McMaster students hold hunger strike over university’s fossil fuel use

Students at McMaster University began a hunger strike to pressure the university administration to move towards cleaner energy. Students part of the McMaster Divestment Project want the university to fully divest from fossil fuels and remove four gas power generators that are under construction on Cootes Drive.

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“If we acknowledge and we accept the Cootes generators we’re just opening a door for Cootes Paradise to be destroyed,” students part of the McMaster Divestment Project says that’s why they’re doing the hunger strike until the university agrees to their demands.

MacDivest has two demands and one of them is to remove four gas-fired generators that are located on Cootes Drive. The generators that are under construction have been approved by the City of Hamilton but they still need to be approved by the province.

The generators would be used during peak demand, particularly the hottest summer days to reduce demand on the provincial electrical grid. It also makes electrical costs for the university cheaper. The students say it would emit a lot of carbon dioxide emissions and there are other alternatives.

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The other demand from the students is for the university to provide a divestment plan from now until 2025. The group says they have no evidence of a divestment plan compared to other Ontario universities.

CHCH News reached out to McMaster University for an interview but they sent us a statement instead writing that its leaders met with the students several times and urged them to reconsider any protest that puts their health at risk.

The statement reads, “McMaster is deeply committed to addressing climate change. We share the same goal with MacDivest of a net-zero carbon campus and divesting from investments in fossil fuels, but we recognize we have different timelines and ideas of how to get there.”

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Another concern for the students is that the particulate emissions will be higher where the generators are located which is close to a residence, where students may be exposed to it.