It was August 2018, and California was in the midst of one of its deadliest and most destructive wildfire seasons. I vividly remember walking home from school with my brother, who was just 6 years old at the time, and seeing him point at the sky and ask, “Is that the moon?” Thanks to the wildfires, the sun was unrecognizable amid an orange, apocalyptic sky.
The following year, as a freshman at Long Beach Polytechnic, I enrolled in an environmental science class that helped me understand the severity of the climate crisis. The message was loud and clear: The world is dying, and we need to act now to save it.
In the summer of 2020, I came across the Climate Reality Projecta nonprofit organization that is dedicated to climate change education and advocacy and offers leadership training. After completing the week-long program, I was connected with the local Climate Reality chapter and introduced to the amazing people who helped propel the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2019 to commit to 100% clean energy in the electric sector by 2030 and in all other energy sectors by 2040.
Those people inspired me. If Los Angeles could do it, couldn't Long Beach Unified School District do it?
I was mentored by leaders at the Climate Reality Project in Los Angeles, and was able to find students and teachers at my high school (including Patrick Gillogly) and in the district who shared a similar vision. In August 2020, as a sophomore, I founded the Long Beach Green Schools Campaign and recruited some of those like-minded students, who in turn spread the word to other students at other schools in the district.
I was naive at first. I thought GSC would simply present the school district with a 100% clean energy resolution and the school board would vote in favor of it and boom, voila. The world was saved. I wasn't expecting a process that would take more than two years.
As a freshman at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Michaelson learned just how serious the climate crisis is. The message was loud and clear: The world is dying and we need to act now. To save him.
(Google)
The campaign had to prove to the district that the students participating in the movement were not just a bunch of angry, obnoxious teenagers. We had to earn the respect of the school board and show that we were willing to continue participating.
Contrary to what some may believe, the campaign never faced direct opposition; we never encountered climate change deniers. Everyone we spoke to believed in climate change and recognised the importance of the clean energy transition. The big hurdle was making it a top priority.
We had our first meeting with LBUSD school board member Megan Kerr (who would later become one of the campaign’s biggest supporters) in December 2020, and she said that while she fully supported our goals, the resolution would not pass for some time. The district was focused on the pandemic and distance learning.
That made perfect sense (school districts, like all governing bodies, are constantly juggling priorities), but it was hard to hear. We wanted to see the board pass a clean energy resolution. immediatelyBut waiting had its benefits. In what my mother has often called “a marathon, not a sprint,” the many months it took to pass this resolution allowed us to craft a feasible and realistic plan that put climate action at the forefront of LBUSD’s goals.
The Green Schools Campaign began with a student-led virtual climate forum, which attracted over 75 attendees. We started a petition (which was signed by over 1,000 residents) and continued to reach out to parents, students, and teachers to talk about the campaign and its goals.
In September 2021, we organised an in-person climate rally attended by nearly 200 people, including actor and environmental activist Calum Worthy. The event included talks from energy experts, local politicians and environmental activists. The campaign also managed to bring in 70 different speakers to speak at each of the bi-weekly school board meetings in support of a clean energy transition.
The second aspect of the campaign involved working directly with the district. This involved regular meetings with facilities directors and a district-appointed representative to go through the proposals, line by line. We also met regularly with school board members, the superintendent, and other school officials to discuss how we could gain their support. We helped bring environmental experts into the discussion to help explore financial incentives and funding sources available to LBUSD to help transition to clean energy.
After two years of meetings and community engagement, the Green School Operations Policy – Energy and Sustainability was adopted on August 17, 2022, committing the district to transition to 100% clean energy by 2045.
At this point, I have to point out that effective action involves collaboration between those in power today and those in power in the years to come — namely, my generation. Yelling at a school board to go green without creating a viable plan to do so will get you nowhere.
Non-renewable energy has been the norm for so long that our systems are based on this technology and, frankly, it's easy to keep it that way. That's why it takes a people who decide to fight for these issues.
Diana Michaelson is a sophomore studying health care policy at Cornell University. She is excited to oversee the district’s compliance with the Energy and Sustainability Policy until the work is complete.
