Leftist UChicago student groups host BIPOC-centered 'climate anxiety' event

The University of Chicago’s (UChicago) Environmental Justice Task Force (EJTF) recently hosted a race-focused climate change event centered on “climate anxiety.”

According to a flyer posted on the group’s Instagram account, the EJTF, along with seven other campus groups, hosted “a teach-in for BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] students” about “mobilizing your climate anxiety” on Jan. 20.

At the event, BIPOC students were taught how to “[f]ind personal connections to environmental justice,” “[m]ove through climate anxiety in community and solidarity,” and “[g]et activated about divestment.”

[RELATED: California college students to be paid for climate change work]

When asked why the event was BIPOC-centered, EJTF said, “People of color are often most impacted by climate change both through extraction from the Global South and environmental racism, such as in the location of pollution-producing industries in the United States.”

“With this in mind, we decided to host this event that is specifically intended to bring BIPOC students into conversations around climate change and divestment, but is still open to all students (regardless of race),” the group told Campus Reform. 

News of the event was first broken by UChicago’s conservative newspaper, the Chicago Thinker, whose mission is to “defend conservative and libertarian perspectives in a community that is increasingly intolerant of such voices.”

Declan Hurley, the Chicago Thinker’s Editor-in-Chief, referred to the event as “the most egregious that I have seen during my time at UChicago.”

“We have had two degrees Fahrenheit of warming since 1880—two degrees—and it is far from clear how much of this climate change is anthropogenic,” Hurley told Campus Reform. 

He added, “Here we have a topic that warrants informed debate, not racial discrimination and hysteria. Why are radical left-wing student groups trying to whip students into an agitated frenzy?”

[RELATED: Green energy policies lead to power outage, California college cancels its classes]

Similarly, the Chicago Thinker’s Associate Publisher, Mitch Robson, called out the event for its BIPOC focus. 

“Exclusion of students who are not ‘BIPOC’ from a discussion about climate change is an overt rejection of the idea that at university, the pursuit of knowledge is a universal endeavor in which students of all races and backgrounds can share,” Robson expressed to Campus Reform. 

Citing UChicago’s “prestigious” status, Robson also pointed out that many UChicago graduates will soon work on implementing climate policy into law, therefore, “it is imperative that all perspectives are represented.”

“What happened to the frequently touted liberal value of inclusion?,” he questioned. 

Campus Reform reached out to every individual and institution mentioned for comment. This article will be updated accordingly. 

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Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article attributed incorrect titles to Chicago Thinker staff. This article has been updated to reflect proper titles.