SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Only the Beginning': Nationwide Campus Walkouts Issue Climate Call to #ResistRejectDenial
"We won't allow Trump and his fossil fuel billionaire cabinet to foreclose on our future"
Jan 23, 2017
To show that President Donald Trump's climate denialism does not have their consent, thousands of students at universities and colleges across the U.S. on Monday are expected to walk out of class to urge their campuses to divest their assets from the fossil fuel industry.
| #ResistRejectDenial Tweets |
"Continuing to act is how we keep hope alive and build the resistance even stronger," the GoFossilFree.org website declares of the action, dubbed #ResistRejectDenial.
Campuses with scheduled actions span from Evergreen State College in Washington State to University of Arizona to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
At Harvard University, students are calling their action Inaugurate a New Harvard, and will deliver to the offices of University President Drew Faust a petition demanding, among other things, that the administration show climate change leadership. "A Trump era demands that we resist, protect, and progress at the local level," said university senior Mattea Mrkusic in a statement.
Speaking to the Real News Network, Varshini Prakash, senior campaign coach of the Divestment Student Network, said that Trump has chosen "the interests of the one percent over the interests of the people." That is "why we need really powerful movements now more than ever. And that's why youth are saying from day one--we're not going to lie low. They want us to be scared. They want us to be depressed. They want us to be sad. But that's not what we're going to do. We're here to fight," she said.
The call to action underscores the urgency driving the youth-led protest:
Time is up for our colleges and universities to divest from the fossil fuel industry and reinvest in a just transition away from fossil fuels. There is no room for neutrality when the president of the United States is actively threatening the very future of this planet.
These walkouts will be the first ripples of a wave of continuous escalation that will crest this Spring. This action is only the beginning--but the bigger we begin, the more impressive our impact will be in the weeks to come."
Added Greta Neubauer, director of the Divestment Student Network: "For any chance at curbing the worst impacts of climate change, our universities must stand on the right side of history with students and take action now against Trump's climate denial. We won't allow Trump and his fossil fuel billionaire cabinet to foreclose on our future."
The walkouts come two days after the Women's March on Washington and its sister marches on all continents, which drew over 2.5 million people to the streets.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
To show that President Donald Trump's climate denialism does not have their consent, thousands of students at universities and colleges across the U.S. on Monday are expected to walk out of class to urge their campuses to divest their assets from the fossil fuel industry.
| #ResistRejectDenial Tweets |
"Continuing to act is how we keep hope alive and build the resistance even stronger," the GoFossilFree.org website declares of the action, dubbed #ResistRejectDenial.
Campuses with scheduled actions span from Evergreen State College in Washington State to University of Arizona to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
At Harvard University, students are calling their action Inaugurate a New Harvard, and will deliver to the offices of University President Drew Faust a petition demanding, among other things, that the administration show climate change leadership. "A Trump era demands that we resist, protect, and progress at the local level," said university senior Mattea Mrkusic in a statement.
Speaking to the Real News Network, Varshini Prakash, senior campaign coach of the Divestment Student Network, said that Trump has chosen "the interests of the one percent over the interests of the people." That is "why we need really powerful movements now more than ever. And that's why youth are saying from day one--we're not going to lie low. They want us to be scared. They want us to be depressed. They want us to be sad. But that's not what we're going to do. We're here to fight," she said.
The call to action underscores the urgency driving the youth-led protest:
Time is up for our colleges and universities to divest from the fossil fuel industry and reinvest in a just transition away from fossil fuels. There is no room for neutrality when the president of the United States is actively threatening the very future of this planet.
These walkouts will be the first ripples of a wave of continuous escalation that will crest this Spring. This action is only the beginning--but the bigger we begin, the more impressive our impact will be in the weeks to come."
Added Greta Neubauer, director of the Divestment Student Network: "For any chance at curbing the worst impacts of climate change, our universities must stand on the right side of history with students and take action now against Trump's climate denial. We won't allow Trump and his fossil fuel billionaire cabinet to foreclose on our future."
The walkouts come two days after the Women's March on Washington and its sister marches on all continents, which drew over 2.5 million people to the streets.
To show that President Donald Trump's climate denialism does not have their consent, thousands of students at universities and colleges across the U.S. on Monday are expected to walk out of class to urge their campuses to divest their assets from the fossil fuel industry.
| #ResistRejectDenial Tweets |
"Continuing to act is how we keep hope alive and build the resistance even stronger," the GoFossilFree.org website declares of the action, dubbed #ResistRejectDenial.
Campuses with scheduled actions span from Evergreen State College in Washington State to University of Arizona to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
At Harvard University, students are calling their action Inaugurate a New Harvard, and will deliver to the offices of University President Drew Faust a petition demanding, among other things, that the administration show climate change leadership. "A Trump era demands that we resist, protect, and progress at the local level," said university senior Mattea Mrkusic in a statement.
Speaking to the Real News Network, Varshini Prakash, senior campaign coach of the Divestment Student Network, said that Trump has chosen "the interests of the one percent over the interests of the people." That is "why we need really powerful movements now more than ever. And that's why youth are saying from day one--we're not going to lie low. They want us to be scared. They want us to be depressed. They want us to be sad. But that's not what we're going to do. We're here to fight," she said.
The call to action underscores the urgency driving the youth-led protest:
Time is up for our colleges and universities to divest from the fossil fuel industry and reinvest in a just transition away from fossil fuels. There is no room for neutrality when the president of the United States is actively threatening the very future of this planet.
These walkouts will be the first ripples of a wave of continuous escalation that will crest this Spring. This action is only the beginning--but the bigger we begin, the more impressive our impact will be in the weeks to come."
Added Greta Neubauer, director of the Divestment Student Network: "For any chance at curbing the worst impacts of climate change, our universities must stand on the right side of history with students and take action now against Trump's climate denial. We won't allow Trump and his fossil fuel billionaire cabinet to foreclose on our future."
The walkouts come two days after the Women's March on Washington and its sister marches on all continents, which drew over 2.5 million people to the streets.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.