By Charles Hua*
I was first introduced to the perils of climate change in second grade, fortunate to have a teacher that repeatedly emphasized two things: the importance of taking initiative and the importance of younger generations tackling climate change. But until sophomore year of high school, I kept asking myself one question: If our youth will be disproportionately burdened by the environmental and social effects of climate change, why isn’t there more action and commitment among students of younger generations to remediate these issues, particularly in comparison to other social movements?
For the past two years, I have had the privilege of leading West Green Club, a student-led coalition of over 30 active students and staff at Madison West High School committed to advancing environmental sustainability initiatives at our school and local community. Throughout the years following West Green Club’s inception in 2001, West Green Club had already begun to recognize the importance of tackling sustainability initiatives facing the Madison community, staunchly advocating for the implementation of then-nascent technologies. West Green Club was a driving force behind numerous energy efficiency initiatives, pushing for the installation of Madison West High School’s geothermal heating and cooling system, LED lighting, motion sensors to detect when rooms were not in use, and increased awareness of behavioral efforts on the part of the student and staff body to promote energy efficiency (an effort that, by itself, reduced energy consumption by nearly 20%).
More recently, West Green Club has tackled a host of other challenges facing our community. Prompted by the Flint water crisis, we installed filtered water fountains to provide students with lead-free drinking water and promote a culture void of plastic waste. We launched our lunchtime composting program (as one of just two schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District with such a program) after working with the City of Madison. And for the 250 Madison residents who dropped off electronics for recycling at our community events this past year, we have helped recycle nearly 10,000 pounds of electronic waste.
While these pursuits were incredibly successful and impactful, we knew that we needed to act even faster and more ambitiously to affirm the 2016 UN Climate Change Conference’s goals of sharply curbing carbon emissions. So we set out this past spring of 2017 to bring renewable energy projects to high schools like ours. Accruing over 500 student signatures (nearly 25% of the student body at Madison West High School) to advance such energy initiatives within a week and securing the approval of Madison West High School and Madison Metropolitan School District for our renewable energy project within a month, West Green Club launched a $50,000 fundraising campaign to install 100 solar panels on the roof of Madison West High School in April 2017. Since then, we have met with resoundingly positive feedback from the Madison community: we have raised over $7,000 for this project, largely by allowing individuals and organizations the opportunity to adopt individual panels under their name through a $500 donation equivalent to the cost of a panel.
As I progressed in my education, I realized that challenges lay not in the feasibility for projects like these to be taken on by students, but in the need for demonstrating to students both the importance and power of their abiding commitment to addressing issues of climate. We made our organization’s mission to do just that, and we hope you will support our efforts in catalyzing a youth-led environmental movement through these three following ways. First, make a tax-deductible donation to this project at www.westgreenclub.org/donate. Because we are a student organization entirely funded through community donations and grants, we truly need and appreciate your support to continually advance youth-led sustainability initiatives. Second, learn more about our efforts and how you can contribute to them at www.westgreenclub.org. Finally, leave us feedback at contact@westgreenclub.org and share our mission with family, friends, colleagues, and other acquaintances. Connecting with the community we comprise gives valuable feedback for us to direct our organization’s energy to maximize our impact.
Consider how your support may solve the question proposed at the start of this piece. If our youth will be disproportionately burdened by the environmental and social effects of climate change, why isn’t there more action and commitment among students of younger generations to remediate these issues, particularly in comparison to other social movements? We look forward to hearing back from you.
*The contributor of this piece, Charles Hua, will be a senior at Madison West High School in the fall and serves as the president of West Green Club, a student-led coalition at Madison West High School launched in 2001 that is committed to advancing environmental sustainability initiatives. Hua can be reached at charles.hua2@gmail.com.