This is a deeply painful time in America. We are being shaken awake to acknowledge and work to repair the deep crack in the foundation of this nation.

This is not a time to be talking about anything other than the malignant forces of racism, hatred, violence and disease. But there is a deeply related issue that is undoubtedly worsened and exacerbated by racism and inequity: the climate crisis.

This weekend, the Board of Trustees of Stanford University will be deciding whether to continue to invest in the fossil fuel industry. This decision affects us all — especially people in communities of color who are more likely than most Americans to suffer from the health effects of climate change.

As health professionals, parents, and Stanford alumni, we were proud of Stanford students when they unanimously passed a resolution — in both the Undergraduate Senate and Graduate Student Council — asking the Board of Trustees to divest from fossil fuel companies earlier this year. Stanford taught us to evaluate the world through a scientific lens, to value evidence, and to work to solve urgent, entrenched, and complicated issues.

We are ashamed that last week Stanford’s Faculty Senate voted to reject the student resolution. We are ashamed that 28 Stanford faculty senators failed to stand up for the health and well-being of all people and for our future on Earth. We are dumbfounded that these brilliant professors do not understand the urgency of the climate crisis.

In the last few years alone, wildfires have forced Stanford to cancel classes and keep students indoors. In East Palo Alto, climate change and sea-level rise are even more pressing concerns. In addition to the  housing insecurity, lack of access to nutrition and clean water, safe transportation, education and economic opportunity that its residents already face, East Palo Alto is expected to experience inundation by three feet of sea-level rise by 2060 and a tripling of its number of days above 100°F by 2070.

Climate change is a health emergency that is endangering the health of all Americans, especially low income Americans and people of color. The harms include: heat stroke and death from longer and hotter heat waves; injuries, deaths and displacements from increasingly violent storms and wildfires; hospitalizations and deaths from asthma and heart attacks caused by dangerous air pollution; mosquito- and tick-borne diseases; illnesses from contaminated food and water; and compromised mental health as a result of PTSD. If left unmitigated, these harms will only worsen in the years to come, further driving racial and economic disparities.

Fossil fuel companies have been obscuring and hiding the science of climate change for decades. Nowhere has this been more true than in low-income communities and communities of color. But the science could not be clearer: We must keep fossil fuels in the ground. We must transition rapidly to clean, renewable energy. Multiple recent scientific publications, including from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency, and the The Lancet have made it abundantly clear that our time is running out. The IPCC and IEA reports specifically say that withdrawing investments from fossil fuels is not just recommended but necessary to meet the Paris Climate Agreement to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

Stanford’s Faculty Senators shared a variety of reasons for their vote to reject the divestment resolution: some admitted that their research is funded by the fossil fuel industry and divesting would hurt their funding. Surely these senators should have abstained from the vote, which not all did. One senator expressed that fossil fuel companies are good because they make hand sanitizer. Several said that divestment is hypocritical because we still use fossil fuels in our lives.

For anyone who doubts the effectiveness of Big Oil’s propaganda — or who questions if accepting funding from Big Oil affects the beliefs, decisions and positions taken by researchers  — the truth is on clear display. The corrupting influence of accepting funding from Big Tobacco has long been known. Accepting the funding of Big Oil funding is just as corrosive.

Fortunately, like the student divestment resolution, the faculty’s rejection is merely advisory: The ultimate decision about fossil fuel divestment  is expected to be made by Stanford’s Board of Trustees this weekend. We urge these stewards of our beloved institution to do the right thing — for the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren, and our future. And to help black people breathe.

Stanford alumni — let this also be our call to action. We cannot let the conflicts of interest that some faculty have indulgently normalized stand in our way. We urge you to sign Fossil Free Stanford’s pledge to withhold all donations until Stanford divests. If you have a connection to someone on the board, reach out to them today. No one among us can afford to be a bystander.

Stanford, for the health of our students, our neighbors, and communities around the world: The time to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry is today.

Ed Maibach is the director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.  Amanda Millstein is a primary care pediatrician in Richmond, and a co-founder of Climate Health Now.