We Declare a Climate Emergency

Oct 30

Climate inaction is a breach of the social contract

Newsletter #31 published on October 30, 2026

The Cornell administration’s refusal to declare a climate emergency, or to take commensurate action, is a breach of the social contract and is resulting in a loss of legitimacy for the institution. Therefore, we invite the entire Cornell community to join Cornell on Fire in declaring, and applying, a state of climate emergency with our words and deeds.

Scroll below for upcoming meetings and to get involved.

Dear Cornell on Fire,

During this moment in which Earth’s temperature has increased by 1.5 degrees Celsius over the preindustrial era, and is on track to exceed 1.5 C warming by more than that during the academic careers of many of today’s Cornell students, climate activism has been undermined by the fact that the institutions that wield power over us have become increasingly autocratic and unresponsive. To name a few, the United States Government, the AI industry, and Cornell University are all pursuing policies that aggravate rather than mitigate the climate crisis.

Meanwhile, these same institutions are unable or unwilling to address other crises such as patriarchal rape culture, genocide, wealth inequality and fascism.

The polycrisis we are experiencing begets a crisis of legitimacy, indicating that the social contract is broken. Our adherence to the rules set by these institutions, in exchange for their support of the common good, is not being reciprocated.

The climate crisis is already causing more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, wildfires, extreme weather events, and declines in the ecosystems that support all life on Earth. This is happening now, not in 2050. Everybody knows it, including the dwindling number of climate change deniers, who are actively exploiting newly accessible arctic areas and hardening their assets against climate change, even as they claim that global warming is a “Chinese hoax”.

Humanity must come together NOW and work to limit the damage.

Millions of people throughout the world have demanded that our governments and other institutions declare a climate emergency. Over 2,300 jurisdictions and local governments covering 1 billion citizens have already done so. Yet Cornell University and the United States government have refused to do so, or to enact policies commensurate with the climate crisis.

Therefore, we are now acting in our own individual and collective capacities.

WE declare a climate emergency.

We hereby invoke the social contract upon Cornell and ALL institutions. Those to whom we give power must exercise that power for the benefit of all, and are obligated to prioritize climate action as a condition of their legitimacy. We make this declaration as an assertion that WE, you and I, are as much a part of Cornell as president Kotlikoff, an act of defiant hope in the capacity of human kind to respond to reality. We refuse to passively accept the fate of living and working in existential fear of climate doom, while we perform every duty imposed upon us by our institutions.

We invite individuals and institutions to sign on to this declaration, or to draft and publish their own.

We will no longer be complicit with the planet-killing status quo, nor grant unconditional legitimacy to institutions which continue to refuse to respond to what really is being done to our world.

This emergency requires us to:

Protect Earth’s climate as a top priority, superseding the current priorities of institutional self preservation and the concentration of wealth
Mobilize resources on a level proportionate to the severity of the crisis
Transition away from the climate destroying fossil fuel economy to a sustainable energy regime

A declaration of climate emergency must not be used to justify:

Authoritarian or antidemocratic policies
Ecofascist projects
Censorship of any person’s free speech, though demonstrably false statements can and must be contradicted and corrected at every turn

As long as Cornell refuses to declare a climate emergency and to act accordingly, it is complicit in climate destruction, just as we have each been complicit. Our intention is not to pass judgment or demand punishment. We merely state that the consequence of continued denial and inaction on Cornell’s part, is a loss of its legitimacy as an educational institution and an intellectual leader. If Cornell wants it back, it must change now.

We are Cornell, on Fire

Read on for actions, events, and updates. This newsletter was also published via email and social media on Instagram and Mastodon.

Get involved with Cornell on Fire:

Cornell on Fire Meetings: We meet biweekly on Saturdays from 3:00 - 4:30pm at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Collegetown (109 Oak Avenue.) We also meet hybrid - email us if you’d like the link.
- Join our next meeting on Saturday, 10/31, from 3:00-4:30pm for Halloween activism and coffee.
Interested in joining our Working Group? We actively welcome new perspectives! Everyone can contribute to our campus-community coalition: students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members. Fill out our interest form or reach out at connect@cornellonfire.org.