Newsletter #19: Foes in the Right Places

Written By Cornell on Fire

Will Cornell side with climate activists or climate criminals?

Newsletter #19 published July 31, 2025

 

Photo credit Cornell Law School: Monique Caraballo for Unsplash.

 

Dear Cornell on Fire,

Cornell’s leadership faces a challenge: In a political-economic system dominated by fossil fuels and fascists, should they reject both and risk making foes in high places? 

The answer is an unmitigated yes. In case the Cornell administration needs any encouragement, the legal stakes just got higher (as reviewed in a decisive Forbes article). On July 23, the International Court of Justice issued a historic ruling that a livable climate is fundamental to all other human rights. At this very moment, youth involved in Lighthiser v. Trump are challenging the Trump administration’s “unleashing” of fossil fuels on grounds that it threatens their constitutional rights to life, health, and safety. 

Students at Cornell University could make a similar case against their own university administration. 

While the ICJ found that States are “obligated” to “regulate businesses on the harm caused by their emissions regardless of where the harm takes place,” Cornell continues to obscure the full scope of emissions from their power plant in order to claim (falsely) that they have “reduced” university emissions by nearly half.*

While the plaintiffs in Lighthiser v. Trump argue that we must shift our national energy paradigm from one rooted in profit to one that protects children’s lives and futures, Cornell lobbies for the expansion of their gas plant against Ithaca’s progressive energy code, construing Earth Source Heat as a reason for delay while refusing to fund it.

While the ICJ finds that “intergenerational equity should guide the interpretation of all climate obligations," Cornell continues to ignore their own 2016 recommendations for university decision-making based on the social cost of carbon. There is no evidence to date that Cornell feels obligated to either intergenerational equity or the social cost of carbon. Quite the opposite. They spent over $337 million on recent new construction while claiming they can’t fund campus decarbonization through Earth Source Heat (an estimated price tag of $250 million). They continue to expand toxic fake grass fields while refusing to acknowledge – indeed, actively misrepresenting – their intergenerational and social costs in terms of carbon, pollution, and health. 

While UN Secretary General Guterres announces that “the truly dangerous radicals” are not climate activists but those who “are increasing the production of fossil fuels,” Cornell chooses to criminalize climate activists while lionizing the “truly dangerous radicals.” They recently appointed a fossil-fuel heiress who profits from the expansion of Mexico’s natural gas pipelines to Chair the Board of Trustees. Despite growing consensus that fossil-fuel expansion is criminal behavior, Cornell is still invested in new fossil-fuel infrastructure through TIAA retirement funds, still complicit in the deceptive use of fossil-fuel funding for research, and still courting fossil-fuel donations. For example, Cornell named their newest toxic project for Anne’s father, Peter Meinig, who made a fortune on fracked gas pipelines in the Northeast.

President Kotlikoff shows alarming signs of currying favor with the Trumpian regime, seeking friends in the wrong high places by repressing free speech, condemning “wokeness,” and lobbying for fossil fuel expansion using the same misinformation as Big Oil. It’s not too late for Cornell to side with Youth and the ICJ to say: We will protect the human rights of our students against the horrifying criminals running the current political-economic order. 

These questions have been on our mind and actions all month long. In response to Cornell’s repression of our climate protests, we produced a short film challenging the legitimacy of their “persona non grata” orders. We released footage of our interaction with Cornell Police to reveal the intimidation tactics used to silence protesters, and we filed citizens’ complaints about officer behavior. In further work targeting climate criminals, we joined Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island’s summer-long campaign to Stop Billionaires by launching a street-art campaign on Good Trouble Day. Keep your eyes open for more writing on the wall... 

If we can’t expect courage, we can at the very least expect intellectual honesty from our university leaders. Let’s help Cornell find their institutional voice even if it means currying disfavor in high places and breaking up with fossil fuel oligarchs. Join us in taking practical action to antagonize climate criminals - scroll down for upcoming opportunities!

To making all the right enemies,

Cornell on Fire



*Asterisks indicate where supplemental notes can be found by scrolling below. You can like this post and others on Instagram.

*On regulating emissions regardless of where the harm takes place: Cornell climate scientists and activists alike have argued that Cornell must honestly report and take accountability for the upstream methane emissions from the campus power plant. This month’s decision by the ICJ upholds that principle: Cornell, like other actors, should regulate their own business on the harm caused by their emissions “regardless of where the harm takes place.” 

Take action with us!

  • Art-ivism Party: Help us put writing on the walls of Ithaca. Join us this weekend for a no-skills-needed artivism party from 2-5pm on Saturday, August 2, and 1-4pm on Sunday, August 3. Email connect@cornellonfire.org for directions and carpools.

  • The climate movement needs your wall! Let us post Stop Billionaire posters on your outdoor wall, car, or any smooth exterior surface. Learn more here or email us at connect@cornellonfire.org. 

  • Interested in joining our undeniably charming Working Group? Join our Fall Kickoff meeting this August! Stay tuned for details to come in our August communication.

Engage the Wider Movement:

  • Stop Billionaires Summer: Follow the summer of heat actions from Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island. Extinction Rebellion Ithaca and Cornell on Fire are collaborating in these events - message us to get involved!

  • Extinction Rebellion Climate Vigils 11am every Saturday at Chase Bank - the worst bank on Earth - at the East end of the Ithaca Commons.

  • Support the brave young leaders represented by Youth V Gov in Lighthiser v. Trump who are suing Trump’s unlawful Executive Orders for ignoring science and threatening irreversible damage. Read more about their historic case here and here!

In case you missed it. Catch up on our latest work:

  • Follow our latest actions on social media:

  • Footage release: Climate Activists Silenced and Threatened by Cornell Police (video on Instagram and YouTube)

  • Short film: Don’t Cross the Line (video on Instagram and YouTube)

  • Stop Billionaires street-art campaign launch - Ithaca (video on Instagram and YouTube)

Read the Forbes article that inspired this newsletter:

Thank you for reading this far and engaging in the number-one frontline for climate action: your attention. 

Newsletter #19 originally published on July 31, 2025.

Cornell on Fire

Cornell on Fire is a campus-community movement calling on Cornell to confront the climate emergency.

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