About a month ago, one of the students from Northern Lights Community School attended the Youth Climate Justice Summit that was held at the Minnesota State Capitol Building. This event was put on by Climate Generation. They held the event so that students from across the state could meet with politicians to talk about different topics facing our environment and our state. Below are Katelyn Dorry’s thoughts about the event.
“Truth be told, I had no idea what I was doing going into the climate summit. All I knew was that some of the women I had worked with from Climate Generation in the past contacted me about the opportunity, and that it would have something to do with us talking to legislatures. When the four us of got there – me, Tajia, Taylor, and our director Mike – we just found a table and sat down and waited for them to speak. Over the day, we listened to different people, most of them teenagers; they taught us about something called the Green New Deal. I had heard about it a bit before but never at such lengths. Apparently this was what we were going to be campaigning for local legislatures to enact in Minnesota.
The Green New Deal is a very drastic idea; in short, it mandates 100% renewable energy by 2030. After learning of the idea, and our meetings with legislatures, a few ideas became very clear to me. The first, even if someone isn’t a “Climate Change Denier,” that doesn’t mean they’re a supporter. It’s terribly easy to simply push the idea aside and not think about it, not take a side, which I think is just as harmful as denying the existence of climate change.
The second is that I don’t think the world is ready for drastic climate action. Too many people push it to the side, and until major catastrophes start happening (more than they already have) and people start getting hurt (more than they already have) due to climate change, only then will people and legislatures realize it’s time to start doing something, and doing something bold.”
Thanks to Climate Generation, Katelyn was able to attend such a great event. We are happy that she was able to attend and learn so much from the summit. Hopefully what she learned at this summit will lead her and her YES! Team to great things in the future.
