Students at climate talks
Olds High School students Peter Jakobsen, 17, left, and Kurtis Layden, 15, are off to Denmark for an international youth environmental conference.
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Three Olds High School students head out today to attend the Common Future climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The week-long event will gather 55 students from more than 10 countries to create an action plan to help mitigate the effects of climate change. The three Olds High School students are the only delegation from North America that will be attending, with students from Columbia, Ghana, Lebanon, Nepal, Serbia, South Africa and other countries.
Grade 12 students Mitchell Neuberger and Peter Jakobsen, along with Grade 10 student Kurtis Layden will be taking part. Bev Toews, an educational assistant and the UNESCO Associated Schools Network co-ordinator at the school, Bruce Madore, a social studies teacher and the environment club advisor and Tane Skotheim, the family wellness worker and staff advisor for the Interact Club, will also be going.
Olds High School has been part of the UNESCO Associated Schools Network for the past seven years and it was through this organization that the students received the invitation. The conference, travel and other costs will be covered by the Department of Education in Denmark and UNESCO.
Leading up to the conference, the students have been researching climate policy within Canada, talking to politicians, environment groups and other students through videoconferencing about what is being done in Canada and what could be done in the future. At recent climate conferences the Canadian government has been criticized for its lacklustre policy on the environment.
However, Neuberger said the purpose of the youth conference won’t be to criticize different countries’ stances, but to look at what can be done on an individual level, recognizing that people aren’t their governments but can act to make change themselves.
Even before heading to Denmark, the students have put together a paper outlining their ideas and posted it to the Common Future website blog. Once they arrive at the conference they will be working with delegates from all over the planet to brainstorm and share their different perspectives.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting to interact with the delegates from other countries,” Jakobsen said. “The interesting thing with climate change issues is that in the Western world, which has the greatest impact on climate change, we see the least effects from it.”
Layden said he wanted to get involved because he saw that there needed to be a change and it had to start somewhere. The students hope to develop a comprehensive action plan that could make the school or even the Town of Olds more environmentally friendly.
sobrien@reddeeradvocate.com
