Confronted with classrooms overheating beyond 32°C, a resolute group of students at an Oakland, California, middle school used their persuasive skills to secure a heat pump for their peers.
After educating themselves thoroughly about the efficient, long-term cooling solution, teen climate activists at Melrose Leadership Academy mounted a campaign to use part of a US$735-million school district bond to install a heat pump on campus, reports the Guardian.
It took Augie Balquist, 13, and his peers at the Melrose chapter of climate justice group Youth vs. Apocalypse, less than a year to get the job done. “It started last year when it was very, very hot and we really didn’t have any air conditioning,” he told the Guardian. “We had these mini AC units, but the power would go out because there were too many of them going at once.”
“It wasn’t very practical.”
At first, there was resistance to doing anything about this impractical and dangerous situation, with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) responding that cuts in renovation funding put a heat pump beyond reach.
So Balquist and the group undertook in-depth research on heat pumps—galvanized in part by the discovery that their school’s gas-fired boiler produced the emissions of 250 trans-Atlantic flights every year—and attended every relevant meeting to share what they learned. They also organized a petition that every student at the school went on to sign.
Aware that their heat pump would cost US$5 million—a big chunk of the $32 million available to the school for repairs—the students, with the help of OUSD architects, ran the numbers on the cost of maintenance, demonstrating that the heat pump was a highly cost-effective option, even with the gas boiler remaining in service in a backup capacity.
They had more than science on their side, the teens told a local paper, The Oaklandside. “I really want to see the people in power stop lying to themselves and stop looking away from what they’re doing,” said 7th grader and Youth vs. Apocalypse leader Lyra Modersbach. “I want to see them actually make some progress in what they used to say was a climate emergency.”
Melrose teacher Charity Balona, who has been advising the climate justice group for several years, said organizations like Youth vs. Apocalypse and their empowering activities help her students cope with anxiety and sadness, a great deal of it climate-related.
“I just have seen the way climate change has just increased students’ anxiety, fear, and depression,” Balona said. “I’ve always felt like we have to give them some kind of hope, right? Like, we have a responsibility as adults, to respond to that fear and anxiety and kind of let them be involved in some kind of meaningful action, so they can feel hopeful about their futures.”
Preston Thomas, chief systems and services officer for OUSD, said he was impressed with how the young students navigated the heat pump proposal. “The kids truly became experts on the technology and kind of evaluated some of the challenges that the district went through,” said Thomas.
Some members of Melrose’s Youth vs. Apocalypse chapter intend to continue their activism in their time beyond the club, hoping to show other students that they can make a difference within their communities, Oaklandside reported.
“I hope other young people in Oakland can also try and speak up on problems at their school or just problems in their district concerning global warming, concerning other things,” said Balquist. “I just hope that people realize that young voices can be heard.”
Their success is making a difference beyond their own school yard, becoming a blueprint for what the district now wants to do at other schools, the Guardian writes.
Calvin Sandborn, Former Legal Director, Univ. Victoria, Environ. Law Centre
Fossil fuels are driving climate change and causing skyrocketing levels of deady pollution and illness problems, published by a pand oon-lublished by Concerned Health Professionals of New York, compendium
Catastrophic damage caused by climate change is rapidly escalating in B.C. Since 2016, wildfires have burned an area far larger than Vancouver Island-decimating timber resources, damaging the tourism and industries, and impairing air qualityand public health.
In 2021, a heat dome killed more than 500 BCers and a billion sea creatures. This was immediately followed by a wildfire season that cost $800 million to fight and left the town of lytton in ashes. Months later, an atmospheric river triggered record flooding–destroying homes, dykes, highways, railways and bridges that will cost many billions to rebuild.
It’s getting worse. Last year was the most destructive wildfire season in B.C. history–burning an area 10 times the long-term annual average. More than 30,000 people were forced to evacuate, hundreds of homes and structures were lost, and a vast number of Noth Americans faced health risk from our smoke.
Temperature records are once again being broken this summer. and another damaging fire season is likely to extend into fall.