There is now a vigorous debate about fossil fuel divestment as a strategy for addressing climate change and this heightened attention to the role of fossil fuel companies and their investors is clearly healthy. But in this increasingly heated debate about pros and cons, we observe that protagonists on both sides sometimes miss critical questions, fail to consider contradictory factual data and gloss over important connections. We believe that exploring this grey zone will uncover hidden common ground that could become the basis for coordinated action. Our recommendations will be outlined in the third article but first we need to revisit where the divestment debate is today.