We are at a tipping point in Earth's ecosystems. The water is rising, the unequal burdens of the crisis are worsening, and Cornell is not yet engaged at the level of action required.
Cornell University holds vast reserves of resources, knowledge, and power. If leveraged, these resources could transform the landscape of climate justice at Cornell from one of incrementalism and inertia, to one of transformative system transition. By foregrounding calls for climate justice put forth by underrepresented groups, we could restore right relationship with Earth and one another upon these Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ lands.
The power to steer those resources ultimately resides in the hands of students, staff, faculty, alumni, local officials, and community members.
We, the members of Cornell and the local community, call on Cornell to Declare a Climate Emergency and move to a level
of action proportional to the crisis we face. We call on Cornell to implement a tangible system of changes that will transform the University into a hub of public service focused on intensive and equitable solutions in the face of accelerating climate challenges. These actions
will amplify local and regional resilience, provide exemplary leadership for other Universities, and hasten radical climate
policy more broadly.
We have everything we need. Cornell houses countless strands of climate action, research, outreach, and teaching. Local governance and activists are poised to enact transformative climate justice locally. Blueprints are in place for a bold, unified push toward rapid change.
But collective action will be needed to catalyze the transition. And fierce persistence will be needed to see it through.
University action could be an inflection point in our society’s transition to climate resilience.
It is fully within Cornell's power to institute transformative change now.
And the time is now.
JOIN US in demanding that Cornell respond to the climate justice emergency and enact a new University model that is consistent with a more local and livable world.
