A new campus climate change group appears: Cornell on Fire

How can academics respond to the unfolding climate crisis?

One was is to organize your campus to think hard and to take serious steps about global warming. Today’s example comes from upstate New York, with the launch of a faculty and local community group calling itself Cornell on Fire. (I am personally honored by the namecheck to my Universities on Fire book)

The group’s focus now is getting the university to declare an institutional climate emergency:

We, the members of Cornell and the local community, call on Cornell to publicly declare a CLIMATE EMERGENCY and take immediate action commensurate with the planet-wide severity of the ecological crisis. Declaring a climate emergency will amplify existing campaigns while catalyzing new initiatives. This declaration, when backed up by concrete changes in ALL aspects of the university’s functioning, will restore Cornell to its intended role as a hub of public service, focused on intensive and equitable solutions in the face of accelerating climate challenges.

I’m impressed by their call to transform campus operations, one of the key domains for academic climate action. I’m also struck by their emphasis on the university’s public role (“as a hub of public service”).