Greenjays call on Board of Trustees to divest from fossil fuels at first student-led climate strike
Graphic by Isabella Herrera
Elmhurst University Greenjays organized the first student-led climate strike on April 23, where they announced the “Elmhurst Divest” campaign.
The aim of the campaign is to work with the Board of Trustees Investment Committee to divest from fossil fuel investments and invest in renewable energy.
“We call upon the board of trustees to phase out fossil fuels from our investment portfolios and to purchase 100 percent renewable energy credits to offset the energy used by our university by 2030,” said Hannah Bacon, President of the Greenjays.
The Leader does not know how much the board of trustees have invested in fossil fuels through their investment portfolios.
#Elmhurstdivest was developed by the Greenjays over the span of a month after the suggestion of community organizer, and event guest speaker, Andrew Ruggiero Van Gorp.
“I also felt like Greenjays needed to have something stronger to unite the club in order to pass it on to other generations, so this campaign came to life,” said Bacon.
The climate strike took place on Brune Patio from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with two speakers and a wall of cardboard posters with various messages about environmental conservation written on them.
Rabia Amin, co-vice president of Elmhurst minoritized and allies, spoke about the impacts of environmental racism in her community. She noted how two sides of the same town experience differences, with one side of her town always suffering bad flooding from storms and the other sustaining storm flooding easily.
Van Gorp, community organizer at Sustain DuPage, spoke to the crowd present about environmental conservation and individual change one can make to preserve the human species.
“Never before in the history of our species has our survival been more threatened,” said Van Gorp. “We are an endangered species.”
Van Gorp continued explaining that scientists warn us about the destruction happening, but there is little being done by governments to preserve humanity. “Climate change can disrupt systems of power,” said Van Gorp. “If we value democracy why are corporations allowed to tyrannize our government with bribery?”
Van Gorp explained in his speech what he calls the great contradiction, the clash between human values and the government’s attitude of preferring profit over the values of humanity.
“The great contradiction of our lives: That our values are not used as a metric of success by the systems of power that shape our reality,” said Van Gorp. “They [the government] don’t value what humanity actually values.”
Van Gorp continued with examples of humans valuing freedom while the government compromises it by profiting off the mass incarceration of people of color.
Bacon announced there will be a petition to sign in coming weeks for campus community members to show their support for ending investments in fossil fuels.
“This may be the beginning of a long road but we choose to believe that we can make change.”
