11 Trumansburg teenagers help create climate action plan during student conference at UN
Eleven Charles O. Dickerson High School students helped craft a climate action plan at the Student Leadership Conference on Development at the United Nations in February.
The students joined 320 students from seven international schools in sharing opinions on climate change. The climate action plan the group wrote and ratified will be shared with UN dignitaries this spring.
The Trumansburg group, which included 10th to 12th graders enrolled in a global humanism class taught by Jane George, prepared by researching the social, economic, and political impact of climate change.
Their work focused on three conference sub-themes: science facts and predictions, local to global policies, and migration caused by climate change.
Arianna Wright, Zoe Golden, Sarah Wertis, Logan Bonn, Georgia Mechalke, Jadyn Wright, Lilian Oxley, Margaret McCurdy, Virginia Clifford, Elizabeth Gardner, Clair Williamson made up the Trumansburg student group. Teacher Gertrude Nolan and Jackson Riggins-George, Jane George's son, also participated.
The youth worked with community experts, consultants and mentors, such as Noden. Noden is a certified New York State teacher and founder of Words into Deeds, which creates programs promoting students to engage in human rights issues and to design and use projects leading to local and global community service.
Noden mentored discussions and group workshops with the class, assisting students in developing views about climate change, as well as laying the groundwork for working with international peers and project implementation.
The students shared their findings, perspectives, recommendations and project results with peers and broader local and global audiences at the annual conference in New York City.
The goal of including their youth voices in ongoing governance and policy development at the global level were achieved, Noden said.
However, the students’ work has not ended. Their responsibilities now focus on completing tangible local and global impact projects, many of which are in the design and implementation stages. The short list of these is as follows:
- Painting an Ithaca City mural depicting carbon footprint.
- Creating a plastic litter wildlife sculpture.
- Continuing outreach presentations to area schools and organizations.
- Instituting meatless Mondays in school cafeterias.
- Curbing food and single-use items waste in area restaurants.
- Supporting NY’s plastic bag ban and seeking alternatives.
- Taking action by writing interpretive poetry to instill empathy and awareness.
- Fundraising for individuals forced to relocate due to climate disasters or subsequent turmoil.
The trip to the United Nations headquarters was made possible by the Myrtle Bee Nash Memorial Fund Community Foundation of Tompkins County and local donors.
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