares and maybe depressing prices by selling pressure does not impact anything tangible. It only affects financial markets that O&G isn't looking to tap into. Those are the kind of ridiculous statements people make and it shows a lack of understanding at a fundamental level. Lets flip this around. Suppose those hippies buy green stocks. But suppose the world isn't ready for it and their profit margins are low to nonexistant. So they've just made a terrible investment decision because of a stupid environmental agenda. Money always comes first. I don't care if I"m buying Herbalife shares. As an investor I only care that the stock price goes up and I get my dividends. All that yapping about MLM... talk to the hand!
Socially responsible investing is not for tree hugging retail hippies. It's for organizations like green peace. It would be odd for green peace to invest their excess funds into a fund manager who is buying oil stocks. Or it would be odd for a health insurance pension plan to invest in a tobacco company.