• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy March 28, 2023
Somali Canadians Aid Drought-Stricken Homeland as 43,000 Reported Dead March 26, 2023
B.C.’s New Energy Framework a ‘Smokescreen,’ Critic Warns March 26, 2023
SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20 March 20, 2023
Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Next
Prev

Climate Protesters Disrupt Harvard-Yale Football Game, Earn Blanket Media Coverage

November 27, 2019
Reading time: 4 minutes

Divestment_Harvard

350.org/Flickr

1
SHARES
 

An estimated 500 climate protesters held up the annual Harvard-Yale football game for almost an hour Saturday, after swarming the field to demand the two universities pull their investments out of fossil fuels and forgive any debts they are owed by Puerto Rico.

“Players from both teams joined demonstrators on the field in a showstopping escalation of long-running campaigns,” the Washington Post reports. Protesters locked arms at the 50-yard line at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, chanted “OK, boomer”, and hosted banners declaring a climate emergency while police made 42 arrests and issued summonses for disorderly conduct.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“The protest quickly became a cause celebre among political figures, but its disruptive tactics were divisive,” the Post states. “A Yale spokesperson expressed disapproval of the interruption, while a Harvard representative said the school ‘respectfully disagree[d] with divestment activists’ over how to confront climate change.”

Die-hard football fans weren’t necessarily impressed with the display. “They’re all supposed to be intelligent people. It looks like there’s a lot of common sense that has missed their generation,” said 68-year-old Chuck Crummie, who attended the game with his son, a former player for Yale. “It goes to show that this generation is all about themselves and not a football game.”

“They’re playing for the Ivy League title here, maybe costing the Ivy League championship,” 60-year-old Yale fan Roy Emanuelson said of his team. “I think the end result’s unrealistic. Now if you’ve made your point, leave the field. Show your class.”

But Fossil Free Yale spokesperson Sidney Carlson-White called the protest, which had been planned since August, “an absolutely thrilling experience, and we’re very excited about the support that it garnered from all over,” adding that “our education is funded at times by Puerto Rican debt, the fossil fuel industry ,and private prisons.”

Harvard football captain Wesley Ogsbury, a senior defensive back, agreed in a video released by Divest Harvard that Yale and Harvard are investing in industries that are “destroying our futures”, adding that “Harvard and Yale can’t claim to truly promote knowledge while at the same time supporting the companies engaged in misleading the public, smearing academics, and denying the truth.”

On the HEATED newsletter, veteran climate journalist Emily Atkin calls the protest “a remarkably successful act of civil disobedience. The interruption received widespread coverage from outlets like The New York Times, CNN, NPR, the Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, Vox, and TMZ—not to mention all the big sports networks. The protesters also grabbed the attention of the Democratic presidential field.”

“When people come together to stand up for justice, we win,” tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “From the March for Our Lives, to worldwide climate strikes, students and young people are leading the charge to protect their futures,” wrote Julián Castro, former housing and urban development secretary under President Barack Obama. “I’m inspired by their efforts to hold their universities to a higher standard.”

“These students have it right,” added billionaire activist and candidate Tom Steyer. “Nobody wins when we’re complicit in climate injustice. Institutions like Harvard and Yale must be leaders in the fight to address the climate crisis.”

After years of effort, divestment campaigners “have expressed impatience as school officials say true independence from fossil fuels is impossible to achieve and argue that they can use their positions as shareholders to sway companies’ practices,” the Post writes. “Harvard leaders have argued that the university should combat climate change through its research, despite dozens of U.S. schools’ decisions to divest and growing momentum at Harvard that extends beyond student activists.” Yale “has divested partially, but its chief investment officer David Swenson said last year that overhauling the university’s investment portfolio would be foolish because ‘we would all die’ if fossil fuel production stopped.”

“Universities like Harvard have a crucial role to play in tackling climate change and Harvard is fully committed to leadership in this area through research, education, community engagement, dramatically reducing its own carbon footprint, and using our campus as a test bed for piloting and proving solutions,” spokesperson Rachael Dane told the Harvard Crimson.

Ivy League spokesperson Matthew J. Planto was not impressed with the display, Atkin notes. “It is regrettable that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities,” he said.

“In reality, though, interrupting a football game was probably the smartest thing the Ivy League protesters could have done,” Atkin says. “It was the most attention the cause of divestment has gotten in years.”



in Climate & Society, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Community Climate Finance, Culture, Jurisdictions, Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

kelly8843496 / Pixabay
Finance & Investment

BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy

March 29, 2023
640
TruckPR/flickr
Hydrogen

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 28, 2023
378
icondigital/pixabay
Supply Chains & Consumption

New Federal Procurement Rule Requires Biggest Bidders to Report Net-Zero Plans

March 28, 2023
183

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

kelly8843496 / Pixabay

BREAKING: Federal Budget Pours Tens of Billions Into Clean Economy

March 29, 2023
640
TruckPR/flickr

Opinion: Hydrogen Hype Sabotages Potential to Decarbonize

March 28, 2023
378
Faye Cornish/Unsplash

Abundance, Not Austerity: Reframe the Climate Narrative, Solnit Urges

March 26, 2023
154
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
757
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

B.C.’s New Energy Framework a ‘Smokescreen,’ Critic Warns

March 28, 2023
59
icondigital/pixabay

New Federal Procurement Rule Requires Biggest Bidders to Report Net-Zero Plans

March 28, 2023
183

Recent Posts

UNICEF Ethiopia/flickr

Somali Canadians Aid Drought-Stricken Homeland as 43,000 Reported Dead

March 29, 2023
37
Prime Minister's Office/flickr

Biden’s Ottawa Visit Highlights EVs, Clean Grid, Critical Minerals

March 28, 2023
87
EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
63
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
340
IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
1k
U.S. National Park Service/rawpixel

Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns

March 20, 2023
98
Next Post
Joshua Doubek/Wikipedia

California Sets Moratorium on Fracking Technique, Demands Scientific Evidence for New Permits

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}