On Sunday, Sept. 17, about 50 Brandeis students and faculty took to the streets of New York City to demand an end to the expansion of fossil fuels. The March to End Fossil Fuels, organized by a broad base of NYC grassroots organizations, was the largest climate action since the start of the pandemic; event organizers estimate that 75,000 people were in attendance. The intent of the protest was to place pressure on President Joe Biden ahead of Climate Week NYC and the United Nations 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, which took place in New York City on Sept. 17-24 and Sept. 18-19, respectively. The event organizers called for Biden to ban the usage of fossil fuels and protect communities’ rights to a clean and healthy environment by “stopping oil and gas projects, phasing down drilling, and declaring a climate emergency.”

Prof. Sabine von Mering (WGS) first proposed the idea of chartering a bus to bring Brandeis students to the march in mid-August. In an email correspondence to the Justice on Sept. 20, Prof. von Mering stated that she had heard about the march through various climate action groups she is a part of, and felt that it was a great opportunity for students to witness and participate in climate action at such a significant scale. “It always recharges my own activist batteries to be in a crowd like this of like-minded people who all feel the urgency about the climate emergency,” she said. “I wanted students to feel that, too.”

From there, the initiative became a collaboration between Prof. von Mering, Prof. Sally Warner (ENVS), and Prof. Charlie Chester (ENVS) to coordinate student involvement and secure funding. The funding for the bus was supported by the Student Union, the Environmental Studies program, and Samuel Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation. 

On Sept. 17, the event kicked off with an Invocation of Spirit at Broadway and 53rd Street, where leaders of various faith groups called upon attendees to take responsibility for the stewardship of nature and to set an intention of transformative justice. From there, attendees convened for the 1.5-mile long march, which began at Broadway and 57th Street and ended at 1st Avenue and 51st Street, in front of the United Nations headquarters.

Joining Brandeis at the march were individuals and groups representing a diverse spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives, including but not limited to: nonprofit groups 350 Mass and Extinction Rebellion, students from universities as far as North Carolina and Maine, researchers, animal rights activists, labor unions, and mothers’ groups — groups of mothers whose children are around the same age or who share common interests. 

Some groups handed out newspapers and flyers promoting their organization’s events. Others came in costume and toted impressive pieces of art: Members of one group supported what appeared to be a large duct tape model of an oil pipeline stretching across nearly the width of a block.

Brandeis students carrying Prof. Warner’s warming stripes banner captured quite a bit of attention from both attendees and media alike. The banner, spanning approximately 140 feet, depicts global average temperatures from 1880-2021 via colored stripes to provide a powerful visualization of global warming. Blue, white, and cool-toned stripes represent cooler temperatures; yellow, orange, and red stripes represent warmer temperatures. Stripes representing the late 19th and early 20th centuries are depicted in a pale blue, before the banner gradually converges into varying shades of maroon beginning around the mid-20th century. 

In an interview with the Justice on Sept. 17, Prof. Warner stated that her original idea was to paint warming stripes along campus walkways for the Year of Climate Action, but decided against it due to environmental concerns. She then convened a small group of students to sew the banner instead, which has since been on display at Brandeis along the Shapiro Campus Center staircase, in Boston during the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition rally in September 2022, and now in NYC, in its largest debut yet.

Despite the long bus ride, the delay to the start of the march that had students waiting under the blazing sun for nearly an hour, and the exhaustion of standing all day, students reflected that the march was an overwhelmingly powerful experience.

In an interview with the Justice on Sept. 26, attendee Caleigh Abbe ’26 reflected on the experience: “It felt surreal to be part of something so big in such a notorious location … actually being there for a cause and a movement that I only usually hear about was really cool.”

The ENVS faculty also reflected upon the importance of Brandeis students’ presence at the march, both in demanding accountability from powerful politicians but also in experiencing collective action firsthand. 

“Marching in the street and demanding action together is how we show that we mean it,” Prof. von Mering explained. “In a democracy, politicians are followers, not leaders. What we the people do and say out loud together really matters.”

Prof. Warner emphasized the importance of students witnessing and coming together with climate activists from various walks of life. “Students get a lot out of being here, experiencing this, [and] realizing, ‘Look at how many people there are who care about climate change.’ We hope that some of our students … will go on to become climate activists while they’re in undergrad and when they’re finished [with undergrad].”

While students had a strong showing in the march, Prof. von Mering emphasized that Brandeis is nowhere near being done with the work it must do as an institution to combat the climate crisis. 

“First of all: Brandeis must urgently replace Mary Fischer, our director of sustainability, who left a few weeks ago. That is an absolute must,” she stated. “We must divest fully from fossil fuels, hire more faculty with climate expertise, offer more opportunities for students to develop solutions to the problems that cause climate change, make sure we don't accept any research funding from fossil fuel companies, and stop banking with JP Morgan Chase … That's just to get started.”