Youth summit delves deep into climate change issues
V.P. Wright raised her voice and gesticulated, her tight blonde curls bouncing under a black fedora as she explained how environmental disasters like the Flint, Mich., water crisis have disproportionately impacted marginalized communities.
Speaking to a group of students and environmental activists Saturday, Wright went on to explain the concept of epigenetics, how the environment can affect a person’s genetic makeup.
“We all come from different communities. We all have our own paths that contribute to who we are genetically and how we pass that on to our children and their children,” Wright said at the Houston Youth Climate Summit, a gathering at Texas Southern University where policy experts and community leaders convened to discuss how environmental injustices impact communities and how young people can get involved.
The daylong event featured speakers like Wright, a member of literacy and performing arts group Writer’s Block, as well as local activists working to improve Houston’s quality of life.
Ines Sigel of LINK Houston, which advocates for sustainable transportation solutions, dis
cussed concerns over the Texas Department of Transportation’s Interstate 45 reconstruction and expansion project, which is expected to cut through inner-city neighborhoods.
“We’re mostly concerned about the displacement of homes and jobs and the loss of connectivity between neighborhoods,” Sigel said.
“This will have a disproportionate impact on low-income communities.”
Roughly 100 people attended the event,.
Hosts included Mi Familia Vota, OCA-Greater Houston, JOLT Texas, Texas Rising, Coalition for Equity and Environmental Resilience and Sunrise Movement.
“The topic of climate change is massive. We’ve noticed a lot of students want to be engaged,” said Angie Razo, state director for Mi Familia. “We wanted to provide a specific day to delve a little deeper in the topic.”
College and high school students from Houston, Pearland,
Bellaire, Katy and elsewhere heard about governmental efforts aimed at fighting climate change, including the Green New Deal, a congressional resolution that sets goals for tackling climate change, and the city of Houston’s own climate action plan.
“I hear a lot about climate change nationally, but I’ve never really heard about how it affects Houston,” said Jannelle Barnett, a senior at DeBakey High School for Health Professions.
Barnett is part of a civic action project in her advanced placement government class and she attended the youth summit in hopes of sharing some of what she learned with her classmates.
“My goal is to inform other students and to help them realize how we can positively affect climate change here in Houston and try to make an impact,” she said, “because so far I haven’t really heard much about people trying to combat it. I’ve just heard about another hurricane, another rainstorm.”
“We’re mostly concerned about the displacement of homes and jobs and the loss of connectivity between neighborhoods. This will have a disproportionate impact on low-income communities.”
Ines Sigel, of LINK Houston