Youth in a Green War Call for Action

Cover photo courtesy of Angelo Alejandro

Around 60 students from nine schools gathered at Sisler High School on Nov. 21 to attend a student-led 'Call to Action' conference organized by Youth in a Green War.

The Sisler organization was created by a group of environmentally-minded students and teachers last school year.

"I've been involved with Youth in a Green War since it started in February 2019. When we watched Greta Thunberg's video, we all wanted to do more," said Grade 12 Sisler High School student Thea Veronica Malaso. "Since then we have been raising awareness and promoting actions to save the environment."

Thea, who planned the conference, said that the goal was to inspire youth leaders to become green warriors and to encourage them to create a green action plan at their respective schools.

Sisler teacher Greg Shedden, who is also a staff advisor for Youth in a Green War, kicked off the event by sharing sustainable activities taking place at Sisler. He added that all of these ideas were easily transferable to other schools.

For example, Sisler students planted an apple orchard in one of the school's courtyards; apples from 20 trees go to Winnipeg Harvest every year. In the spring, students also plant an organic garden. Sisler's human ecology classroom regularly uses the garden's produce—including squash, onions, tomatoes, raspberries, rhubarb and other vegetables.      

Sisler's environmental club also initiated a 'Ban the bottle' program last year. The usage of bottled water has been reduced from 550 to 100 bottles per week, with more and more students using the school's filtered water fountain.

Additionally, students pushed to install a solar wall to lower the need for fuel to heat the performing arts centre. Students also continue to compost, recycle and reduce trash at the school whenever possible. Social sciences teachers have created a paper-free program using online lessons, Google Docs and chat software.

"As a green warrior, everyone should live green. We can't be using retail plastic bags and bottled water, we have to reduce, recycle and compost at home and school, and schools need to create programs that are paper-free," Mr. Shedden said.

Organizers also encouraged students to use social media's extensive reach to share their environmental and sustainable development actions with friends, family members and local media. This is an inexpensive way to promote environmentally-conscious programs and ideas that can be adopted by others.    

Youth in a Green War has reached out to student councils in schools, colleges and universities through email and social media to join them in 'Stop talking about climate change and start taking action.' Their related online petition has received support from 26,249 people. Youth in a Green War's Instagram page is now followed by more than 1000 people.

"Youth have real power and you should use it to demand political leaders to address the environmental issues," Mr. Shedden told students.

Following the keynote, the participants had the opportunity to attend special workshops on food waste, sustainable transportation, protecting wildlife and ways to reduce gas emissions. Presenters included environment experts from Green Action Centre, Wilderness Manitoba and Climate Change Connections.