A social media meme competition by Climate Action Carleton (CAC) is aiming to pressure the university to divest from fossil fuels.
Each week, CAC will post the best student submissions on its Instagram and also send the meme to Carleton University’s official Instagram.
“We’re stuck inside and we figured everyone’s really tired right now and in a pretty rough place,” said Sam Taylor, an administrative lead for CAC. “Why not do something online that’s also kind of funny and fun and see if people get involved?”
Taylor said the competition—which CAC kicked off with a few of its own posts—is a result of COVID-19 restrictions and the organization’s inability to campaign on campus.
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Stephanie Vienneau is the leader of CAC’s direct action team, which is running the competition. She said the divestment campaign needs to update its strategies to cope with the pandemic.
“Because of COVID, it’s really hard to get a lot of people engaged online,” Vienneau said. “We’re trying to have a more fun campaign that would allow a lot of participation.”
Kevin Caswell, the first student to submit a meme for the competition, said using memes to campaign is a good way to engage students, especially during the pandemic.
“[Memes] are something to think about in a fun manner. They support the cause, but not in a negative way,” Caswell said.
Although the meme competition is meant to add humour to Carleton students’ days, Taylor said the memes help advance serious divestment goals.
According to Taylor, $20 million of Carleton’s $300-million endowment fund is invested in companies and assets that profit off fossil fuels.
“We’re trying to take that money out and then have it reinvested in sustainable and just alternatives by 2025,” Taylor said.
Carleton was recently ranked second in Canada for sustainability by the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings. Vienneau said while the university is taking steps towards sustainability, it is not focusing on divesting, a significant obstacle in its path to creating a sustainable university.
“I think the university and other universities need to move away from [the] idea of trying to do smaller things that don’t have as much of an impact,” Vienneau said.
“[They should also be] involved in bigger political movements that have the opportunity to really impact the world,” she added.
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Taylor said the university has so far been reluctant to divest from fossil fuels but he is hopeful the continued pressure from the Carleton community will change that.
“I think what we really need right now is to demonstrate to the Carleton administration this is something everyone wants,” Taylor said. “The faculty are on board with it, the workers unions are on board with it, the students are on board with it.”
“Everybody wants it to happen and thinks it would be a really good step in the right direction,” he added.
In a statement to the Charlatan, Carleton media relations officer Steven Reid said the university is “in discussion with CUSA concerning the responsible investing approaches that are most effective in addressing climate change concerns within the context of the [e]ndowment [f]und.”
CAC hopes to run the meme competition for the rest of the semester to continue to raise awareness of its divestment campaign, but Taylor said it depends on whether students continue to participate.
“[It] depends on whether or not the memes are funny enough,” Taylor said.
