The Power of Protest: Harvard Endowment Moves on Climate Change
Harvard recently announced that they are making their endowment greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. Thinking about the significance of this announcement brought me back to the 2019 Harvard/Yale game, and half-time climate change protest that almost overshadowed The Game. Looking back, I had written a bunch of notes on why the 2019 version of The Game was like no other, but I never actually turned it into a post. In light of the recent news, I decided to finish it.
The third Saturday in November is a day that for football fans, is traditionally reserved for college rivalries. Saturday, November 23, 2019, was the 136th meeting of Harvard/Yale, affectionately known as “The Game” (Both schools have a monopoly on hubris…as if it’s the ONLY rivalry that matters in all of the college football…sigh). While I’ve been to “The Game” many times, this time was unique in many ways.
First Time I’ve Spent the Tailgate at Harvard/Yale WITH Yalies.
Crimson in a sea of blue, but not much different than on the other side. Young people getting Litty. Old people getting toasted. Newly or not so newly minted Tools, now working at Goldman and coming back to The Game to floss. The more it changes, the more it stays the same. A smattering of Black and Brown folk, but their big tailgates are elsewhere.
First Time Thinking Deeply While Tailgating
I’m a simple creature. If there’s food, I eat. If there’s beer, I drink. If there’s…well, you get the idea. It could have been where I‘m’ from (NYC) and what I do (humble ventures works with diverse founders and founders building solutions for diverse audiences) or it could have been the jello shots at the peewee tailgate, but for the first time at this event, I noticed a bunch of dots connecting in a really interesting way.
Conservation and Climate Change Will Touch Every Industry and Startups will Help Shed Light on its Impact
I rode up to Yale with a few friends in healthcare (we were in a car for ninety minutes) rehearsing for the tailgate (AKA drinking mimosas). We got into a conversation about healthcare, conservation initiatives, and startups working to make sustainability a reality in new and interesting ways. Two of the ones I really like are
These companies are emblematic of the way that Innovation is helping fuse ecological responsibility, climate change, sustainability, and forest conservation. Inevitably, companies like this will intersect with the ever-growing, constantly evolving healthcare ecosystem.
Harvard and Yale Students Protest Endowment Investment in Fossil Fuels in the MIDDLE OF THE F*%&#@! GAME
The football fan in me was pissed the fuck off. The protest killed the momentum. My heart went out to the football players on both teams who were fired up coming back out, that were then forced to wait while the protest played out. The strategist in me respected the bold move and the commitment to non-violent protest during a prominent sporting event. The scale of the protest, and the genius to hold it with a huge percentage of active alumni of both schools either in attendance or watching, was proof that the climate change movement is real and its importance is growing by the minute.
We are seeing more and more movement not only directly in climate change but also in all the spaces that are connected to climate (think forest conservation, sustainability, and ecological responsibility). Taken collectively, these are themes that define this generation.
Double OT. Another first.
I’m not going to complain that in the first half, Harvard had the game well in hand and if not for the protest, they likely would have EATEN YALE’s LUNCH…but double OT was a tremendous finish…even if it did mean that half the stadium was thoroughly trashed, having pre-gamed and tailgated with a standard-length game in mind. Between the protest and the extra time, folks were definitely feeling it.
What Can We Do to Help Usher in The Change We Hope to See
Look for opportunities to help meaningful change become reality, in large and small ways. The Game, and the statements made by players in the wake of the protest, is a perfect example. See Wesley Ogsbury, the Harvard team Captain’s statement in support of the protesters that went viral below:
“Today, we faced off in the game, competing with our great rivals from New Haven, Yale. But at this moment, both our institutions continue to invest in the industries destroying our futures. And when it comes to the climate crises, no one wins.”
“Harvard and Yale can’t claim to truly promote knowledge while at the same time, supporting the companies engage in misleading the public, smearing the academics and denying the truth,” the Harvard athlete continued. That’s why we’re joining together with our friends at Yale to call for change.”
“In solidarity with my friends at Divest Harvard and Fossil Free Yale, who disrupted today’s proceedings, many of my teammates and I are wearing orange wristbands, the color of the Divest movement, after the game. We’re coming together to call on Presidents [Lawrence] Bacow and [Peter] Salovey, to divest from the fossil fuel industry now, for the sake of our generation.”
According to NPR, Harvard and Yale are not the first universities to face criticism over fossil fuel investments. Harvard’s announcement today is a welcome change from their previous stance and one that is much more in step with the world we are living in today.
Full disclosure, I attended Harvard and played football there. That doesn’t mean I condone the general douchebaggery that goes on at The Game.
