Sen. Bernie Sanders and the University of Vermont joined forces last week to host the first Vermont Youth Climate Summit. The summit, which sprawled over most of the fourth floor of the Davis Center, provided an opportunity for more than 150 Vermont high school students and dozens of teachers from 26 high schools around the state to learn how Vermont's climate is likely to change in coming years and to create climate action plans for their high schools designed to reduce their carbon footprint. Each high school sent between five and seven students. 

Youth Summit

"Global warming is the planetary crisis of our time," Sanders, who serves on the Senate energy and environment committees, told the students. "If we don't solve this crisis, Earth will become a terribly inhospitable place for you, your children and your grandchildren. You need to continue making your voices heard. You are stepping up and leading the way." Here the senator is taking in the remarks of another speaker:

Bernie Sanders

During the summit, representatives from each high school team attended 10 workshops, five in the morning and five in the afternoon, that covered elements of climate action planning. 

The workshops were led by 65 UVM students who took an ecological economics course in the fall. One of the assignments for the class was for students to collectively organize a climate summit for young Vermonters. In developing the workshops over the course of the semester, students worked with experts on energy efficiency, renewable energy project development, greenhouse gas auditing, and youth organization and action. 

"The summit provided a great opportunity not only to help students develop action plans that will tangibly decrease the carbon footprint of their high schools,” said Amelia Fountein of Tinmouth, Vt. a senior environmental studies major who took the course, “but also to pass along to younger peers some of the optimism and passion we feel about addressing climate change. Sen. Sanders' involvement has been key to the success we've had recruiting students and in underscoring the importance of this issue."  Here (l to r) Kevin Molfetta, a junior history major, Casey Ogden, a sophomore majoring in environmental sciences, and Peter Pollander, a senior wildlife and fisheries biology major, lead a workshop in waste reduction. students lead workshop at Youth Summit

In morning remarks, Gillian Galford, assistant research professor at the Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources and fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, shared a research-based assessment of the impact climate change will have on Vermont in coming decades based on the Vermont Climate Assessment, a report issued over the summer she co-authored with several graduate students. 

Gillian Galford

After the workshops, all the students reconvened for a "lessons-learned" session and to discuss next steps.

"The University of Vermont was honored to host the inaugural Vermont Youth Climate Summit in partnership with Sen. Sanders," said Professor Jon Erickson of UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, who taught the ecological economics course students had taken. "Our students took the lead in recruiting the high school teams and in organizing a series of engaging workshop sessions. The summit was a very successful event, and they deserve a great deal of credit.”  Here, Erickson chats with Sanders. who approached him earlier in the year with the idea of creating the summit.  

Sanders and Erickson

 

PUBLISHED

12-10-2014
University Communications