FOSSIL FUEL DIVEST HARVARD CALLS ON CAMPUS TO STRIKE SEPTEMBER 20TH
Joining climate strikes around the globe, the Harvard community will strike to protest climate injustices perpetuated by the university
Cambridge, MA — Today, students from the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard (FFDH) campaign call upon their classmates and faculty to walk out of their classrooms on September 20, 2019 to protest Harvard’s embarrassing hypocrisy on climate change. We call upon the Harvard community to rally against the university’s continued investment in the fossil fuel industry and the global injustice it perpetuates.
The walkout will be held in solidarity with other climate strikes taking place around the globe September 20–27. At 11 a.m. walkout participants will gather in Harvard Yard to rally and hear students and faculty speakers make the case for divestment. Following the rally, we will join the youth-led Boston Climate Strike in Boston Common, where thousands are expected to join in calling for swift action on the climate crisis.
The walkout comes after seven years of advocacy by members of Divest Harvard. Still, the university has not even taken the critical first step of disclosing the details of their investments, allowing it to avoid public accountability. Currently, the university is only required to disclose 1% of its $39.2 billion endowment.
“Harvard claims to educate citizen leaders, while seeking to profit from an industry that is literally destroying their futures,” said Caleb Schwartz, FFDH member. “We are striking because the richest university in the country should not stoop to the level of destroying our planet to make a buck.”
FFDH has also in recent months drawn attention to Harvard’s purchases of vast amounts of Brazilian and Californian farmland. These farmland investments have, among other things, contributed greatly to Brazilian agribusiness and its ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
“If Harvard wants to commit to real climate action, it cannot do so while trampling over the rights of indigenous people and the health of those who are impacted most harshly by the climate crisis,” said Carl Denton, FFDH member.
Divest Harvard will continue to call for the university to disclose, divest, and reinvest its endowment from the fossil fuel industry by Earth Day 2020. We call on all students, faculty, and staff members to join us in our call for climate justice, and to strike with us this fall on Friday, September 20, 2019.
