news letter archive

Newsletter #11: Thanksgiving and mourning

This is a week of grieving and thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving season, we asked Robin Wall Kimmerer: what teachings are needed now for universities like Cornell? She pointed us to the principles of the Honorable Harvest. This Thanksgiving, we invite you to envision what an Honorable Harvest might look like in higher education. It’s an open call: will you help us experimentally apply these Indigenous principles to our shared predicament?

Originally published November 26, 2024

Newsletter #9: Getting on the side of education

Cornell embodies an implicit answer to the question “What should society be like?” – namely, that it should be just the way it is: an ecocidal and oppressive system driving the world over the brink of climate tipping points in the name of “business as usual.” We no longer have time to ponder abstract questions about societal progress while eschewing or postponing action, because the climate catastrophe endangers the very survival of our species, along with all our dreams of a better world.

Originally published September 30, 2024

Newsletter #8: Cornell on Fire Strikes Back!

Welcome to a new academic year! This summer brought the Northern Hemisphere yet more news of unprecedented floods, wildfires and heat records. We’re not taking it sitting down. We are here to ask: How are our institutions responding to the climate emergency? … Join us at a film premiere to take stock of one year of Cornell on Fire’s work and open debate on the path ahead.

Originally published August 31, 2024

Newsletter #7: Do the Right Thing

Cornell is searching for a new provost. The outcome will be of utmost importance for the university and the broader community, the immediate future and the long run, because the provost is the executive decider in all matters that matter at the university. Weighing in on the search for a new provost is uniquely important in this cycle — the last one before the planetary climate irreversibly breaches the 1.5°C warming threshold (which it already temporarily exceeded in 2023).

Originally published June 30, 2024

Newsletter #6: Big Oil + Big Red Climate Hypocrisy

It’s a critical moment for climate accountability. Following this month’s landmark hearings on the Congressional Report on Big Oil’s Denial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak, we call your attention to an unsettling fact: Cornell University’s climate messaging parallels Big Oil’s doublespeak point for point.

Originally published May 30, 2024

Newsletter #5: Reclaim Earth Day

As the status quo marches relentlessly towards climate crisis and ecological cataclysm, Earth Day has inexplicably become a cheery occasion for celebrating our “sustainability” efforts. The youth aren’t buying it. Neither is Earth. To be frank: none of us are buying it. So mark your calendar: on Monday, April 22, join us to Reclaim Earth Day.

Originally published Apr. 9, 2024

Newsletter #4: The power to move

Who has the power to move Cornell at the highest levels? We do. Who is currently moving Cornell at the highest levels? No one. Cornell is stuck in the status quo. Cornell’s business-as-usual framework is unable to accommodate the existential threat of climate change. >Read more here and complete a 2-minute poll on what kind of climate leadership you expect from Cornell.

Originally published Mar. 17, 2024

Newsletter #3: Cornell State of Sustainability: Re-addressed

Days ago, the Sustainable Cornell Council issued a glowing Cornell State of Sustainability Address. What went unsaid? Cornell on Fire takes stock of Cornell’s progress to date with independent reports on their climate action pledges, climate education, and climate justice. >Read more here.

Originally published Feb. 5, 2024

Newsletter #2: A call to worldmaking

There are moments in history where ordinary people must act, and when inaction amounts to complicity. We have the privilege of living at such a moment. This is a call to worldmaking. >Read more here.

Originally published Nov. 11 2023

Newsletter #1: Welcome to the movement

Imagine a university that has fully mobilized to face the accelerating climate catastrophe and is enacting sweeping changes for climate justice.
This is an idea whose time has come. >Read more here.

Originally published Sep. 10 2023