Jo Almond listens to a passerby’s concern with Climate Change. (Mary Bosch)
No matter where a person in the youth climate movement is from, there seems to be a consensus: Institutions aren’t listening and aren’t moving to improve the issue of climate change.
At Simmons University and Northeastern University, as well as colleges across the country, students have proposed that their universities divest all money and investments from the fossil fuel industry. According to the International Energy Agency, the fossil fuel industry was responsible for 89% of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. However, students said they have not been able to make substantial progress, as they are not able to directly communicate with their board of trustees.
Milena Chaufan, a rising senior and president of the environmental group Sunrise Simmons, has attempted to talk to the board, but the extent of her efforts have only reached Chief Financial Officer Megan Kass. To Chaufan’s disappointment “[the trustees] were not willing to commit [to divestment] yet.”
Sunrise Simmons held a Town Hall meeting about the fossil fuel divestment on October 17 2023. (Photo courtesty of Sunrise Simmons)
Lucas Good, an incoming third-year student and president of Sunrise’s Northeastern chapter, has experienced similar struggles working with Northeastern’s Sustainability Hub, an administrative office at the university.
“They’re definitely . . . interested in hearing us out and want a lot of the same things,” Good said. “They just have to really, really think about how they can get that done and keep their jobs.
That same struggle is what drives international climate movement Extinction Rebellion to focus on nonviolent direct action. Since June 5, XR members have been standing outside the Massachusetts Statehouse five days a week to pressure legislators to commit to no new fossil fuel infrastructure. 16-year-old XR activist Jo Almond said, “You want to be able to tell your grandchildren ‘I did something,’ right?”
Almond used to be a part of a Sunrise chapter but it ended because of a lack of participation. On Northeastern’s campus, the student government had 80% support on a fossil fuel divestment bill, but Sunrise still struggles with participation and recruitment.
Chaufan, Good, and Almond all remain frustrated with older generations’ pressure on younger generations to find a solution to climate change, but that’s not stopping student activists from trying.