By Laura Franklin

Students at the University of Maryland rallied at the Main Administration building Dec. 6 before walking to the metro to participate in a business shut down at Franklin Square in D.C.

This university’s Sustainability Cooperative, “SCoop” for short, is a coalition of student groups invested in sustainable education and advocacy.  They had a list of demands for the University System of Maryland to improve the university’s efforts in environmental policies. The demands included the following: end direct use of fossil fuels for the entire University System of Maryland and provide a general education requirement to teach students about the basics of  sustainability. 

“We need to rise to the challenge and do whatever it takes to end this climate change, before it can’t be reversed,” junior astronomy Fatima Younis said.

In June of 2016, the University System of Maryland Foundation said that it would end divesting directly in coal, oil and natural gas companies. However, these divestment records are not made public.

The university has made other steps in reducing its carbon footprint. In November of this year, this university became the first to join the Cool Food Pledge, a sustainability initiative that requires dining services to purchase foods that will reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions. 

Although these initiatives have improved the university’s sustainability efforts, students are still concerned that the university has not done enough.

For senior environmental science and policy major Max Skoglund, education has been the catalyst for recent activism for people around the world. 

“I really believe that once you are informed on these kinds of things and you know what’s happening, you know that it’s not just enough to think about it,” Skoglund said.

Skoglund believes that students coming together to bring awareness to this important issue is the first step in becoming more united in the fight for climate justice.

“The next evolutionary threshold that we need to rise to as a human species is a collective human consciousness,” Skoglund said.

After the morning rally, students then travelled downtown to participate in the “Mobilize for Climate Justice and Immigrant Rights” rally in Franklin Park. The rally then turned into a  protest aimed to shut down financial institutions such as Black Rock, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, who protestors believe are capitalizing off of the climate crisis and immigration detention. Protesters marched the streets of D.C. to visit these banks and institutions. 

This rally is part of a weekly civil disobedience practice called Fire Drill Friday. Actress and environmental activist Jane Fonda leads the protests, often times ending with being taken away in handcuffs. This is the ninth consecutive week these protests have occurred in Washington.