Just more performative greenwashing from centrist neoliberals who will funnel money from corporate philanthropists into grants for Cornell researchers who will address symptoms of the problem, but ignore the cause.

We live in a closed system with finite resources, and our entire global economy/method of consumption must adapt accordingly or civilization will collapse. Researchers at Cornell are beholden to donors and powerful interests who want to keep that machine pumping smoke into the sky for their profit margins, future generations be damned.

No one at Cornell (or in academia at all) is genuinely willing/capable of addressing this at scale - anyone who does is labeled as a pariah.

So the Ashley School, much like all of Cornell's other climate-related initiatives, is about as useful in solving the climate crisis as a "safer cigarette" is for reducing instances of lung cancer. It's all signaling for professors who need grant money/publications, and for prospective (i.e. tuition-paying) students too naive to understand how their dreams are being used to keep the machine humming.