HARVARD CLIMATE STRIKE DRAWS APPROX. 1000 PARTICIPANTS
Harvard Students and Faculty, Local Schools, and Community Members Rally for Climate Justice and Divestment on Harvard’s Campus
A livestreamed recording of the event is available on facebook, here.
CAMBRIDGE, MA — Today, September 20, about 1000 people rallied in the Harvard Science Center Plaza to strike for climate justice and fossil fuel divestment. The rally was co-organized by undergrad-led Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard (FFDH), graduate-led Organizers for Radical Climate Action (ORCA), and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. A number of student groups also lent their support the walkout. A full list can be found on our facebook page.
Four Harvard professors — Gaurab Basu, Gina McCarthy, and Joyce Chaplin, Ju Yon Kim — delivered passionate speeches at the rally, exhorting Harvard to take more aggressive action in addressing the climate crisis. “I have this beautiful daughter who’s almost two,” said Kim, Professor of English. “… and I work at one of the most powerful institutions in the world… How can I continue to say that I support her future if this university that I work for continues to invest in fossil fuels?” To date, over 300 faculty members have publicly called for fossil fuel divestment.
This year marks the seventh year of campaigning by FFDH, which is calling on Harvard University to commit to disclose and divest its fossil fuel investments and reinvest in sustainable funds by Earth Day 2020. “I’m tired of hearing Harvard talk about embracing diversity,” Gabrielle Langklide, Harvard ’21, said in a speech about how the climate crisis is currently affecting her home of Amercian Samoa. “… [Harvard] will never be home, not until [they] divest from fossil fuels and stop threatening the existence of my community.”
After the rally, strikers chanted and marched through Harvard Yard to the T in order to join thousands of fellow strikers at the Boston Climate Strike. Ilana Cohen, a lead organizer with FFDH, spoke at the Boston rally, telling strikers, “If we want to secure a more just and stable future, then today is only the beginning, and we need everyone.” Today’s walkout coincided with climate strikes around the world, which saw millions around the world striking for more urgent action on the climate crisis.
“I get up every morning and I’m pissed off for two minutes and then I get over it,” said Gina McCarthy, former EPA head during her speech at Harvard. “We have to tap into our sense of outrage [and] our sense of optimism, and we need to face facts, we need to stand together, and we need to act and we need to demand action.”
Press courtesy photos from the event can be found here (credit Caleb Schwartz or Campbell Erickson, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard)
