EMU students and faculty gathered at Thomas Plaza for a climate strike, organized by the Earthkeepers club, on Friday, Sept. 24. The strikers called for EMU’s administration, our campus community, and the global community to take immediate action for climate justice and a sustainable future.
In order to begin progress towards these goals here at EMU, Earthkeepers, represented by Earthkeepers co-presidents junior Micah Buckwalter, a student chaplain with a focus in sustainability, and senior Andrea Troyer, a Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions’ climate ambassador, made two demands.
“First,” said Troyer, “we need the rehiring [of] a Sustainability Coordinator. This role would act as a link between students and administration, and could help guide the university into the next phase of the climate action plan and towards a more environmentally friendly future.”
“Second,” said Buckwalter, “we need to make meaningful progress towards Climate Action Plan [CAP] emission-reduction projects. Projects could include solar parking lots, carbon farms, efficient infrastructure, and others. We understand that the CAP initiatives are being pushed through the Creation Care Council, but there needs to be greater urgency from EMU administration.”
The event was scheduled for Friday in participation with Fridays for Future’s (FFF’s) #UprootTheSystem global climate strike. On their website, FFF describes their movement as “a youth-led-and-organized global climate strike movement.”
The call for climate justice issued by FFF stresses its intersectional approach. In the official document regarding the Sept. 24 strike, FFF states that “the climate crisis does not exist in a vacuum. Other socio-economic crises such as racism, sexism, ableism, class inequality, and more amplify the climate crisis and vice versa.”
Following the opening of the event by Troyer and Buckwalter and the reading of a land acknowledgment written by Marci Frederick, those in attendance were invited to speak on their own convictions and experiences related to the climate crisis.
Doug Graber Neufeld, professor of biology and director of the center for sustainable climate solutions, stated that we need to make sure that those who do not currently have a voice in this matter do not go unheard: the future generations, the environment itself, and what FFF refers to as the Most Affected Peoples and Areas (MAPA), who are currently experiencing and will continue to experience the worst and most immediate impacts of the climate crisis.
EMU’s climate action plan, developed in 2015, has EMU set to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2035. On Thursday, Sept. 23, Earthkeepers hosted a town hall in Common Grounds which featured a presentation by Jesse Reist-Miller, who was contracted by EMU to evaluate progress on the climate action plan towards the 2020 targets.
Reist-Miller said in his presentation that “EMU is currently on track to meet its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2035.”
The goal set in 2015 for 2020 was to achieve a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions, and EMU had achieved a 23 percent reduction in 2019. However, Reist-Miller followed this up by saying that most of the gains the university has seen in reducing carbon emissions have little to do with the actions of the university.
There were three categories used to evaluate EMU’s carbon emissions: direct onsite emissions, electrical emissions, and offsite emissions. According to Reist-Miller, the largest driver in reducing carbon emissions has been in the area of electrical use. Most of the improvement seen in this area has to do with changes to electricity sources for the grid; as more sources of green energy such as solar and wind are contributed, the carbon emissions in this category drop. On page three, Reist-Miller’s report states that “while emissions from electricity dropped nearly 30% from the baseline, actual electric usage on campus increased 1.3%.”
As acknowledged by Buckwalter in the Earthkeeper’s second demand at the climate strike, there is work being done on campus by the Creation Care Council to make progress towards these goals, but the Earthkeepers believe that these initiatives are not being pursued with enough urgency on the part of EMU’s administration.
At the climate strike, senior Isaac Alderfer said, “Work that addresses climate change can be present in any job,” and that it is important for everyone, not just environmental science majors. Troyer also emphasized this point as well, saying that we need to involve all of campus in our efforts to become a more sustainable community.
In her closing statement at the strike, Troyer said, “Today we join with the EMU community, striving to show that now is the time for action and that this institution must live up to the standards that it teaches.”
