Divesting from the Climate CrisIs

Investments and environment? 

How do they fit? Ecology, environment,and climate are important intersections in my life’s work in education. I’ve managed personal investments for 35 years with a growing awareness of the intersection of money and climate. This awareness has shaped my financial journey, which I share with you today in “Invest-Divest – A Personal Journey”.

About Eric

My Berkeley childhood backyard of Tilden Regional Parks, summer High Sierra pack trips, and a rural Iowa farm-college prep boarding school education were all formative in environmental-resource awareness, understanding and enjoyment. 

In 1960’s San Francisco, I attained a teaching credential from San Franciso State University; co-developed student tutorial programs in low-income communities; engaged in protest targeting racial discrimination in hotel and auto dealership employment and refused induction into the Vietnam War. All expanded my social and political education.

In the 1970’s, I directed residential summer camps for youth at Hidden Villa Ranch in the San Mateo foothills; built a farm and wilderness environmental education program targeting elementary school children in experiential science; and co-authored Manure to Meadow to Milkshake, while attaining a master’s in Environmental Education from Hayward State University. Publication and programs led to a faculty appointment with the University of California Cooperative Extension, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and twenty years of science education delivered by teen youth and adults through 4-H, elementary schools, and after school programs. 

I retired in 2000 to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Community work included Bear Yuba Land Trust easement baseline development; Sierra Streams Institute Deer Creek water monitoring, establishment of the Greater Champion Neighborhood Association, Fire Safe Council Home Advisor visits, and establishment of a Citizens Climate Lobby chapter. Today I’m active with Nevada County Climate Action Now and serve on the Nevada County Energy Action Plan Working Group.