Rally on the rails: Port Townsend High School students to take climate change concerns to Congress

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It’s a working lunch hour in Room A-102 at Port Townsend High School.

Over turkey sandwiches and slices of pizza, about 25 students discuss a range of topics, from how to improve their school’s recycling program to reducing paper waste in day-to-day operations, to coordinating a ride-share program among student commuters.

Students for Sustainability (SFS) – currently the largest and fastest-growing nonathletic club at PTHS – is taking action to mitigate climate change at its school and in its community. (The Associated Student Body has the second-largest club membership.)

“Climate change is the issue of our generation,” said Ewan Shortess, 17, club president. “We want to start a wave, to make an impact and help decision makers find solutions.”

Selected as a 2013 Student Environmental Leader, winning a statewide Green Apple Award from E3 (formerly the Environmental Education Association of Washington), Shortess said the majority of his peers recognize climate change as a scientifically supported fact and that the modern world’s reliance on fossil fuels is not sustainable. However, he said he believes many teens feel that they don’t have the ability or resources to change the status quo.

"We are connecting others with those resources," he said.

To advance their initiatives to state and national levels, members are planning to travel cross-country this spring – by train.

“We are planning a trip to Washington, D.C., to speak with members of Congress about a carbon tax, fracking and ocean acidification,” Shortess said. “Along the way, we'll stop in 55 communities and speak at other high schools to gain support and build momentum for our message.”

Prior to the trip, students are organizing meetings with staff from the offices of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer to learn how SFS can leverage the work of Washington state’s government officials in their discussion with representatives in D.C.

SFS plans to create a petition that they will send to students in each of the communities they visit to sign. Students will also be asked to list one or two sustainability issues they are concerned about, and then add what actions they want to see elected officials implement. The petitions will be collected at each train stop along their journey and delivered to representatives in the Capitol.

“It’s about reaching that ‘critical mass,’ so that we can’t be ignored,” said member Ian Hadden.

About 15 SFS members are planning on devoting their spring break (March 28-April 7, 2014) to the trip and hope to leverage community support to fund their effort and raise awareness of their cause, Shortess said. The cost is $1,300 per student. A variety of fundraiser and awareness campaigns are set to begin this month and continue into 2014.

“We don’t want anyone who is interested in participating to be limited by the cost, so we are reaching out to the community to help us realize our mission,” Shortess said.

Causes on campus

The PTHS club formed in June 2012 as a democratic operation. Shortess (president) and 13 others – Daniel Charlton (vice president), Natalie Toews (secretary), Lily Murock (treasurer), Micah Evalt (historian), Stein Pratt (chief technician), and representatives Rilke Rutenbeck, Sara Fullerton, Peri Muellner, Grayson Pennell, Harry Doyle, Peter Temunovic, John Reid and Ian Hadden – were all elected to their positions. Additional members take on leadership roles by running focus groups or, like Eamonn Clarke, document the club’s actions to create materials to present to government leaders and develop a social media presence.

The club is mentored by PTHS science teacher Lois Sherwood and retired educator Laura Tucker.

“[SFS] is looking at their own sustainability by leading younger students to make a long list of strategic plans for changes at the high school and the community," Sherwood said. "And they are bringing that same passion to students across the nation and to our leaders in D.C."

Tucker added, "The innovative ways these students are working with stakeholders to create win-win situations, on their own, without adult guidance and supervision, is amazing."

In the beginning, SFS received insight from other local environmental and sustainability groups, such as the Port Townsend and Jefferson County Climate Action Committee and Local 20/20, but has remained adamant that SFS remain student-run.

"We can learn from adults, but we [as students] can bring the solutions with us as we grow up," said John Reid, 17.

Toews added, "It's not about a top-down approach; we want to empower ourselves and inspire our fellow students to drive change."

SFS has already launched campaigns to convert the school's daily newsletter – two to three sheets of paper distributed to each teacher every weekday – to an electronic newsletter. The suggestion was adopted by school administrators for a short time, but the newsletter has since reverted to paper.

"Some teachers were resistant to the change, but I believe we can come back with a solution," Shortess said.

Earlier this year, SFS successfully secured 30 recycling bins from DM Disposal to place one in every class and common room.

An effort to replace disposable lunch trays, plates and utensils with reusable ones is also in the works, Shortess said, and could potentially reduce the school district's garbage disposal costs by as much as $10,000 annually.

Causes in the community

Traveling by train versus airplane for the D.C. trip was a conscious decision, Shortess said. Mindful of the fossil fuels needed to transport SFS from one side of the country to the other, students plan to plant more than 500 native tree species with the Jefferson Land Trust at Irondale Springs, a 1.2-acre area adjacent to Irondale Beach County Park.

"The medium is the message," said Charlton. "We are ensuring that the trip is representative of our goals; by planting trees, we can offset our carbon footprint not only for the trip, but for our whole senior year."

The Irondale Springs property is permanently protected, providing a sanctuary of old-growth forest in a growing area of development, said Sarah Spaeth, Jefferson Land Trust executive director. The newly planted trees help to secure a future of clean water flowing into nearby Port Townsend Bay.

The club recently received a small grant from GreenWorks, the service-learning component of Project Learning Tree that provides grants to educators for students to implement environmental improvement projects, said Tucker.

"This was a nationwide grant process, so even though the grant is relatively small, it says a lot about [Students for Sustainability] and their efforts."

Students for Sustainability has also developed a partnership with the Northwest Watershed Institute for its annual Plant-a-Thon. SFS members are to serve as crew leaders to assist 125 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders and their parents in planting more than 2,500 trees in critical salmon habitat along Tarboo Creek on Feb. 1, 2014.

First spark

In March 2012, students in Sherwood's 10th-grade biology class were asked to contact a government representative regarding climate change and the efforts being made locally to mitigate its related effects. Students approached Port Townsend City Council member Deborah Stinson, a key proponent for adoption of the Climate Action Plan in November 2011 and the subsequent formation of the Climate Action Committee.

The plan represents a joint effort by the City of Port Townsend and Jefferson County officials to reduce 1990 levels of countywide emissions of greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050. The committee, consisting of representatives from local government, nonprofits, and science- and faith-based organizations, has been given the task of developing strategies for achieving this goals.

When Sherwood asked if any student would be interested in sitting on the committee, more than 10 raised their hands to volunteer for the position. Shortess was elected to the task by the newly formed SFS.