Love it, love it, love it
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happy eco-warriors
After a first read by the Greenwich Board of Selectmen on June 23, a second read of a proposed climate emergency resolution left its supporters disappointed.
At the first read, young people testified in support of the resolution, which talks about reducing emissions and ending Town-generated greenhouse gas emissions by December 31, 2030.
Isabelle Harper, from the GHS class of 2022, said the Greenwich Environmental Advocacy Group (GEAG) had introduced the resolution.
“In the coming decades, scientists have predicted increasingly destructive models of how the global climate is going to change if we continue with the status quo. More severe and frequent natural disasters, droughts and heat waves, to name a few. The tipping point, they have stated, is going to be 2030 to 2035, after which changes to our global climate will be irreversible.”
“It is a scary future for people my age,” Harper said. “This is an emergency for us.”
Nicole Freitas, a climate policy intern at Save the Sound, said the impacts of climate change are already resulting in floods, storms, loss of resources and the growing cost of access to energy.
… “In the end, it will be my generation that will be disproportionately affected by the climate crisis,” Freitas added.
But who says Republicans don’t care about children or the environment?
Selectwomen Lauren Rabin and Gail Lauridsen came up with a perfect idea, one that would have an immediate, concrete effect on the environment and would allow these concerned students to demonstrate their commitment to saving their future: mandatory busing.
Rabin said she would recommend expanding GHS school bus eligibility to students who live 1 mile from school. (Currently GHS students must live 2+ miles from school to qualify.)
“I think that can help,” she said. “I appreciate the effort, and respect it and admire it.”
Gail Lauridsen expanded on Ms Rabin’s idea.
“One way to significantly reduce the consumption of fuel and its resulting emissions would be to immediately mandate that all students who live more than one mile from GHS take the bus to and from school,” Lauridsen said.
Lauridsen said she had done some some calculations and determined that roughly 2/3 of the approximately 2,797 students at GHS are either driven or drive themselves to school.
“If these kids all took the bus we would save 134,280 gallons of gas per year,” she said.
“Mandating school bus usage would be a great way to keep the battle local and very personal for these kids,” Lauridsen said. “Policies such as this one, taken on willingly and with no additional tax dollars, would have a significant measurable impact on our environment and our quality of town life.”
She said it would not take an emergency declaration to make changes in bus policy and usage.
“These are the projects. Not by submitting to globalists, but by taking it on at the town level, making personal sacrifices, and if they’re willing to do that, then they have far more clout,” Lauridsen added.
Absolutely right, ladies: instead of letting these kids falsely believe that they’re making a difference by persuading their elders to pass a meaningless feel-good resolution, give them the opportunity to put their butts where their mouths are, and show them the difference between taking action and merely waving their arms in the air while shrieking platitudes.
And imagine these kids’ newfound popularity among their peers when it’s discovered who was responsible for them being forced from their private cars and onto the school bus, every morning and afternoon. Hey; martyrdom has its price, but virtue is its own reward.
I like to pretend to myself from time to time that I’m a fairly intelligent person, but just as I’m beginning to believe my own pr, I come across an example of true, inspired genius, and I’m awed.
Congratulations, Lauren Rabin, Gail Lauridsen: you’ve hit it out of the park. (By any chance are you two the ones responsible for getting Historic Brandon Falls on Google Maps?)
