{"id":10146,"date":"2017-11-22T08:34:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T13:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/?p=10146"},"modified":"2017-11-21T15:45:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T20:45:02","slug":"thankful-for-young-climate-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/thankful-for-young-climate-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Thankful For Young Climate Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we head into Thanksgiving during this tumultuous political era, I find myself reflecting back on the challenges and progress of the past year, both close to home and around the globe. It\u2019s easy to get discouraged by the nightly news, but something that continues to inspire me is the vision of young people.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Western Massachusetts Youth Climate Summit \/ Phil Doyle<\/p><\/div>\n

As Mass Audubon\u2019s Climate Change Program Coordinator, I had the privilege of meeting Alice and Mari, two of the three girls that successfully lobbied Lexington to change its bylaws to allow for more solar energy, protected a local tract of forest, and helped convince their school to put solar panels on the roof. They spoke with the poise of many adults, but are still years away from driving.<\/p>\n

I also helped out with a casual gathering known as a \u201cclimate caf\u00e9,\u201d in which kids ages 6-11 expressed imaginative, fearless ideas of how to address climate change while wondering why the grown-ups had yet to solve such an obvious problem.<\/p>\n

And last week, I watched the Western Massachusetts Youth Climate Summit unfold at the Hitchcock Center and Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary. Area high school students learned about real-world sustainability practices, the value of natural ecosystems in fighting climate change, and they heard from other young climate leaders at COP23 in Bonn, Germany via Skype. Never was there a question of what should we do<\/em>, only how can we do it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Younger Americans are far more likely to believe that climate change is real and driven primarily by our burning of fossil fuels. They are also more likely to support actions to address climate change. For those coming of age now, future projections of sea level rise and extreme heat at the end of the century are not an abstract future–they will live to see the consequences of our collective action.<\/p>\n

As we head into Thanksgiving, I\u2019m thankful for young people, their clarity of thought, and their ambition. Let\u2019s make sure they inherit a world that allows them to rise to their potential.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Daniel Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we head into Thanksgiving during this tumultuous political era, I find myself reflecting back on the challenges and progress of the past year, both close to home and around the globe. It\u2019s easy to get discouraged by the nightly news, but something that continues to inspire me is the vision of young people. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":10153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2017\/11\/climateleader600.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t87A-2DE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15320,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/powering-up-climate-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":10146,"position":0},"title":"Powering up Climate Action","author":"Mass Audubon","date":"March 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Since moving to the Connecticut River Valley in 1981, Mass Audubon\u2019s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton and Northampton has helped grow our dedication to the environment. We\u2019ve hiked Arcadia\u2019s trails, canoed the marsh, sent our kids to summer camp, volunteered, and donated money. 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Perhaps no generation is more at risk to the impacts of this issue than those who are in school today.\u00a0 In a study presented to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2016, a survey revealed that 40% of Generation Z\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Climate","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/12\/youthclimatesummit750.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/12\/youthclimatesummit750.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/12\/youthclimatesummit750.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2018\/12\/youthclimatesummit750.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14842,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/pv-101\/","url_meta":{"origin":10146,"position":3},"title":"PV 101: The Power of the Sun","author":"Mass Audubon","date":"October 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunlight has been an important tool for humans for centuries, from tracking time via sundials to starting fires through a magnifying glass. 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