Our Green Future: America’s Young Environmental Leaders Speak Out

Three Brower Youth Awardees were featured in the second of the two-part USC "Speaker Series," presented this past week.

First up was Rachel from Berkeley. She started off with poor footing, showing students a video produced by UCLA about USC's C+ sustainability grade. Most of her presentation dealt with her and her accomplishments, complete with the "ra-ra, if I can do it, so can you" pep talk. I wasn't really surprised at USC's grade, seeing as places such as New/North don't even have recycle bins easily accessible. However, problems such as these have a fairly simple solution. I do agree with her statement claiming "we are the most powerful stakeholders on our campus."

Next up was Billy from Yale. Of all three speakers, I feel as though his was more organized and informative. He started with a shocking fact: A certain glacier in India could be gone by 2030, a glacier that 5 million people rely on for their source of fresh water. I liked that he actually defined all of the "go-green" terminology, whereas others often throw this jargon at their audiences and move on. He spoke of the building blocks needed to rebuild the green economy:
-Reinvesting financial capital
-Preserving natural capital
-Maximizing human capital
He was an interesting presenter, probably aided by his use of powerpoint.

Last but not least was Erica from Stanford/Oxnard. Her story was a bit more compelling, perhaps due to its personal connection to her life. She brought up several interesting points, such as the fact that voices are more powerful than money. She spoke a lot about finding your voice, and how educating yourself is the first step. Finally, she mentioned that small things make a difference in thinking globally.

Overall, I feel like this presentation was much more informative than the first. The speakers were younger, which made their speeches easier to relate to. Even though I feel like I learned a bit more about the efforts being made to strengthen the global economy, I will continue to reduce, reuse, and recycle and consider my civic duty complete.