You couldn’t fill a Post-it Note with what I know about American football, but I’m still aware of the rivalry between Harvard and Yale, both academically and on the football field.

The annual match between the Ivy League universities is the American equivalent of the UCT Ikeys going up against the Stellenbosch Maties in the final of the Varsity Cup.

Even if you don’t like rugby, you watch, because it’s not sports, it’s personal.

This year, however, the Harvard versus Yale game was forced to a standstill.

Huffington Post with why:

Well over a hundred protesters interrupted the annual football game between Harvard and Yale Universities by rushing onto the field and staging a sit-in to protest the schools’ investments in fossil fuel companies.

Footage filmed from the stands of the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, shows a group of students on the field before the start of the second half:

42 people have been charged with disorderly conduct following the protests.

Here’s a closer look:

The Harvard-Yale football game has been delayed due to students protesting climate change in the middle of the field. pic.twitter.com/uY9Kc3Mn32

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 23, 2019

The protests were a joint effort on the part of student-led environmental activism groups Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard and Fossil Free Yale.

The protesters urged leadership from both schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies. They also called on the universities to cancel debt owed by Puerto Rico, which Yale and Harvard both benefit from via investment holding companies.

“Cancel the debt”:

🚨TODAY🚨
Hundreds of students disrupted the #HarvardYale football game

They demanded their universities divest from fossil fuels & cancel Puerto Rican debt 💰 #NobodyWins once our ecosystems are destroyed for profitpic.twitter.com/gP43X1kvWB

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) November 23, 2019

Faculty, students and alumni from both schools participated in the protest, which lasted less than an hour. Yale went on to beat Harvard in the game, 50-43.

The demonstration was part of a growing wave of similar protests around the world demanding that corporations, religious groups, organizations, schools, and especially big banks divest their money from the fossil fuel industry.

Activists at both Yale and Harvard have been pressuring their university’s leadership to step away from profiting from energy companies that are causing climate change ― and it’s had some impact.

Harvard football team captain Wesley Ogsbury sent a message of support to the protesters after the game:

Statement from Wesley Ogsbury, captain of the Harvard Crimson, on today’s #NobodyWins disruption by us and @FossilFreeYale: pic.twitter.com/tDjAdR7TTy

— Divest Harvard 🔶 (@DivestHarvard) November 23, 2019

Wise words indeed.

Yale said that the university supports free speech but expressed regret over the interruption of an important game for both teams.

Yale doesn’t seem to realise that there will be no football, ever again, if the planet succumbs to climate change.

[source:huffingtonpost]