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Dear Cornell and community, Five days ago, the Sustainable Cornell Council issued a glowing Cornell State of Sustainability Address. A smorgasbord of climate initiatives was reviewed, ranging from carbon-capture research to afforestation plans and a student sustainability module. The scale of the problem seemed dwarfed by the solutions. Not a single major challenge or obstacle to progress was mentioned. This might surprise anyone who has been watching other such addresses on the state of sustainability. The UN Emissions Gap Report launch in November, for instance, underscored the world’s repeated failure to deliver on pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a report titled “Broken Record.” Observing that the emissions gap “is more like a canyon,” UN Secretary General Guterres stated, “All of this is a failure of leadership, a betrayal of the vulnerable, and a massive missed opportunity." What sets Cornell apart from the rest of the world in meeting their climate goals? The answer, it seems, is PR. In 90 minutes of discourse on the State of Sustainability at Cornell, not once was it mentioned that Cornell has failed to reduce emissions since it began tracking progress in 2008. Neither was it mentioned that the sustainability module is the only form of mandatory climate education at Cornell, amounting to a single self-taught hour out of four years on The Hill. By now you can guess whether anyone mentioned that Cornell has persistently refused to contribute its fair share to the local TCAT bus system, or that it funnels vast sums of money to fossil fuel companies through faculty and staff retirement funds held by TIAA. Twenty years ago when students succeeded in pushing Cornell to institute a climate action plan, they warned that it would require continuous pressure from the community to “ensure that this commitment results in a real change.” Those words have proven prophetic. Just in time for Cornell’s State of Sustainability Address, we published three independent reports on the state of climate action at Cornell. Our “Beyond PR” reports provide the analytic honesty required for real action on our climate goals. Drawing together insights from experts, insiders, public data, and climate research, the reports could not be more clear: Cornell will not meet its Climate Action goals unless students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members hold it accountable. Our Climate Action Report finds that since Cornell launched its ambitious Climate Action Plan pledging steep emissions reductions in 2008, overall emissions have at best remained constant, or may have even increased – a fact that is obscured by Cornell’s public reporting methods. Cornell’s carbon-intensive culture drives a staggering 900,000+ tons of greenhouse gases every year into the atmosphere – more than each of the 22 lowest-emitting nations on Earth, including the bottom eight combined. Cornell’s emissions reduction gap can be attributed to persistent failures to make costly tradeoffs in the name of climate, coupled with an outdated status quo that treats climate as a distant secondary consideration. Our report identifies ten key actions Cornell can take now to help meet its climate action goals in time. Meanwhile, our education report finds that Cornell trudges forward with traditional curricula while climate change rewrites their students’ futures at an accelerating pace. Cornell has no stated vision for climatizing a Cornell education, and the voluminous list of classes labeled as “sustainability” is misleadingly all-inclusive with no definition of sustainability. We point to model programs for climate education and recommend realistic measures at Cornell. Our Alliance Partner Climate Justice Cornell reports how Cornell’s pursuit of profit over planet has crippled climate justice efforts by denying equitable contributions to TCAT, failing to deliver on divestment, and opting for massive food waste over food justice. The report highlights solutions, which Cornell has so far ignored, including the campaigns for FreeCAT and TIAA divestment. (Unbelievably, an audience question about TCAT at the Cornell State of Sustainability Address was met a council member extending condolences on “their struggles.”) It is fair to celebrate what we have accomplished, but the climate crisis requires far more of us. It calls for honest reckoning and a willingness to confront the scale of action needed. Cornellians and community members deserve to be informed of the climate reality at Cornell and to be part of the exponential increases in engagement and collaboration needed to meet global climate goals. In the words of Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, we must “lift the needle out of the same old groove of insufficient ambition and not enough action.” No one ever ended up at Cornell for lack of ambition and not enough action. Cornell itself is hosted by one of the most climate-forward cities in the US and supported by the most progressive statewide climate legislation in the country. Surely Cornell will not let the decisive decade for climate action be lost for lack of ambition and not enough action. If Cornell can’t do it, nobody can. Tell Cornell to rise to the challenge. With confidence, Cornell on Fire
P.S. Cornell prides itself on their platinum STARS’ rating from the self-reported university sustainability rating system. But this reflects high marks on soft measures such as campus engagement and “sustainability” coursework, while Cornell’s operations - what the climate cares about - receive grades no Cornellian would consider top notch. For instance, waste management scores at 60% while energy efficiency and renewable energy come in at 51%, a failing grade. Cornell may appear to perform better than other universities, but the climate doesn’t grade on a curve and neither should we.
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Thank you for reading this far and engaging in the number-one frontline for climate action: your attention. Get involved nowRead our reports. What you need to know to demand the change we need. Sign Our Demands. Tell Cornell to lead the way with a climate response that is adequate in ambition, credibility, and urgency. Drop by Office Hours. Visit us on Cornell’s Ho Plaza every Friday from 11a-12:30p. Join our Working Group: Support us with participation, research, or consultation by reaching out to connect@cornellonfire.org. Our Working Group meets regularly to organize the movement. Members come from across Cornell and the greater community. Advise our Working Group: Our Movement Advisors include a network of experts consulting on everything from Cornell’s current sustainability efforts to Indigenous restorative justice, fossil free research, and outreach and communications. Join our Alliance Partners: Advance climate justice and your organization’s mission by endorsing our movement. Ask us how to get started at admin@cornellonfire.org. Organizations endorsing our movement include: Climate Justice Cornell | Society for Natural Resources Conservation | Thrive Ithaca | Campus Climate Network | Sunrise Movement Ithaca | Mothers Out Front Tompkins | Extinction Rebellion Ithaca | Make Cornell Pay | Environmental Law Society | and growing. Spread the word: Forward this email to others.
Mark your calendarEarth Day Action, Monday April 22, 2024: Code RED: Reclaiming Earth Day. Cornell on Fire and our Alliance Partners will join universities across the world to reclaim Earth Day for collective action and climate justice. Stay tuned for details!
Engage the wider movementNewsletter #3 originally published on February 5, 2024 Opt out of Cornell on Fire Newsletters: write “unsubscribe” to connect@cornellonfire.org or click “unsubscribe” below.
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