By John Custodio​

The SUNY Oswego Go Green club staged a climate change protest on campus on Sept. 24, with speeches from students and professors and a march from the quad in front of Marano Campus Center to the Lakeside Dining Hall and back.

​Around 30 people came to hear speeches from students, professors and leaders of clubs and organizations on campus. ​Go Green Director of Fundraising Julie Brophy and Treasurer Valerie Goetz began their speeches with a dedication to the local indigenous tribes, including the Onondaga and Seneca people. Brophy and Goetz outlined the club’s desires for further school action regarding climate change, pollution reduction and the education of students.

​Go Green’s main demands are for SUNY Oswego to renew their commitment to slowing climate change, a divestment from fossil fuel investments and the removal of single use plastics on campus by Aug. 22, 2022. The club would also like to see one water bottle refill station added to a residence hall every year, and a refillable water bottle distributed to every student in need to lower the use of single-use plastic water bottles.

​Black Student Union President Brandon Gonzales spoke about his idea of the importance of the balance between nature and humans, and the “elimination of all forms of colonialism, imperialism, interventionism, capitalism, domination and hierarchy.”

​Gonzales spoke about how climate change is not only affecting humans, but plants and animals along with nature itself. Gonzales said countries that “…arose from old colonial powers and from imperialist policies…” are mostly to blame, having 20% of the population but consuming “… two-thirds of the metals and three-fourths of the energy produced in the world.”

“Let hyper individualism end,” Gonzalez said at the end of their speech. Let hegemonies and reform end. “Let misleadership, irresponsibility and deceit end. Tomorrow it will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago.”

​Political science professor Dr. Lisa Glidden urged students to contact their representatives and said that people must keep talking about climate issues if there is to be change.

“When you don’t see [the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference] on the news, when you don’t hear your friends talking about this conference, talk about it,” Glidden said. “Write to your elected representatives and ask them to pass the policies to support the kind of change we know we needed 30 years ago.”

​Jayvana Perez from the Latino Student Union spoke about climate issues and pollution having a greater impact on low income and minority groups. 

Perez specifically mentioned a neighborhood of the Bronx nicknamed “Asthma Alley” because of the high rates of asthma in minority groups living in the area. According to the American Lung Association, the south Bronx neighborhood’s air quality is one of the poorest in the nation.

​Geology professor Paul Agle gave the historical context to climate change in his speech, saying that climate change over a long period is normal, it is the fast rate of change caused by humans that is bad. Agle said humans have adapted to cold weather, having evolved during the last ice age, and the sudden shift to a warmer climate will be catastrophic.

​President of the College Democrats Alex Ehrenberg, spoke about how he was frustrated with the lack of action people are taking against climate change.

​“The consequences of inaction are too high to sit around and do nothing,” Ehrenberg said.

​After the speeches, protesters marched around campus. Holding signs with phrases like “It’s up to us,” or “Stop denying the Earth is dying” and chanting “No more oil, keep your carbon in the soil,” and “When the air we breathe is under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back,” protesters attracted plenty of attention from onlookers.

​While most students, when asked, were in favor of the protest, a few students did not support the movement. One group walking by the march started playing the song “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps, specifically the lyrics, “Burn baby burn, burn that mother down.”

​Many students in support of the movement had simply not heard or seen anything about the protest on campus or online, despite the club advertising on Instagram, posting flyers around campus and having an attachment in one “Oswego Today” email.

​After the march, Brophy was satisfied with their efforts and the turnout, saying it was “pretty good,” and that more people showed up than expected.

​The Go Green club meets on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Marano room 242.

After the speeches, protesters marched around campus. Holding signs with phrases like “It’s up to us,” or “Stop denying the Earth is dying” and chanting “No more oil, keep your carbon in the soil,” and “When the air we breathe is under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back,” protesters attracted plenty of attention from onlookers.

​While most students, when asked, were in favor of the protest, a few students did not support the movement. One group walking by the march started playing the song “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps, specifically the lyrics, “Burn baby burn, burn that mother down.”

Many students in support of the movement had simply not heard or seen anything about the protest on campus or online, despite the club advertising on Instagram, posting flyers around campus and having an attachment in one “Oswego Today” email.

After the march, Brophy was satisfied with their efforts and the turnout, saying it was “pretty good,” and that more people showed up than expected.

​The Go Green club meets on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Marano room 242.