Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo.
Halloween-themed climate rally Yale power plant Friday evening.
As grey clouds swirled above, 30 New Haveners dressed as goblins, ghosts, and ghouls, gathered outside the Yale power plant at Grove and York Streets for a New Haven Climate Movement rally at the “scariest place in New Haven.”
Protesters at the rally Friday evening called on Mayor Justin Elicker to commit a least 10 percent of New Haven’s $100-plus million in federal pandemic-relief funds from the American Rescue Plan towards climate solutions.
Yale first-year and Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School graduate Kiana Flores emceed Friday’s event.
“Halloween is a time to show the ugly and the scary. And nothing is uglier or scarier than climate change and climate inaction,” she told the crowd.
Kiana Flores.
The “Climate Nightmare on Grove Street” event was intended as a follow-up on the New Haven Climate Movement’s protest in late September, when demonstrated demanded Yale and Elicker invest in climate action. At that event, Elicker promised to create a climate department and direct part of the American Rescue Plan funding to climate action.
“We want to let him know that we’re still waiting,” Flores said.
Yale Sophomore Lumisa Bista represented the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition at Friday’s rally. “We are undeniably amidst a catastrophic crisis that Yale has fueled. Yale is not only complicit but culpable for the irreversible damage caused by the climate crisis through its exploitative practices that harm front-line communities,” she said.
Lumisa Bista.
The central power plant where the rally was held is one of four run by Yale. Three of those plants are in New Haven; the other is in West Haven.
The power plant burns oil and natural gas to generate and distribute energy underground to all university buildings.
In 2019 the central power plant emitted an estimated over 100,000 metric tons of carbon. Bista said that considering the “approximated social cost” of those carbon emissions would amount to $10.4 million of climate debt per year attributed to Yale.
In her speech, she called on Yale to fully divest its endowment from fossil fuels and to eliminate its reliance on oil and natural gas.
Bista highlighted Yale’s pledge announced in 2017 to go carbon-neutral by 2050. “However if Yale wants to keep up this commitment, it needs to start taking action now. They’ve also made a promise to New Haveners that they are going to take action against climate change and that they are going to use their influence and their affluence in reducing their carbon emissions.”
Flores led the crowd in chanting call and responses: “What’s scary?” “Yale’s power plant!” “What’s scary?” “Yale’s inaction!” “And New Haveners say?” “Yale, step up!”
Ben Scudder (right) and Kieren Rudge.
Ben Scudder, who teaches U.S. history at High School in the Community, attended Friday’s rally in a pumpkin costume. He said he would like to see better bicycle infrastructure in the city. “I want New Haven to be a leader in the United States, but it’s not,” he said.
Three New Haven Climate Movement (NHCM) members dressed in dark cloaks representing the “past, present, and future ghosts” of climate change in New Haven.
Wilbur Cross student Rosie Hampson painted her cloak with fires to symbolize wildfires caused by climate change. She pointed to high asthma rates in New Haven as tangible damage due to climate change.
Patricia Joseph (center), Rosie Hampson (left) and Sophia Rivkin.
To combat these effects of climate change, Hampson said, government officials and organizations should follow through on promises. “We must ensure that these commitments are not merely words on a page or in a speech.”
Co-Op student Sophia Rivkin was dressed as the ghost of the future. She described what the world swallowed by the effects of climate change would look like in 2050. “Together you must fight as a whole and fight for a future you can live in and for a future that you can proudly pass down to succeeding generations,” she said.
Rivkin called for stepped-up investments in green technology and climate education.
First-year Hartford Art School student and NHCM member Benjamin Carson spoke about receiving air quality warnings in northern Connecticut due to wildfires in California: “These all sound like the opening plot points of a horror movie and they’re happening in my lifetime and in my hometown.”
Benjamin Carson shares trick or treat facts from the “greenhouse gas goblin.”
Carson pointed to energy inefficient transportation, unaddressed building codes, and dirty fossil fuel energy as the root of some climate change damages. “We have zombie infrastructure in our state that spreads like a virus. Its symptoms are poor health quality and climate disasters. Zombie infrastructure like the Yale Power Plant.”
NHCM member Elisa Cruz then presented three “Scary Future Awards” 2021 to Yale, the city, and building developers.
She gave Yale the “Dracula Award” because “it keeps sucking from future generations and their present GHG emissions will be attacking life for thousands of years through the Yale power plant.”
Elisa Cruz.
She said the NHCM recommends Yale take action to “electrify everything,” with Mayor Elicker calling a meeting of key institutions to accelerate this transition and lead the way.
Cruz gave New Haven the “Zombie Award” and said the city should change car-centric roads and make them “more equitable.”
Cruz gave the “Frankenstein Award” to developers for “continuing building using fossil fuel hookups when it’s clear they need to stop or face climate disaster.”
She said the city needs to push developers to shift towards all-electric energy sources.
Flores concluded Friday’s rally by creating a witch’s brew by sprinkling bits of paper into a cauldron as she listed solutions to tackle climate change.
It is a fine protest. But two notes.
First, the Yale power plant is a cogeneration facility that produces both electricity and steam for heating and cooling; as such it is more environmentally friendly than other fossil fuel power plants. So they are protesting one of the most carbon-efficient fossil fuel power plants. But yes, we have to start phasing out fossil fuels altogether and Yale should be working on this.
Second, it's pretty premature to slag builders for including some form of heating and cooling that relies on fossil fuels directly or indirectly. There is no alternative at the moment, I don't think. I do hope that new developments are all-electric, so that buildings become greener as the electric grid greens. Geothermal + heat pumps is a good way, in New England, to reduce electricity use today.