Youth CAN: Boston Latin School's Incredible Student Effort To Green The Campus And Beyond

The nation's oldest public school, Boston Latin School, is getting a green makeover.

One of the school's most popular clubs, Youth Climate Action Network, is undertaking an ambitious project that began with the dismayed results of their campus' energy audit. The students started with small steps, like implementing a recycling program for their cafeteria and installing LED lights in their auditorium, but they aren't content with stopping there.

Working with a local architect and BLS parent, Youth CAN has designed a remodeling of the school's roof that will turn it into a hands-on classroom for sustainability, equipped with solar panels, wind turbines, and green gardens to absorb rainwater runoff. The motivated students are even working on a "sustainability curriculum" that other schools could implement, and have already persuaded five local colleges to follow their lead in creating a green roof.

Cate Arnold, an 8th grade history teacher at BLS, started Youth CAN after the overwhelming response she received from her students when she showed them Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. Arnold tells MSNBC that her students are learning much more beyond the impacts of climate change. "It's given them the belief that they can do things that make a real difference," she says.

With high profile alumni like Benjamin Franklin among the ranks at Boston Latin School, it's clear that the new generation of students possess the same sort of innovation and ingenuity.

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Comments

[soun chanbopha]

01:22 AM on 07/12/2010

i think this is a great beginning. to prevent the natural disaters as well as keep the world in safe zone.i hope the world is sustainible planet.we can put the hands to gether and propect our world.
we can not do this without solidarity.

[Tom Czubernat]

06:00 AM on 07/08/2010

Let the children lead the way. They are too young to be biased or cynical. This is how change happens. This is how the old world dies.

[UNCLEJOE]

02:24 PM on 07/07/2010

SOLAR VS OIL
Anti Solar Argument comes straight out of the oil companies propaganda machine since the 1970s oil crunch. As far as area for Solar fields are concerned Space is something that is one of America's wealth.

Oil is by far the most expensive source of energy when you factor in the obvious costs like $49 billion in government subsidies, and the 9% income taxes oil companies pay instead of the 25% income taxes other businesses pay, and the permanent environmental damage, and the 27,000 abandoned oil rigs in the Gulf alone like time bombs ready to explode with retaining caps decaying with age.

The arguments against Solar energy are purely unsupported oil propaganda, while the negatives for oil dependency is before our eyes; in the news, in the cancer wards, in the destruction of the Gulf, in the destruction of our fishing industries from Alaska Exon to the BP Gulf spills.

The superiority of Solar Energy is obvious with no negatives and all blessings, nor do we need and more proof of the oil negatives.

You oil panders are no longer talking to ignorant, lethargic Americans. We are finally awake to the hell on earth you have been creating with your oil addiction.

And we will have our Energy Independence with private Solar companies and Solar panels on our public school roofs, and on our government buildings and Solar Fields on our purple mountain majesties and among our fruited planes.

SOLAR IS CLEAN, OIL IS DIRTY

[krizpy99]

09:03 AM on 07/08/2010

More importantly it created independence -- exactly why business interests have kept it down. Independence does not produce a recurring customer base and revenue supply, dependence does.

No corporation in their right mind is going to promote freeing customers on their dependence in their corporation.

[calsolareng]

01:14 PM on 07/07/2010

Congratulations!
You are all harnessing the real power of renewable energies as a teaching tool. The power to spark ingenuity among students is where I believe the real benefits of renewable energies are hidden.

[rel77]

12:44 PM on 07/07/2010

This is a truly inspiring story and I can't heap enough praise on the students of this school. They are a great example to their parents and children everywhere, and I hope this is just the beginning of a nationwide movement.

[garystartswithg]

10:03 AM on 07/07/2010

what awesome kids -- if grown ups could only be as smart can you imagine how far the country would go and how fast it would get there?

[ewoman]

10:02 AM on 07/07/2010

Why should being a good steward of the planet be so frickin' difficult?

[moonflowerjewelry]

03:05 PM on 07/07/2010

because we are educated to be nothing more than consumers and a heck of a lot of people see acquisitiveness as a spiritual attribute