It was August 2018, and California was in the midst of one of its deadliest and most destructive wildfire seasons. I vividly remember walking home from school with my brother – who was only 6 at the time – and seeing him point to the sky and ask, “Is that the moon?” ? Because of the wildfires, the sun was unrecognizable in an orange, apocalyptic sky.
The following year, as a freshman at Lengthy Seashore Polytechnic, I was enrolled in an environmental science class that helped me understand the severity of the climate crisis. The message was loud and clear: the world is dying and we must act now to save it.
In the summer of 2020, I came across the Climate Reality Projecta non-profit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change and offering management training. After completing the week-long program, I was connected to the local side of Local weather News and introduced to the amazing people who helped push the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2019 to s Commit to 100% clean energy in the electricity sector by 2030 and in all other sectors. energy sectors by 2040.
These people inspired me. If Los Angeles could do it, couldn’t Lengthy Seashore Unified School District?
The leaders of the Local Weather Actuality Undertaking in Los Angeles mentored me, and I was able to find students and teachers at my high school, including Patrick Gillogly, and across the district, who shared a similar vision. In August 2020, when I was a sophomore, I founded the Lengthy Seashore Green Schools Campaign and recruited some of these like-minded students, who in turn spread the word to other students from other schools in the district.
I was naive at first. I thought GSC would just present the school district with a 100% clean energy resolution and the school board would vote yes and, boom, done. World saved. I didn’t expect it to take more than two years.
As a freshman at Long Seashore Polytechnic High School, Michaelson discovered just how serious the climate crisis is. The message was loud and clear: the world is dying and we must act now. to save it.
(Google)
The campaign was meant to prove to the district that the students involved in the movement were not just a group of angry, hateful teenagers. We had to earn the respect of the school board and demonstrate that we were prepared to continue presenting ourselves.
Contrary to what some might believe, the campaign was never directly opposed – we never encountered any climate deniers. Everyone we spoke to believed in climate change and recognized the significance of the transition to clean energy. The big impediment was to make it an absolute priority.
We had our first meeting with LBUSD school board member Megan Kerr (who would later become one of the campaign’s biggest supporters), in December 2020, and she said that while she fully supported our goals , the resolution would not be adopted for some time. The district has focused on the pandemic and distance learning.
This made perfect sense – school districts, like all governing bodies, are constantly juggling priorities – but it was hard to hear. We wanted to see the board pass a resolution on clean energy immediately. But there were benefits to waiting. In what my mother often called “a marathon, not a dash,” the many months it took to pass this resolution allowed us to develop an actionable and realistic plan that puts climate change at the forefront of objectives of the LBUSD.
The Green Schools campaign kicked off with a student-led online climate town hall, which attracted more than 75 members. We started a petition (which was signed by over 1,000 residents) and continued to contact parents, students and teachers to discuss the campaign and its goals.
In September 2021, we held an in-person climate rally attended by nearly 200 people, including actor and environmental activist Calum Worthy. The event included presentations from energy experts, local politicians and environmental activists. The campaign also brought in 70 different speakers to speak at each biweekly school board meeting in support of a clean energy transition.
The second part of the campaign involved working directly with the district. This involved regular meetings with facility directors and a district-appointed representative to review the proposals, line by line. We also met regularly with school board members, the superintendent, and other school officials to discuss how we could gain their support. We helped engage environmental experts in the dialogue to explore financial incentives and funding streams available to LBUSD to facilitate the transition to clean energy.
After two years of meetings and community engagement, the Green School Operations Policy – Energy and Sustainability was adopted on August 17, 2022, committing the district to transition to 100% clean energy by 2045.
At this point, I must emphasize that an effective motion requires collaboration between those who are currently in power and those who will be in power in the years to come, that is to say my generation. Yelling at a school board to be greener without creating a workable plan to get there will get you nowhere.
Non-renewable energy has been the norm for so long that our systems are built around this technology and, frankly, it’s easy to stay that way. This is why it takes a village to decide to fight for these issues.
Diana Michaelson is a second-year health policy student at Cornell University. She is excited to monitor the district’s compliance with the Energy and Sustainable Development Policy until the work is completed.
Related News :