New York may be an empire in name only, but on Tuesday it demonstrated a global reach.

concerted global battle against climate change—it is, after all, the first truly global problem we’ve ever faced.

It’s likely that the actions of the pension funds will prove contagious to some degree. Other states and cities will begin to wonder whether they’re going to be left holding the bag.

s thoroughly as Trump and the G.O.P.

Emmanuel Macron, sent out a tweet announcing that his country would no longer grant any licenses for oil and gas exploration in its various territories. He concluded with “#keepitintheground,” a hashtag until now confined to campaigners.

Norway, for instance, last month began work to divest its giant sovereign-wealth fund, which is bigger even than New York’s combined pensions. The World Bank, last week, said it would no longer be lending money for oil and gas exploration.

The future lies elsewhere.

ery center of world finance, sentiment is turning sharply against fossil-fuel investing. Activists have urged divestment for what you might call moral reasons: if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, it’s wrong to profit from the wreckage.

process collectively manage more than six trillion dollars in assets

have been working for years to spur divestment from fossil-fuel stocks,

the nonprofit that I founded

many of them at 350.org,

Bill McKibben, a former New Yorker staff writer, is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org and the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, where he was the faculty adviser to the Nordic ski team. His forthcoming book is “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?”

actively investigating methods for “ceasing additional investments in fossil fuels, divesting current holdings in fossil-fuel companies, and increasing investments in clean energy.”

The pension fund under Albany’s control totals two hundred billion dollars, making it one of the twenty largest pools of money on Earth.

“ceasing all new investments in entities with significant fossil-fuel-related activities

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, saying that New York was going to divest its vast pension-fund investments in fossil fuels.

permission to go a-drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

I certainly don’t wish to see any animal mistreated, but I don’t believe that any animal has the same rights as any human being.

should it be up to someone other than the elephants to determine where to place them

recognize the elephants as legal persons with the fundamental right to bodily liberty

valid reason for that person’s detention

but we still have a number. He’s not a person.

I will cry alligator tears when my cat dies

Practicing animal welfare was from the very beginning an integral part of our philosophy. It was and is an inherent part of who we are.

deep-rooted passion for raising livestock

I do not believe that any animal should have the same rights as human beings.

great apes, elephants, dolphins and whales have been scientifically proven to be autonomous.

those other legal rights to which evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience entitle them

secure legally recognized fundamental rights for nonhuman animals through litigation, advocacy, and education.

Animal rights or animal welfare? That is often the question being asked

leaving the animals alone to live their lives

are free from torture

vegan world 

No one is asking for animals to have the same rights as humans, but in an animal rights activist's ideal world, animals would have the right to live free of human use and exploitation

prevent unjust suffering. Similarly, the reason that animal rights activists want animals to have rights is to prevent them from suffering unjustly

tortured and slaughtered and there is no reason to morally distinguish

the only reason humans are treated differently is speciesism, which is an arbitrary distinction based on the incorrect belief that humans are the only species deserving of moral consideration

sentient

humanitarians

non-human animals have consciousness

speciesism

Why should animals have rights? What rights should animals have? How are those rights different from human rights?

he idea of treating animals humanely is vague and means something different to everyone

Some advocate for not using animals as food, clothing or other goods and others such as vegans even go as far as to denounce the use of animal by-products. 

killing animals infringe on the animals' rights, no matter how "humanely" they are treated.

humans can use and exploit animals as long as the animals are treated humanely and the use is not too frivolous

Animal Welfare Act

Advocacy groups and humanitarians alike have long argued for the rights of animals around the world, fighting for their right as sentient creatures to a life free of torture and suffering.