Letter: Ill-informed point

To the editor:

In his column “Progressive gestures hurt universities,” George Will attacks the preoccupation with sustainability, along the way hitting “diversity,” “multicultural” and inclusivity. Near the beginning, he mentions Stanford, which has apparently divested coal stocks, but not oil or gas. He says, “Evidently carbon from coal is more morally disquieting than carbon from petroleum.”

No, George. Coal emits a lot more carbon per unit of energy gained — about half again as much as oil and nearly twice as much as natural gas. Also, coal recovery and burning emits a lot more toxic waste. So some people, recognizing that we can’t do it all at once, advocate switching off coal and toward oil and gas as “bridge fuels” in a broad strategy while we come up with better choices. One may or may not agree with this, but the Stanford choice is based on facts, not moral disquiet.

Facts are something that Mr. Will doesn’t seem to worry about. Becoming informed before commenting is not needed. His Ph.D. in politics makes that unnecessary. However, for many of us, it has the same effect he claims progressive gestures have on universities. It prevents us from taking him seriously.