Reclaim Earth Day: Our Struggles are Connected
5-1-2024
By: The Nightly Crew
On Monday April 22nd, students and workers gathered in Red Square at a Reclaim Earth Day walkout. Attendees talked about the importance of campus decarbonization by 2035, military abolition, and Indigenous land back. “We want to bring earth day back to its roots by expanding public understanding of climate change and the ways in which oil corporations extract from our natural resources.” Bailey Cunningham, a member of the Institutional Climate Action UW Chapter, told The Nightly. “Earth day has been co-opted by corporations and institutions that greenwash its original meaning in order to make themselves appear as if they are environmentally friendly, but in reality this is a distraction from the systems of oppression and fossil fuel emissions that are causing the climate crisis. We want to hold UW accountable as a major contributor to this deadly crisis.
Cunningham continued, “our demands are to divest, dissociate, and decarbonize… We want them to dissociate by stopping promoting fossil fuels and related industries in the Career Center; we want big oil out of UW events and out of sponsoring research projects; and we want the campus to decarbonize by 95% by 2035.” In 2022, the UW power plant released 86,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses, making up 54% of UW emissions and earning a spot as the fourteenth-most-polluting power plant in the state. UW kills an estimated 22 people a year through its carbon emissions.
According to the event’s press release: “David Woodson, the Executive Director of Campus Energy, knows that this decarbonization is possible by 2035. He stated: ‘I actually don’t think funding is a barrier.’” So why isn’t UW decarbonizing as fast as it could be? A financial conflict of interests is likely to blame. UW receives federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Washington Climate Commitment Act– money that could be used to decarbonize 95% by 2035– but it also gets funding from oil barons like British Petroleum, Charles Koch, and ExxonMobil, companies with a vested interest in fueling climate change.
“Land Back, Water is Life, and This is Stolen land”
The oil extraction of companies like ExxonMobil and BP, often comes at the expense of Indigenous communities locally and across the globe. In Washington State, The Lummi, Makah, and other nations have recently had their sovereignty violated by Fossil Fuel Companies who aim to drill on ancestral land and limitlessly pollute the earth. Henry Hess, a speaker from First Nations UW, talked to this more. “In the state of Washington, there are countless examples of fossil fuel companies violating treaty rights and violating the sovereignty of Indigenous people.”
Hess continued, “As the people exiled to some of the furthest and most desolate places in our country, Indigenous Americans bear the brunt of climate change while also serving as the ones who provide the solutions for it through stewardship and care for the earth. Our traditional practices and ancestral knowledge are rooted in protection of the earth and a beneficial relationship with nature… One of the steps in this push for Native knowledge and increased protection of the planet is land back and sovereignty over our traditional homelands. As the traditional caretakers of our land since time immemorial, we know how to maintain and preserve the land we come from. Whether it is subsistence hunting, controlled burns, or intentional shaping of land, Indian Nations have lived in harmony with nature and with the earth in direct contrast to western and settler culture. This contrast is why these practices have been banned and made illegal by the federal government, showing just how complicit all forms of colonial society have been in the continuing of climate change and the destruction of our planet.
Sign reads: “When the last tree has fallen and the rivers are poisoned, we cannot eat money.”
Later, Hess talked about the UW’s position within colonial cycles. “The University of Washington as an arm of settler society is just as complicit in the harm of our environment. They acknowledge us as the original inhabitants of the land and the original caretakers, but still collaborate with companies that directly harm Indigenous people globally, and in the United States… There is no way that the University of Washington can claim they acknowledge us but still actively collaborate with companies that harm us. The University of Washington in itself is a colonial entity, founded by a methodist preacher who made his fortune from coal mining. Continued collaboration with fossil fuel companies only reinforces the fact that the University administration truly does not care about the Indigenous people of Washington and their own Indigenous students, whose communities continue to be affected by the climate change and the environmental destruction they are complicit in.”
UAW 4121, Palestine, and More…
A former member of UAW 4121, the union representing academic student workers, was also there. The union has been engaging in fierce negotiation with the University this month and highlighted the need for solidarity between struggles. “Imperialism is the root cause of why year after year we are not getting real wages that keep up with the cost of living. That's also the root cause of the climate crisis. The capitalist class has expropriated our right to live” a representative from UAW 4121 told the crowd.
Throughout the event, there was an emphasis on military abolition and anti-imperialism. Highlighting the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the destruction of the land across the world. “The US military is one of the largest institutional emitters of carbon on earth,” one speaker said, “There will be no green Military Industrial Complex.”
Pipelines and plastic contrast speakers’ pro-climate and pro-people words.
After that, The Daily, who was present at the event, was presented with demands to stop greenwashing and promoting fossil fuel companies. This was unsurprisingly not reported on by The Daily’s March 24th Article covering the event. Perhaps by coincidence, or in the most ironic case of greenwashing this year, The Daily largely did not discuss, land back, Palestine, The US War Machine, Imperialism, or anything more radical than divestment and decarbonization. In doing so, The Daily continued the harmful tradition of portraying the environmentalist left as single issue, passive, and white. This is all the more reason to Boycott the Daily.
Student Demands
The walkout was organized around a series of demands available on the ICA website. Below, we have copied information from their website corresponding to the three demands they highlighted for the University and for The Daily. More information and details can be found at their website, linked above.
“Divest : We demand that the University of Washington’s Board of Regents honor any recommendations given by the ACSRI on fossil fuel divestment which affirm the University’s need for divestment and which sustainably reinvest a minimum of 2.5% of the current CEF into equitable climate solutions. Furthermore, we demand that the BOR develop and codify investment policy which puts a permanent negative screen on investments in fossil fuels, while instructing UWINCO to divest all fossil fuel assets from the CEF no later than 2025.
Decarbonize
UW commit to approve a plan that decarbonizes 95% of campus by 2035
Improve campus accessibility as part of the decarbonization process, which includes creating accessible pathways wherever we already need to replace underground pipes as part of the energy transition
Disassociate
We demand that the University of Washington eliminate promotional advertising, and end career fairs or other events which promote and funnel prospective employees into the fossil fuel industry. In particular, we demand:
The UW Daily must amend its internal policy guidelines to prohibit fossil fuel corporations from using the platform of the Daily to promote the Industry’s interests. We also encourage the Daily to sign the Clean Creatives Pledge
The UW Daily must develop a comprehensive plan for their coverage of the climate crisis, ensuring that they will represent the gravity of the crisis when conveying messaging which specifically mentions it. Additionally, this entails using an intersectional filter (i.e. Equity filter) when reporting so as to uplift and share the voices and perspectives of frontline community members when at all possible
The Career and Internship Center must amend their employer user policy to prohibit companies in the fossil fuel industry from recruiting on campus nor using the Center’s services in any capacity to engage with students. The Attorney General’s office must approve this amendment for the safety of UW students. Furthermore, the Center must issue a public statement notifying employers of this change and directing employers with existing relationships to the Center to disclose their status in relation to the fossil fuel industry. More thorough vetting of companies is needed with concern for violations of worker safety, federal convictions for illegal corporate behavior, and effects on the health and safety of the general population.
Career Centers from the following departments must enact a similar moratorium and commit to the fossil free pledge: Business (MBA); Business (Undergraduate and Specialty Masters); Computational Finance and Risk Management (MS-CFRM); Computer Science & Engineering; Construction Management; Data Science (Masters); Engineering; Information School; International Studies; Law (JD); Medical (MD); Public Administration (MPA); Public Health
Student Organizations (RSOs), and on campus groups must commit to the fossil free pledge, refuse donations from fossil fuel interests, ban promotional events or partnerships, and support other initiatives on campus for a more just and healthy campus environment.”
Our Thoughts
At the end of the demonstration attendees were prompted to smash a symbolic paper mache pipeline, which might be the best use of Daily Newspapers we’ve seen to date! While this provided an outlet for student anger, we were saddened to see that more radical and autonomous forms of action were not explored, and that they have not been implored since. For example, instead of smashing a symbolic pipeline, Gerberding Hall was right behind the protest. We need to rekindle the legacy of radical environmental liberation efforts in the Northwest, like the infamous Earth Liberation Front and their 2001 bombing of the University of Washington, or the 1999 WTO uprisings. Symbolism can grab people’s attention, but the only tangible change comes from the direct action people take once they’re aware of an issue.
End the era of fossil fuels; land back; abolish the military, imperialism, capitalism, and all forms of social hierarchy and oppression; pay living wages; destroy all corporate and liberal fossil fuel propaganda; and lastly, never steer clear of radical action. The state and its corporations have a monopoly on terrorism and violence. They jump at any opportunity to prosecute and defame those who dare question it. Radical acts of both care and destruction, might just be our only hope to stop the worst of climate destruction.
