Courtney Luciana Photo
Climate Health Education Project (CHEP) high school interns.
High school climate-change activists called on the city Wednesday afternoon to create a $1 million New Haven Climate Justice and Green Jobs Fund.”
The activists, interns with the Climate Health Education Project (CHEP), made that call in a press event held on the steps of the Elm Street courthouse.
The fund would hire staffers for clean-energy jobs, energy-efficiency education campaigns, “support neighborhood resiliency and greening programs,” and “fund increased climate justice education.”
X marks the posts submitted on the Global Climate Impact Project.
“Connecticut is already being affected by climate change. The sea level in Connecticut is rising and the storms are becoming more severe,” Hopkins School sophomore Natalie Card (at right in above photo) said at the rally. “Extremely heavy storms have increased sea level by 70 percent since 1958 and will continue to keep rising.”
Students at the rally read aloud both personal and online posts from all around the world about climate change.
Kawtar Navama, a junior from ESUMS, quoted an anonymous submission from the Philippines.
“The Philippines is an archipelago located in Southeast Asia with thousands of beautiful islands within it that I have had a strong connection to for the past 16 years of my existence,” Navama said, reading the post through a microphone. “Unfortunately, it has changed so much within that short period. The land that used to grow abundant crops is now periodically as dry as the Sahara Desert.”
Members of the New Haven Climate Movement are working to pass a proposal to implement climate education in five public high schools. Additionally, a New Haven Climate Movement emergency task force is working on proposals to wean the city from reliance on fossil fuels..
“It’s our job to keep saying to the city that we need the money and why it should be an agenda point.” said CHEP senior organizer Kiana Flores, who attends Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School.
Environmental organizer Chris Schweitzer called on the city to hire more staff to work towards energy efficiency and transit alternatives to cars.
“New Haven is an oceanfront city with three rivers. The sea level has already risen a foot and is for sure going to rise two more feet by 2050,” Schweitzer said. “Just think about what that means. A massive change in not only the ocean but the ecosystem across the entire world.”
Young In Kim (pictured), a sophomore from Wilbur Cross High School, argued that the Climate Justice and Green Jobs Fund plan would promote small-business growth through clean-energy jobs, reduce the cost of health care, improve buildings’ energy efficiency, and fund youth leadership through climate education in New Haven schools.