Climate Change Conference
Politicians and Cornellians Address Climate Change Threat
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A number of local politicians joined students and faculty members at an interdisciplinary panel Friday, banding together to advocate the need for grassroots advocacy and open dialog in addressing climate change. The climate crisis “represents the greatest social crisis of our time,” argued Lara Skinner, the associate director of the Worker Institute at Cornell’s School of Industrial Relations, as she began the discussion. “Women, people of color, children, the elderly, workers, immigrants and low-income communities of color will all be affected [by climate change] disproportionately,” Skinner said. She added that these low-income communities will be hurt “first and worst” by the repercussions of a change in climate. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, there were 100,000 newly homeless people in New York City.