Celebrating young people's perseverance, a solutions attitude, and caring (and the adults who listen to them)
We need to do that more
It’s hot. In many places, it’s getting hotter, seriously hotter—as in howler-monkeys-falling-out-of-trees hotter. I remember sweltering at the start of summer in the hot, humid last days of school before break on the third floor of an old building with no air conditioning. Today, we hear and read about “the hottest day on record” week after week whether it is Spain, Mexico, Texas, or predicted for this week ahead, Boston and the Northeastern US.
[Click on June 19 and then June 20 in the National Weather Service HeatRisk map here and take a look at the Northeast. Btw, this is dynamic data so it may change by the time you read this.]
There’s an enormous difference between my experience sitting in that classroom in 1970 in Cincinnati, Ohio and students sitting in Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, California in 2024. Many students today know and understand the science of climate crisis. A group of students at Melrose Leadership Academy recognized that the mini AC units in their school were contributing to power outages when several were running at once, and they understood that the systems in their school which included a large gas boiler for heating were adding carbon to the environment. They also understood that this contradicted the school district’s action resolution which included “achieve 100% clean electricity and phase out the use of fossil fuels.”
When they researched solutions they discovered heat pumps which started them on their mission to offer a sustainable path forward.
They petitioned, they presented research, they spoke at community meetings about bond money, they attended school board meetings.
They didn’t let the pushback they encountered stop them.
“There was a lot more pushback there [at the school board meetings] than at the community meetings. One of the board members told us to go back and learn more and stop trying to talk about things we didn’t know, which was completely untrue, because we had done a lot of research to present to them.”
They persisted which led to an invitation to the architecture design firm that was doing an upgrade for the school. The students had estimated the amount of carbon dioxide the school’s gas boiler was putting into the atmosphere at 32 metric tons per year. The architects confirmed that it was actually even higher. Augie Balquist, the student who did the initial research on heat pumps, is 13. Here’s a quote about the experience from the profile in The Guardian’s “My DIY climate hack” series:
“One really important thing they told us is our school’s exact carbon output for the past couple years, which was way more than we estimated. It was the equivalent of somewhere around 250 transatlantic flights of carbon every year. We also learned that the heat pump really didn’t cost that much more than keeping our gas boiler, which requires a lot of upkeep.
“A lot of the pushback had been people saying there was not enough money. But the architects told us that there was enough funding.
“Someone from the district who was hesitant at first ended up supporting us at the very end to convey to everybody else how good heat pumps are.”
I am writing about this group of students to celebrate their perseverance, their solutions attitude, and their caring, and the adults who (finally) listened and took them seriously.
You can read about their public school—Melrose Leadership Academy—here. And you can read about Youth vs Apocalypse, the students’ climate justice group, here. And make sure to read the profile in The Guardian to hear more of their voices and see photos of the students and the school’s boiler room.
Be well. Thank you for making time to read The Interconnect. I’m glad you’ve found your way here. Please consider sharing this post with family, friends, teachers, and/or colleagues who might appreciate it.