YOUTH CLIMATE SUMMIT
Ballston Spa school district helped organize first in Capital Region
Through help from the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, Ballston Spa Central School District organized the first Capital Region Youth Climate Summit at TEC SMART.
The two-day event, with sponsorships from National Grid, SI Group and Hudson Valley Community College, called for high school and college students to gather for informative sessions and workshops about the realty of climate change.
“The real purpose of this summit is for students to walk away with a climate action plan,” said Youth Climate Program coordinator Katie O’Reilly Morgan. “Something that they can bring back to their schools and communities and implement. It’s not just about educating, it’s about educating to empower and inspire action.”
Judy Selig, who teaches biology and chemistry at Ballston Spa High School, took some students to the Wild Center for the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit in November 2015.
Selig wanted to bring the program to the Capital Region.
“[They said] use our program, we’ll help you set it up and we will make it go,” said Selig.
About 12 school districts
participated Wednesday and Thursday.
“Unfortunately the time of year is not great for school districts to get here,” said Selig. “Our plan is to do it again next year at a different time of the year.”
Educating students about various climate issues remains important, but work really begins with the climate action plan.
“The reason why the model is such an inspiring model is that we’re not only educating about climate change but we’re also showing students what they can do one step at a time to make a difference in their school and community,” said Selig. “The model gives students time to actually build a plan and set up. First they brainstorm what the problems are wherever they want to work-- school, community, home. Then they start to think of what are the solutions to that, what are the steps they can take, and by the time they’re done they should be able to go back to their areas and have a plan they could put into place.”
Ballston Spa junior Dan Andersen enjoyed his time at the summit.
“Just to see that there are so many other likeminded people here is really enlightening,” said Andersen. “It makes you want to think about these issues and bring these issues back to your school where you can enlighten an entire other body of students and the administrators as well who really make major decisions for your school that could have a giant effect on the long-term status of your school.”
Andersen hopes to implement more community gardens at his high school.
“Right now we have a pretty small community garden and there are all of these fields that just aren’t being used,” said Andersen. “We want to make that bigger.”
Kailey Jensen attended the program at Tupper Lake with Selig about 18 months ago. She’s always had a passion for climate change and it’ll continue as she begins studying sustainable agriculture and animal science this fall.
“I want to bring what we’re learning here to the University of Kentucky to hopefully make it a zero admissions city, but it’s a large goal,” said Jensen.
Jensen sees the impact youth can have on climate change.
“We can actually do something to make our future better for ourselves, our elders and our future generations,” said Jensen. “That we can create a world where there’s no pollution, that we’re sustainable and our earth is healthier than it was.”
The Youth Climate Summit in Tupper Lake began nine years ago by a high school student who wanted to make a difference.
“He didn’t think there was enough youth involved in climate change and policy making,” said Morgan. “He wanted to make sure that the youth who are the ones that have to deal with all the consequences that they are actually going to be at the table and be educated.”
The program has attracted youth as far as Finland to various parts of New York State. Morgan said a free online tool kit provides a framework for any district or community to create their own climate change summit.
Andersen knows the importance of the climate change issue in the world.
“There’s not one part of the ocean that doesn’t full of plastic, and land fills are creating the most amount of methane and our world is as warm as it has been ever,” said Andersen. “I think it’s really important to get the information out there. First off just to create action plans locally but then also to a higher body of government that really needs to understand and know that this is what the people want.”