news from the movement
2025
The Cornell Daily Sun | 'It’s Time to Fund Our Future Today': 14 Student Organizations Hold Demonstration During Trustee Meeting
Cornell on Fire joined 13 other campus organizations in a peaceful demonstration calling on the Cornell Trustees to invest in us as federal cuts threaten the University’s mission. Cornell on Fire spoke to the need for Trustees to invest in climate science and act on the implications of that science.
By Yuhan Huang and Olivia Holloway
Published on March 23, 2025
The Cornell Daily Sun | Heating Up for a Sustainable Future: Cornell’s Transition from Steam to Hot Water for Carbon Neutrality by 2035
Cornell on Fire is quoted in support of the University's ongoing steam-to-hot-water conversion, while urging greater transparency, greater speed, and greater funding of the process. Cornell needs to "put their money where their mouth is" when it comes to decarbonization projects.
By Amani Agrawal ’27 for the News Department
Published on March 21, 2025
The Cornell Daily Sun | GUEST ROOM: On Anticipatory Obedience to Fascists' Demands
Cornell on Fire Faculty Fellow Shimon Edelman condemns Interim President Kotlikoff’s pledge of unconditional anticipatory obedience to a corrupt legal system, and calls on University leadership '“to commit to doing the right thing now — or else, when the fascists are kicked out (as they’re bound to be), to discover that it has misplaced its allegiance when it mattered the most.”
By Shimon Edelman
Published on March 21, 2025
The Cornell Daily Sun | Town of Ithaca Planning Board Grants Game Farm Road Project Environmental Green Light
Cornell on Fire joined concerned citizens, environmentalists, and scientists in calling for a full environmental review to assess the impacts of artificial turf fields, citing scientific evidence for the health and environmental impacts of microplastics, PFAS, recycling failures, and carbon emissions. The Town Planning Board scarcely discussed any of those concerns and voted to deny a full environmental impact statement.
By Zeinab Faraj
Published on March 21, 2025
The Ithaca Times | Guest Opinion: Cornell Should Not be Exempt From Ithaca’s Fossil-Fuel Phaseout
Why is Cornell seeking to exempt its campus from Ithaca's fossil-fuel phaseout? We explain why campus decarbonization would reduce Cornell’s emissions, contrary to the Administration’s flawed argument. Cornell's requested amendments to the law are based on faulty methodology - exactly the same faulty methodology that Big Oil is using to cripple America's energy transition.
By Robert Howarth, Anthony Ingraffea, Brian Eden, bethany ojalehto mays, and co-signed by 19 individuals and 5 organizations.
Published on March 19, 2025
Forbes | Fossil Fuels And Prudent Fiduciaries: TIAA Invest Vs TIAA-Divest
Activist organization TIAA-Divest! makes a moral and fiduciary argument against TIAA’s investment of teachers’ retirement funds in fossil fuels and land grabs. Caroline Levine, national TIAA-Divest leader and Cornell on Fire Faculty Fellow, articulates why divestment is needed: “As university teachers and researchers, we spend our lives committing to the wellbeing of students whose future is in our hands. At the same time, we are destroying these students’ futures with our investments.” Cornell is one of TIAA’s largest clients.
By CoF Faculty Fellow Marianne Krasny
Published on March 6, 2025
The Cornell Daily Sun | RE: Cornell’s Energy Transition, A Troubling Delay on Decarbonization
As Interim President Kotlikoff pointed out in a recent op-ed in The Sun, we need to take action on climate change. However, how he proposes Cornell does so is troublingly flawed. Cornell’s argument is well-intentioned but wrong and sets a dangerous precedent that severely undermines climate action here and everywhere.
By bethany ojalehto mays, Robert Howarth, and Anthony Ingraffea
Published on February 14, 2025
October 2024
The Ithaca Voice | After Cornell trustee went viral tearing up over intensity of Hurricane Milton, local climate activists pressured the board on climate action
Climate protesters organized by Cornell on Fire demonstrated on Cornell University’s campus on Friday morning to demand its Board of Trustees and the Cornell University Council accelerate the pace of their climate action.
Published on October 22, 2024
The IHS Tattler | New Satirical Short Film Holds Cornell’s “Feet to the Fire” on Climate Change
On September 7, around fifty people gathered at Cinemapolis for the first screening of Cornell on Fire’s satirical short film and serious short film, followed by a panel discussion with prominent figures from several campus movements. The films are intended “to draw attention to what’s happening and get more people excited, angry, and wanting to be involved.”
By Ace Dufresne
Published in October, 2024
September 2024
The Ithaca Voice | City approves Cornell’s Meinig Fieldhouse project as activists raise last-ditch legal concerns
The City of Ithaca Planning Board decided on Thursday to move forward with the preliminary and final site approval for the controversial synthetic turf project at Cornell University in a unanimous vote, despite a recently filed petition to reject the negative declaration of environmental significance that was approved last month.
Published on September 30, 2024
The Ithaca Times | Tompkins County Weighs Future of Customs Facility at Struggling Ithaca Tompkins International Airport
The Ithaca Tompkins International Airport has struggled to maintain financial stability, particularly with its customs facility, which serves private jet traffic mostly affiliated with Cornell, but has failed to generate sufficient revenue. "To think that we are subsidizing a private jet customs facility with public taxpayers’ money seems rather problematic," [mays] said. "If Cornell sees value in a private jet terminal with a customs facility, Cornell should be the entity responsible for subsidizing this operation."
By Matthew Dougherty
Published on September 25, 2024
The Ithaca Voice | City planning board greenlights Cornell synthetic turf field over concerns of environmentalists
The City of Ithaca Planning Board decided on Tuesday to move forward with Cornell’s controversial synthetic turf project in a 4-0 vote. The decision vexed environmental advocates, and was celebrated by university athletes. “Why did they naively assume that ‘plant-based’ infill means unproblematic infill?” mays asked. “The public is not served by their hasty move to reach a negative declaration of environmental significance with such significant questions still outstanding.”
Published on September 7, 2024
August 2024
Tompkins Weekly | Opinion: Cornell’s Proposed Fake Grass Could Cause Real Problems
Artificial turf conceals a host of potential environmental and health hazards. Yet the Ithaca Planning Boards are considering allowing Cornell’s proposal for multiple new artificial turf fields at their proposed Meinig Field House and East Hill Plaza athletic facilities. Ironically, despite their role as a world-class institution focused on research for the public good, Cornell has taken a singularly unscientific approach to artificial turf.
By bethany ojalehto mays & Peter McDonald
Published on August 21, 2024
The Ithaca Voice | Debate over environmental hazards of Cornell’s new turf field continues at city, town levels
A proposal to develop artificial turf fields on Cornell University’s campus has spurred concern among environmentalists and division among local planning officials.
Published on August 9, 2024
June-July 2024
The Cornell Daily Sun | Ithaca Experiences Record-Breaking June Heatwave, Scientists Point to Climate Change
As climate change drives extreme temperatures in Ithaca, the Sun runs a weather story headlined by a photograph of protesters on Reclaim Earth Day 2024, an action organized by Cornell on Fire with alliance partners.
By Nicole Collins
Published on July 13, 2024
The Cornell Daily Sun | GUEST ROOM: Cornell reproduces Big Oil’s disinformation: It’s time to ask why
The alarming gap between climate rhetoric and action is sending our planet over the brink of habitability. A recent Congressional report on Big Oil’s climate doublespeak is a reminder that communication is a vital playing field in the battle between short-term profit and longer-term sustainability. As universities compete to showcase their sustainability efforts, can we rely on them to tell us the truth?
By Opinion Department, authored by bethany ojalehto mays & Leila Wilmers
Published on June 17, 2024
May 2024
Ithaca Times | Thumbs Down: Cornell University’s climate actions come under scrutiny
Cornell University is facing scrutiny over its Climate Action Plan (CAP). A report from the campus-community initiative, Cornell on Fire, reveals that the university is not meeting its CAP goals and accuses Cornell of misleading the public about the impact of natural gas on emissions. See full issue here, under Ups&Downs on page 6.
By Ithaca Times staff
Published on May 29, 2024
WSKG | At Cornell graduation, protests continue
Protestors called on the university to take more ambitious action to tackle climate change and publicly report campus emissions. They drew attention to a new report from Cornell on Fire highlighting concerns over how the university has reported its greenhouse gas emissions and plans to curb its climate impacts.
By Aurora Berry, Rebecca Redelmeier
Published on May 27, 2024
April 2024
Positive New US | Ithaca shows what reclaiming Earth Day looks like!
If any doubt remains about the resurgence of climate activism post-Covid, Reclaim Earth Day in Ithaca, NY may have dispelled it. An upwelling of mass mobilization was in full force as over 440 people engaged in seven distributed actions around Ithaca and then converged on the Ithaca Commons for a unified call to action.
By bethany ojalehto mays
Published on April 29, 2024
Ithaca Times Op-ed | Demanding climate accountability from Cornell: Its actions affect all who live, work, and study in Ithaca
Cornell on Fire sees the university’s greatest good as acting now, when time is so very precious, to do all it can to mitigate climate change and to be a role model for educational institutions the world over. In 2024, when evidence of climate change is indisputable, pressure from the community beyond the campus is needed. The truth is that what Cornell does – or doesn’t do — when it comes to climate action affects all of us who live, work, and study in Ithaca. (By Lisa D’Annolfo Levey)
Published in the Ithaca Times on April 24, 2024
Bryan Alexander | For Earth Day 2024
I haven’t seen too much [Earth Day activity] in the higher ed space, at least from Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education. One fine exception is in upstate New York, where Cornell University and Ithaca College people are seeking to reclaim Earth Day.
By Bryan Alexander
Published on April 23, 2024
The Ithacan: Local groups urge climate justice action, engage with politicians ahead of equity proposal vote
On April 22, Earth Day, students and Ithaca locals gathered on The Commons to declare a climate emergency on “Reclaim Earth Day.” Local groups — like Cornell on Fire and Extinction Rebellion Ithaca — alongside Cornell University, Tompkins Cortland Community College and some Ithaca College students marched to The Commons to participate.
By Prakriti Panwar
Published on April 23, 2024
The Dispatch: Ithaca Community Reclaims Earth Day: This isn’t the Earth Day you know
Ithaca community members united in the national movement to Reclaim Earth Day on April 22. Notable speakers discussed with urgency the state of the climate crisis and spoke strongly on the intersections of environmental and social justice, speaking on the necessity of indigenous land stewardship.
By Alis Fruehstorfer
Published on April 23, 2024
The Cornell Daily Sun: Indigenous and Climate Justice Student Groups March to Reclaim Earth Day
Cornell student groups celebrated Earth Day with advocacy. On Monday, Climate Justice Cornell and Cornell on Fire joined Native American Indigenous and Indigenous Students at Cornell to promote climate justice for underserved communities.
By Skylar Kleinman
Published April 24, 2024
WSKG Public Broadcasting: Ithaca Demonstrators Want to ‘Reclaim Earth Day’
Earth Day brought a wave of activity across Ithaca and Tompkins County Monday as students and community groups led demonstrations calling on universities and elected officials to act with urgency to address climate change.
By Rebecca Redelmeier, Aurora Berry
Published April 23, 2024
Ithaca Now on 91.7 WICB: Reclaim Earth Day
In this radio segment, Caroline Grass interviewed multiple organizers and youth leaders involved with Reclaim Earth Day. It aired on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Podcast link coming soon.
News | Signs of Sustainability: Reclaim Earth Day
Young people today face a future that is terrifying: not because it has to be, but because their elders, leaders, teachers, politicians, and parents have not yet mustered the political will to protect them and all of life on Earth. The time is now for citizen engagement. Stand with the youth and stand up for their future on April 22.
Published in Tompkins Weekly on March, 27, 2024
March 2024
Update | Cornell’s response to our Climate Action Report
As of March 14, 2024, Cornell has made their first public change to greenhouse gas emissions reporting in response to our Climate Action Report. Read more here.
Update | CoF Briefing to the Carbon Neutral Campus Committee: radical climate leadership
Cornell on Fire presented to the Carbon Neutral Campus Committee. We asked them to demonstrate radical climate leadership by committing to a 1.5 degree pathway and leading with insights from climate justice communities.
Meeting held March 5, 2024
Podcast | Radio show with Ute Ritz-Deutch on the WRFI Human Rights Show
bethany ojalehto mays, Shimon Edelman, and Fenya Bartram are part of the coalition "Cornell on Fire" that seeks to hold Cornell University accountable for its lack of climate action. They speak about their movement and recommendations to Cornell.
Originally aired on March 8, 2024
Podcast | YouTube | Radio show with Theresa Alt on the WRFI Inquiring Socialist show
Shimon Edelman and Lisa Levey discuss the Cornell on Fire movement.
Originally aired on March 1, 2024
February 2024
Update | CoF Briefing to the Tompkins County Climate and Sustainable Energy Advisory Board: Beyond PR
Cornell on Fire presented to the Climate and Sustainable Energy Advisory Board to Tompkins County. We reviewed highlights from our Beyond PR report on the state of climate action at Cornell, followed by insightful questions and discussion.
Meeting held on February 27, 2024
Update | CoF Meeting with Cornell sustainability leadership
Cornell on Fire introduced their work and exchanged ideas with Cornell’s Associate Vice President of Energy and Sustainability, the Director of Sustainability, Community Relations Deputy Director, and the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement Executive Director.
Meeting held on January 16, 2024
Media | A new campus climate change group appears: Cornell on Fire
Bryan Alexander introduces Cornell on Fire to Medium readers.
How can academics respond to the unfolding climate crisis? One way is to organize your campus to think hard and to take serious steps about global warming. Today’s example comes from upstate New York, with the launch of a faculty and local community group calling itself Cornell on Fire. (I am personally honored by the namecheck to my Universities on Fire book)
Published September 28, 2023
2023
Media | A new campus climate change group appears: Cornell on Fire
Bryan Alexander introduces Cornell on Fire to Medium readers.
How can academics respond to the unfolding climate crisis? One way is to organize your campus to think hard and to take serious steps about global warming. Today’s example comes from upstate New York, with the launch of a faculty and local community group calling itself Cornell on Fire. (I am personally honored by the namecheck to my Universities on Fire book)
Published September 28, 2023
We are grateful to Sara Tro Photography for documenting our movement in the images on this page.
You can further appreciate Sara Tro’s work on Instagram: filmlovesgirl | or on Facebook: Sara Tro Photography