GREEN

Environmental consciences are flourishing on the outskirts of a movement

BY JENNINGS FELT AND SAHANA ARUMANI

The Global Week for Future revealed the storm of clarity behind the haze of the climate crisis as 7.6 million people from across the globe protested to the soundtrack of Generation Z’s rallying cries.

One advocate of climate activism within the growing global movement is junior Ellery White. She is the founder of the Save Our Oceans club and her mission is to broaden peoples’ viewpoints with the power of pure fact. This goal stemmed from White’s innate interest in marine biology and how the climate directly affects the oceans. However, she was also partially motivated by the lack of awareness in the school and surrounding community. “I know a lot of people at the school don’t believe in climate change and don’t really help out around the community, so I wanted to create something where students could come in, I can bring awareness and where people could raise money and all that stuff,” White said.

For a mere thirty minutes every three weeks, White has the opportunity to show her club videos, introduce them to relevant facts and formulate service projects. The present purpose of the club, White emphasizes, is about highlighting the actions of current student activists, namely sixteen-year

old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, and the growing amount of media surrounding the issue, in order to create a case for action.

“I showed one of her videos in my club and I think people really took it and everyone was really quiet and just sat there and watched what she was saying,” White said.

White hopes to expand the scope of her club by partnering with businesses such as 4ocean and fellow activists that she met during a sea turtle conservation initiative in Costa Rica.

“I have a friend in Costa Rica who sells these kits, like metal straws and reusable kitchenware that I’m hoping to sell,” she said. “I also partnered with the 4oceans bracelets that I’m hoping to sell.”

A similar gesture is being extended by senior Page Costello in her efforts to bring the conversation of electronic waste to the table. She and her partner, senior Ashlee Hall, are three weeks into their initiative of programming a new and edited picture of e-waste into the student body’s perception.

“It’s kind of underrecognized. A lot of people will just kind of throw their stuff out and they’re like ‘It’ll go into the landfill and it’ll be ok,” Costello says. “But in reality, it’s not ok.”

Despite being a young effort, it is

already reaching out to the Sterlingbased company Secure Electronics in order to organize drives that will accept a myriad of tired technologies.

“E-waste isn’t just computers and TVs and phones. It’s also cords, and we will be taking that at our drive,” Costello said.

In addition to donation drives, Costello and Hall want to illuminate the toxic footprint e-waste leaves in its wake.

“Stuff leaks into the ground, it causes terrible issues, it ruins the soil,” Costello said. “A lot of the stuff tends to go to underdeveloped countries. The batteries have terrible acids in them that could end up poisoning the water and in all of these impoverished countries the kids are getting really sick.”

This mission began when Costello heard a student Ted Talk on the topic of e-waste last year. The barrage of information about the environmental impacts coupled with a painfully explicit image opened both her eyes and mind.

“He was showing pictures of ‘computer mountain’ or something, and it was in a country in Africa and it was just this pile of old electronics,” she said. “It was like a mountain of all this stuff and the whole area around it was just so dead.”

SPEAK

In the moment, she admits the issue didn’t immediately take root and grow into the current fruit of her and Hall’s endeavor. However, it wasn’t buried deep.

“It kind of, sadly, left my mind,” Costello said. “I mean I made sure I didn’t throw out anything but I didn’t think much of it until this year. Somebody was talking about environmental issues and Ashlee Hall and I looked at each other and were like, ‘Wish we could do something about this’ and that’s where we are now, I guess.”

“Wishing we could do something” is quickly becoming the mindset that is fueling the era of environmental student activism. One of the first voices recognized in the growing crowds is of Greta Thunberg. Thunberg’s message of listening to the science was brought before the members of the U.N, delivering a speech that White resonated with.

“I think if we have more people like her the world might be able to change,” White said.

However, student activism is walking a tightrope of effectiveness. White finds that while there is a sense of relatability when the message comes from a fellow teenager, it can unconsciously be stunted.

“I don’t think they [adults] realize that if you’re young, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have as much knowledge or if not more, on the issue of climate change over someone else,” White said. To fight this slippery slope of dismissal, Purcellville’s mayor and town council are willing to help students make a dent in the status quo. Mayor Kwazi Fraser noted that he only saw one student appear in front of the council in his past five years in office to propose or testify on a bill.

The reasons behind this statistic cannot be pinpointed, but Fraser speculates it could be a collage of nervousness and a general sense that the future is an inevitable force, out of students’ control.

“We are open and we welcome new ideas because we know this world is not ours,” Fraser said.

The town is trying to welcome more students into their circle of change. Although high school students are allowed to apply to all subdivisions, excluding the planning commission, there is an apparent lack of student engagement.

With heightened advertising, the Parks and Recreation group is hoping to cater to more high school students. Fraser commented that the Environmental Development

Advisory Committee and the Tree and Environmental Sustainability Committee are also open to high school students.

“The Tree and Environmental Sustainability Committee had Hail to the Trail,” he said. “It’s at the Chapman DeMary Trail and that’s basically showing about plant life and getting rid of invasive species of plants and showing folks how we can have a sustainable footprint within the town of Purcellville, although we have some level of development.”

However, if a student has a different ambition, such as proposing or testifying on a bill, there are many lines of contact that all lead to the same goal. “They can reach out to myself in email or any council member,” Fraser said. “Just have a minute or few or thirty minutes with them and basically try to formulate that bill so it can get to a state that it can be ready for a presentation to the town.”

Fraser repeatedly arrived at the same message— the town council is the present, but the student and children of the town are the future.

“I think we need to empower all young people to know that we as adults are not here forever,” he said. “They need to start speaking up and taking positions on things.”