Up to 500 Climate Change Protesters Occupy Field During Yale-Harvard Football Game

During halftime of Saturday’s Yale-Harvard football game, protesters took the field to make their voices heard on the topic of climate change. According to the New York Times, at its peak, the crowd at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., grew to approximately 500 strong.

Incredible.

Hundreds of students, alums, & faculty are still occupying the field at #HarvardYale & demanding that both schools cancel Puerto Rican debt & #divest from fossil fuels!#NobodyWins in the exploitation of Puerto Ricans & #ClimateEmergency.pic.twitter.com/aPAb3uTjxM

— Collin Rees (@collinrees) November 23, 2019

The protestors called on both universities to divest their investments in fossil fuels while chanting: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” Others, according to the Wall Street Journal, who interrupted the rivalry known as The Game were protesting the treatment of Muslim Uighurs in western China and called for debt relief in Puerto Rico.

The game was delayed for a little over an hour. When police moved in, most of the demonstrators dispersed, while others remained and a few were arrested.

Caleb Schwartz, a senior at Harvard, told the Times, “It felt really good because we know that people support divestment but now we know that people will take extra action to support this cause. It was energetic. It was both scary and exhilarating.”