Young people showed up at the Rochester Museum & Science Center on Monday by foot, carpool, or public transportation.
That’s not surprising, considering they’re members of the Rochester Youth Climate Leaders and were there for their annual summit. Their goal is to inspire action on climate change locally.
The group came together in 2015, after the Paris climate agreement when nearly 200 countries agreed to try to mitigate the effects of climate change.
This year’s summit was inspired in part by “Drawdown,” a book that claims to be “the most comprehensive plan” on reversing climate change available. The teens took part in workshops focused on six of the book’s 100 principles: a plant-rich diet, educating women and girls, regenerative agriculture, bike infrastructure, composting, and net-zero buildings.
About 130 teens took part, including Liam Smith, a 16-year-old junior from Brighton. He is one of the group’s leaders and said all levels of government need a plan on climate change.
“I would not say that our government is doing an adequate job addressing climate change,” said Smith. “We have failed to do anything on the national scale that is comprehensive.”
That’s why Smith and other members of the group have committed to consistently lobby government leaders.
“I think it’s important that we talk to political leaders about how we can solve climate change through government institutions because what we can do as individuals is very limited, because a lot of the decisions aren’t up to us,” said Smith. “What some towns are doing is trying to participate in what’s called community choice aggregation, which is just buying renewable energy in bulk for all households in a town.”
Smith said he and other members of the Rochester Youth Climate Leaders plan to speak to the Monroe County Legislature before it meets next month. He hopes they’ll take action on the issue.
The Monroe County Library System is offering workshops on “Drawdown” over the coming weeks.
