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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Why I was arrested

Bernice_1_and_2_wells_with_moisture_flare_-_Arnegard_North_Dakota_-_2013-07-04
Fracking in North Dakota.

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. in the basement of a Washington D.C. church and made my way to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) offices with a group of about 50 protesters. There we blockaded the three entrances to the building with our bodies. We held that blockade for over an hour, greatly inconveniencing or stopping increasingly furious FERC employees as they tried to enter the building.

I joined the protest because I am angry. I am angry because of the horrific impacts of fracking in my home state of Pennsylvania and across the United States. In communities affected by fracking, once-fresh water has been contaminated with myriad undisclosed chemicals. Cancer, nervous diseases, inexplicable migraines, harassment and political silencing by natural gas companies, and enormous losses in home values have plagued these communities. FERC has eagerly approved fracked gas pipelines, export terminals and other dangerous gas infrastructure with little to no consideration for the impacts on human health and the climate.

And I joined this protest because I am scared. Last year, I was a member of University President Monaco’s working group on fossil fuel divestment. At one of the group’s meetings, I related the painful story of a mother-turned-activist who had broken down in a fit of tears and desperation as she explained the damage that the natural gas industry was causing in her town. The stunned looks and silence I received illustrated the point that humanity has no place in the Tufts boardroom, and this terrifies me. It terrifies me that a university that wants its students to “distinguish themselves as active citizens of the world,” when asked to follow its own rhetoric, would so adamantly resist. Our university funds and profits from this and other fossil-fueled destruction with some $70 million invested in coal, oil and gas companies. I am scared because this university, the leadership of which I once trusted to take bold and moral action in the face of grave global crises, has so far decided it would simply be easier not to. With one-hundred million lives predicted to be lost to climate change and fossil fuel pollution by 2030, this is not acceptable answer.

As scared as I am, however, I am not hopeless. While Tufts’ administration has been content to pat itself on the back for the important but insufficient and infrequent solar panel installation, the student body has shown remarkable leadership and courage in this effort. Over 1,000 students have called on Tufts to divest from fossil fuels. Over 110 Tufts students participated in the People’s Climate March in September, and since then many first years have become leaders in Tufts Climate Action, organizing events about fracking, environmental justice, the food industry and Typhoon Haiyan. Over the past two years, Tufts students have been arrested 19 times in protest of fossil fuels. We have spoken loudly and softly, rallied and partied and worked with incredible passion for divestment and other serious action on climate change on and off campus.

It keeps me up at night knowing that Tufts’ administration and trustees have justified their investments in the industrial violence of the fossil fuel industry. And when my own courage lacks and I feel that our Trustees will always consider money more valuable than human life, the joy, passion, courage, excitement, determination and love with which so many Tufts students approach this (and other struggles for survival) keeps me going. To all those fighting for a better future, thank you. To all those who have not yet raised their voice in protest or their hands in construction of a better world, reach out to me or any member of Tufts Climate Action. You matter, and we want to help you join this movement.