Local Students Dive into Climate Change Politics in D.C.
Sebastopol's Mika Swid is working to get climate legislation written by students passed in Congress.
For Mika Swid, 16, from Sebastopol, Earth Day will never just be April 22nd. The gravity and scope of the climate disaster that we are facing as a species is staring all of us, but mostly her generation, squarely in the face. As the heirs of this scary future, their motivation for acting now and every day is understandable.
Mika, together with four other Sebastopol-area Sonoma Academy students and Nancy Metzger-Carter, a humanities and environmental science instructor at the school, recently returned from a spring break trip to Washington, D.C., where they lobbied for two resolutions related to the climate crisis.
Metzger-Carter also acts as the faculty sponsor of the group that coordinated the resolutions, Schools for Climate Action (S4CA), which promotes youth involvement in policy developments around climate related issues.
Mika and her classmates were not alone on this trip. Approximately 60 other students from around the country (14 of whom were from Sonoma Academy) travelled to D.C. to meet directly with representatives in a bid to drum up support for two resolutions that they had all collaborated on.
In one resolution, HR 259, the mental health needs of students affected by climate change would be addressed more aggressively.
The other resolution, HR 262, calls for more support in actually teaching about climate change in the schools. These resolutions were the products of 200 students nationwide, who had hammered out the details over many months of discussion.
Both resolutions had been previously presented to the prior Congress, and now, with more input and editing, they were being re-introduced.
There are now 19 co-sponsors in Congress for the climate education resolution, and seven for the mental health resolution.
Bay Area US Representative Barbara Lee (Democrat from Berkeley), Rep. Maxwell Frost (Democrat from Florida and at age 26, the first Gen Z rep) and Rep. Jahana Hayes (Democrat from Connecticut) co-introduced the climate ed resolution. Students met personally with Rep. Lee to advance the resolution.
When asked what she thinks this will actually accomplish, Mika answered, “Hopefully, this resolution will eventually lead to a bill that will fund climate ed and soon. It’s urgent. Unless we take consequential action, my generation can expect to see truly catastrophic changes to our lives. We already are.”
Mika has seen firsthand the affects of climate change. Four large trees just outside Mika’s house in Sebastopol fell over this past winter, one missing her bedroom by just inches. The tree roots had been seriously weakened by the ongoing drought, combined with a fungus that had further weakened the root system. Add to that the saturation of the earth around the trees by the freakish rains this past winter and throw in some serious winds, and you have the perfect storm that’s capable of knocking down trees.
The mental health resolution is a bit more personal. Mika spoke about the anxiety students have that is often related to the catastrophic fires we have seen in recent years.
The resolution calls on Congress to acknowledge the connection between climate disasters and the stress that results, be it from fires, floods, drought, hurricanes or just the fear of an worrisome future.
Rep. Mike Thompson (Democrat from Napa) together with Rep. Kathy Castor (Democrat from Florida) are the main backers. To advance the resolutions, Reps. Thompson and Castor held a press conference together with the students in the course of the trip.
“The press conference was so cool. It was a great chance to see how change can actually happen,” Mika said.
“A favorite part of the trip was meeting other students close to our age who thought like us and were doing the same work in Iowa or Utah,” Mika said. “It was good to see others who felt the same way as us and were fighting the same good fight.”
When asked about what else they saw during their trip, Mika answered “We didn’t have time for the museums, but we did see the cool monuments, and being inside the congressional office buildings was impressive.”
Mika’s heightened awareness about the state of the environment began long before her teenage years.
“I’ve grown up learning about it,” she said. “My dad spends most of his working hours looking for solutions to our environmental crisis. I’ve really grown up with this awareness.”
And what are the student’s next steps? “Sending emails to representatives, asking that they co-sponsor one or both of the resolutions and trying to get the word out through press coverage like this,” Mika said.
Although concerned for the future of the planet, Mika remains optimistic. “I think we’ll figure it out. We really don’t have a choice!”