Environmental Leadership Summit inspires young activists
April 18, 2018
While most students were at home on Friday, April 13, FRESH Club members were at work helping to put on the Environmental Leadership Summit. Although it was held at Fossil Ridge High School, there were also attendees from many other high schools in Poudre School District.
To open and close the event, keynote speakers Mike Nelson and Zackery Rago offered their words of encouragement and inspiration. Mike Nelson, chief meteorologist of Denver7 News, spoke of climate change around the world. He speaks at various schools and events in the hope that climate change becomes not a political conversation, but rather an effort to preserve the world. Zackery Rago, a coral expert who is featured in the Netflix documentary Chasing Coral, talked about his experience witnessing coral bleaching. He advocates for sustainability to help save oceans and encourage future scientists.
Three sessions during the day allowed people to learn about topics that interested them. From sustainability over fashion to outdoor ethics, the 21 different topics offered something different for each person to explore.
One session, called “Making a Life and a Living”, talked about expanding the fields dealing with changing the environment, instead of simply having an abundance of environmental scientists. Fields that speaker Martin Ogle talked about integrating environmental change into included, “art, agriculture, and architecture” as well as many more. He said that it was important to get the word of change out into the world through different forms of media and with different perspectives. Everyone in the session was asked to brainstorm potential ideas for possible fields that could assist in changing the quality of life people are living as well as the quality of the earth.
Another session that took place, “Plant Power in Cuisine”, dealt with the impact of animal agriculture on the environment and what people could do to change the negative impacts. Many people in this session were inspired to take action and begin to cut animal products out of their diet. The speaker, Alyse Houghton, talked about how she was inspired to adapt the vegan lifestyle and open a completely vegan restaurant. She brought along muffins as well as vegan cheese and crackers for attendees to sample. She stressed how amazing it made her feel to adapt the different lifestyle, both physically and emotionally.
City of Fort Collins representative Maureen McCarthy led the session entitled “Recycling Ambassadors”. In this session she discussed recycling in Fort Collins as well as some of the volunteer programs that they offer. She encouraged everyone there to start the discussion in their house about becoming a recycling ambassador or to sign up to volunteer that day. McCarthy also led an activity during the lunch period for people to test their knowledge of different recyclables.
The gathering was not only educational, but a way to inspire the future leaders that may be paving the way for environmental leadership. The Environmental Leadership Summit’s mission was to look to the future and protect our planet and the event opened minds to new possibilities.
