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Environmental Studies Students Attend International Climate Change Conference
Eight seniors at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley were part of the global community at the 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico
By Allison Wickler December 20, 2010
A little more than a week ago, a group of local 18-year-olds were in Mexico escaping Minnesota's snow and cold. The trip, however, was anything but a vacation.
Eight School of Environmental Studies students attended the 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference, held from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 in Cancun, Mexico, an annual meeting of international delegates and observers who work on world climate change issues.
"For them to be there, I think, is a powerful thing," said senior environmental studies teacher Craig Johnson, who organized and attended the trip.
Each day for at least 12 hours, students heard speakers from around the world who addressed issues like how climate change affects the world's indigenous people, gender issues and health care.
They blogged about their experiences, participated in webinars with classmates in Apple Valley and interviewed other international attendees.
It was "really refreshing" to interact with the global community of world delegates, students, scientists and climate change skeptics, said SES senior Nikki Mardell, whether it was at a session or sitting on the bus on the way to the conference.
The students went not as advocates or negotiators, but to learn, Johnson said. Each student was selected through an in-school interview process and financed his or her trip individually.
Johnson said the school's Education Foundation is the only organization accredited to send high school students from a particular school to the conference. It's the second year a group from the school attended.
SES senior Anna Cousin said it was intimidating at first to be around such intelligent people, but she found they were helpful and open to talking about issues.
"They just wanted you to know," Cousin said.
Before the students left for Mexico, they took a climate change science and policy seminar that Johnson taught to give them background on the United Nations and climate change. Regardless of what anyone believes about climate change, Johnson said it's "the perfect thing to study."
"I like to use it with kids because it does really demand that you look at it in many different ways," he said. It can be applied to subjects as diverse as politics, chemistry and culture, he said.
Students have different interest areas when it comes to climate change, he said, whether it's political activism or the anthropological or artistic sides of the issue.
Nicole Rooney said her main interest is in the cultural aspect of climate change—seeing how people affect the environment, and how those changes in turn affect people, she said, which several conference sessions addressed.
Mardell said a woman from Kiribati, an island only a few meters above sea level, danced a traditional dance for the audience, with the message that her culture would soon be gone because of the effects of climate change, so she wanted people to remember it.
"That session will definitely stick with you," Cousin said.
Cousin sat in on another session where youth from other countries talked about climate change's effect on where they live, and how their future is at stake, she said.
"They want more of a say in what's going on," she said.
Johnson said he doesn't know whether a group will go again, but those who have already gone continue to engage with what they learned and show concern for the climate they'll inherit.
They've given presentations to other students, and a website archive of their interviews, a documentary and a summer concert are in the works of their own volition, the students said.
"I think it's important for us to spread the word beyond our school and into the greater community," Rooney said. "There are options for them to get involved.