50 signatures reached
To: University of New Mexico Board of Regents and President Garnett Stokes
UNM: Acknowledge the Climate Emergency Now!
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To the University of New Mexico Board of Regents and President Garnett Stokes:
We, the undersigned students, faculty, alumni, staff, and community members, urgently call on you to acknowledge the climate emergency and take immediate action to confront its impacts on our university, our state, and our future.
The evidence is undeniable. New Mexico is already living through the consequences of climate chaos—historic drought, deadly wildfires, extreme heat, and vanishing water supplies. These impacts aren’t distant projections—they are disrupting lives, threatening public health, and deepening inequalities across our communities.
UNM cannot claim to prepare the next generation of leaders while ignoring the greatest threat to our generation.
As the flagship public university in New Mexico, UNM has a profound responsibility—not only to educate but to lead. Your actions now will define whether our institution is a beacon of justice and sustainability or a bystander in the face of crisis.
We ask you to:
- Publicly acknowledge the climate crisis as a global emergency that demands systemic, urgent action from our university.
- Implement the Strategic Sustainability Plan with measurable goals for achieving carbon neutrality, renewable energy investment, and resilient infrastructure.
- Establish a permanent Sustainability Council composed of students, staff, faculty, community memebers, and experts to guide UNM’s climate commitments and ensure accountability and transparency.
- Ensure meaningful student and community participation in all sustainability and climate-related decision-making processes.
- Uplift and support student climate organizing—including the leadership of UNM LEAF—as an essential part of our university’s climate response.
UNM signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2008, yet we still lack a formal acknowledgment of the crisis that now surrounds us. The cities and counties of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and Bernalillo have already taken this step. More than 7,000 institutions of higher education around the world have done the same.
We are urging you to join them.
This is a pivotal moment. The decisions you make today will shape the world we inherit tomorrow. We do not have the luxury of delay. The climate emergency is here—and so are we.
We ask you, in no uncertain terms:
Acknowledge the climate emergency. Act on it. Lead.
Acknowledge the climate emergency. Act on it. Lead.
With hope and urgency,
The undersigned students, faculty, alumni, and community members
The undersigned students, faculty, alumni, and community members
Why is this important?
The climate crisis is not a distant threat—it’s already reshaping our lives here in New Mexico. Our rivers are drying, our skies are thick with wildfire smoke, and our communities—especially rural, Indigenous, and low-income communities—are paying the highest price. As students at the University of New Mexico, we are not immune to these impacts. We breathe the same air, drink the same water, and live in the same heat.
UNM is supposed to be a place of learning, leadership, and vision. But how can our university prepare students for the future while ignoring the single greatest threat to our generation?
Acknowledging the climate emergency is more than symbolic—it’s a necessary first step toward meaningful change. It means treating the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves, holding our institution accountable to its commitments, and ensuring that students have a real voice in shaping a just and sustainable future.
This campaign is about integrity. It’s about justice. And it’s about survival.
When students, faculty, alumni, and community members come together, we can push institutions to change. We’ve seen it happen before, and we can do it again. Your voice, your name, your presence in this movement sends a powerful message: that UNM cannot sit on the sidelines any longer.
Whether you're a student living through the heat, a faculty member concerned about the future of education, or a community member fighting for clean air and water—this is your fight too.
By joining this campaign, you’re standing up for climate justice, for youth leadership, and for a university that aligns its actions with its values. You’re helping build a campus that invests in life, not fossil fuels. A campus that centers sustainability, equity, and community—not corporate interests and empty promises.
This is our campus. This is our climate. This is our moment. Join us—and help make history at UNM.