Ilana Cohen was running to her environmental ethics class on September 9 at Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts) when she discovered the university president’s email on her cell phone. “Dear members of the Harvard community. “
The 20-year-old student, in second year but already an “old” in the mobilization for the climate, fell backwards. Lawrence Bacow announced a decision that students have been demanding for ten years: the divestment of the university from the fossil fuel sector. “Climate change is the most serious threat of consequences that humanity has to face”, he justified in the introduction, as if his young interlocutors could ignore him.
President since 2018, Lawrence Bacow spoke of the need to act “As citizens, as researchers and as an institution”. The message announced that Harvard was going to divest itself of its investments in the oil and gas sectors (the university had already separated from its investments in coal). “Given the need to decarbonize our economy and our responsibility to make long-term decisions that align with our research and teaching mission, we don’t think such investments are wise. “
Two days earlier, a hundred students were still demonstrating in Harvard Square, the heart of the university, without much hope of being heard.
The students celebrated the victory “With great joy and pride”. A dazzling victory as much as it was unexpected. “I didn’t think I would see this result during my schooling, relates Ilana Cohen. This is incredible proof of the power of mobilization. “
Harvard being the richest university in the United States – its endowment fund amounts to 42 billion dollars (36 billion euros) – the decision of its board of directors immediately had repercussions on campuses : Boston University, sitting on a treasure of $ 3 billion, followed suit on September 23, explaining that it wanted “Be on the right side of history”. The University of Minnesota the next day. “Harvard was the symbol of the status quo, comments Richard Brooks of the Stand.earth organization in San Francisco. The cursor has moved. Opinion is shifting in favor of stronger actions for the climate. “
Cultural evolution
According to the Fossil Free site, financed by 350.org, the association which is at the origin of the campaign, a hundred universities have made a commitment to divest in fossil industries, partially or totally. The last two years have been good: Rutgers University (New Jersey), the University of Michigan, Georgetown University (Washington DC), Brown (Rhode Island), Middlebury (Vermont), the University of California.
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