From May 2 to 3, Wild Rose Education, the Carbondale-based environmental education and action organization, hosted Colorado’s first-ever youth climate summit, bringing together 75 young people from across the state to the Third Street Center. During the two-day summit, students from the Front Range to Durango, and nearly everywhere in between, partook in activities and worked alongside their peers to develop climate action plans to tackle the world-wide crisis from within their own communities.
On the first day, youth gathered information regarding climate change and participated in hands-on activities and workshops that helped create a better understanding and what’s already being done. Young people from a couple of different Colorado communities presented on successful projects they were involved with, showing their peers that what they do matters.
As the summit continued, youth-led discussions and presentations of past and present climate action plans took place. A few examples included: creating school-wide composting, climate-friendly pest control and more accessible public transport. A step-by-step method helped guide the youth in developing their own action plans. At the end of the summit, various community-based groups were asked to present their action plans and explain what the initial steps towards implementation would look like.
Rylan Jaramillo, a student from Silverton — a very small town north of Durango — who attended along with her entire high school, spoke to the importance of continuing the summit. “I think it’ll make a big impact and more and more people will come because young people have voices and want to be heard,” she said. Throughout the summit, this sentiment was shared, and there was a collective hope for future sessions.
“The hope is that this is the first launch of a Colorado Youth Climate Summit program, and that there will be a Youth Climate Summit for years to come,” Sarah Johnson, founder of Wild Rose Education, said during a Sopris Sun interview on KDNK Community Access Radio.
Johnson explained that the first goal she suggested to the kids at the summit was to make at least one new friend. “What the world needs is more connections,” she said. “I think that we accomplished that in a really big way.”
Participating in the summit could also lead students to achieve Colorado’s Seal of Climate Literacy, codified in the Colorado legislature in 2024. One of the requirements for the seal is to complete an experiential project, explained Johnson, which the climate action plans can grow into.
Some of the youth-developed action plans included convincing school districts to opt into offering the Seal of Climate Literacy, building school gardens, getting rid of styrofoam in lunchrooms and more.
Kenzie Jackson, a student from Yampa Valley High School, shared her thoughts on what the summit offered. “It gives younger people a bigger perspective on what we can do.” She added, “It’s now or never.”
Speakers shared their work on climate action, each of whom drove home the importance of “intergenerational climate action” — which begins by including the youth. One of the facilitators from Lyra, an education organization with a focus on climate based in Denver, Elizabeth Harbaugh, put it this way: “We are in a moment where young people are being told that they are the generation that needs to make the change, and we’re not always giving them the tools they need to make it.”
By creating an opening for a youth perspective within the climate action community a whole new level is achieved that includes innovative ideas from Generation Z. This helps tackle emission problems at the root and carves a path for the climate activists of tomorrow.
“We’re on a mission to make the world a better place, together,” concluded Johnson.
To listen to the radio interview, visit www.kdnk.org/podcast/everything-under-the-sun