Climate change protesters disrupt Yale-Harvard football game to urge end to fossil fuel investments

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (NYTIMES) - Climate change activists stormed the field at the Yale-Harvard football game on Saturday afternoon (Nov 23), disrupting the game at halftime in a protest to call on the universities to divest their investments in fossil fuels.

About 70 protesters took to the field just before 2pm local time after the game's halftime show. They were then joined by others from the stands.

At its peak, the demonstration drew up to 500 people, packing about 45 yards of play between the large numbers that marked yardage and delaying the game for roughly an hour.

Players from both schools warmed up as police and security officers surrounded the demonstrators and announcements were made on the public address system imploring protesters to clear the field.

The game was being aired live on cable television, with ESPNU switching to another game during the delay while periodically checking on the efforts of officials to clear the field.

Reactions from the crowd were mixed; some attendees began booing and others shouted "Drag them off the field!" One sign in the stands read "Harvard & Yale Complicit". As more police officers surrounded the demonstrators, the crowd on the field thinned. Police officers urged the remaining protesters to leave, saying they had succeeded in drawing attention.

Some activists were arrested, although an exact tally was not immediately available. A Yale spokesman said that the Yale police issued 42 misdemeanour summonses for disorderly conduct.

Supporters of the demonstration said they knew first-hand about the effects of climate change. "My country is on fire right now," Australian Yale student Akio Ho said. "Unprecedented wildfires are ripping through homes right now. Climate change and the climate crisis is an extremely urgent problem."

Harvard has declined to divest for years. Yale has made some divestment pledges but has got into trouble with its activists over a US$122 million (S$166.5 million) investment in Antero, a fracking-related company. After a protest in December, the school dropped much of that investment.

The fossil fuel divestment movement is now a global movement, with commitments from more than a thousand organisations and tens of thousands of individuals controlling some US$8.8 trillion in combined assets.

In a statement on Saturday, Harvard said its climate action plan "explicitly recognises what the science has made clear: The world must move quickly to end its use of fossil fuels".

"While we agree on the urgency of this global challenge, we respectfully disagree with divestment activists on the means by which a university should confront it," the statement continued.

"Universities like Harvard have a crucial role to play in tackling climate change and Harvard is fully committed to leadership in this area through research, education, community engagement, dramatically reducing its own carbon footprint, and using our campus as a test bed for piloting and proving solutions."

Ms Karen Peart, a Yale spokesman, said that the university stood "firmly for the right to free expression" but added that it was "regrettable that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest".