Students urged to get involved, 'use their voice' to address climate ... - Nebraska Examiner

Students urged to get involved, 'use their voice' to address climate change | Nebraska Examiner

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Students urged to get involved, ‘use their voice’ to address climate change

Farmers are increasingly having to cope with severe weather events, like wildfires, drought, hurricanes and flooding. Here, floodwaters cover a farm in Union, Nebraska, in March 2019, when damages from a “bomb cyclone” topped $1 billion. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

LINCOLN — For years, attorney/activist Ken Winston said he had been attending board meetings of the Lincoln Electric System to urge action to combat climate change.

But nothing seemed to happen, Winston said, until a young woman brought nearly 21 people to one of the meetings, after promising to do that to mark her 21st birthday.

On Friday, nearly 150 college students filled a hall and heard a similar story from other speakers, who said if you get involved, things can happen.

Presenters at the fifth Nebraska Youth Climate Summit, which is organized by Winston, included Louise Mabulo, an entrepreneur and environmentalist from the Philippines, and Nebraska State Climatologist Martha Durr.

Sustainable agriculture

Mabulo, 25, has won international acclaim for her “Cacao Project,” which teaches farmers and students in the Philippines how to build a sustainable, climate-resilient livelihood in a country often ravaged by typhoons.

Mabulo, fresh off an appearance at former President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative meeting earlier this week, said that much of the work involves planting a diversity of crops, crops that can withstand extreme weather, and stopping the rapid depletion of soil.

“The fact is, sustainable farming has always existed. It has just been cast aside in the pursuit of fast, easy and cheap food,” she said.

Durr, who is soon to leave as state climatologist, told the students that climate change is “real and here now.”

She cited the extreme, “bomb cyclone” floods of 2019 across the state and noted North America had the hottest temperatures on record in August and this summer.

At hot as Oklahoma by 2070

By 2070, if trends continue and efforts don’t reduce carbon emissions, Durr said that Nebraska’s summer weather will be much like southern Oklahoma, with high temperatures averaging 95 degrees.

Everything is not doom and gloom, however, the speakers said.

In Nebraska, the state recently applied for$3 million in federal Inflation Reduction Act funds to finance a state climate action plan, which is due next year. The City of Omaha, in August, also announced plans for such a plan costing $1 million.

The two largest utilities in the state, the Omaha Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District, have set goals of “net-zero” carbon production by 2050. LES — the district Winston kept visiting — has set a more ambitious goal of reaching that level by 2040.

The state plan, which will be headed by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, is “probably one of the biggest steps” the state has made in recent years, Durr said.

“Be a part of that conversation,” she told the students. “Your voice is very powerful. Please remember that, and use that.”

Kearney group urges sustainability

In the audience, Jakob Vohnout Larchick raised his hand when speakers asked if anyone is already engaged in climate action.

He is part of the Kearney Sustainability Movement, which seeks to educate central Nebraskans on ways to reduce their carbon footprint, such as not using plastic bags, hang-drying clothes, planting trees, repurposing clothing and eating less meat.

The group made “eco-bricks” at the Nebraska State Fair this year using plastic bottles to demonstrate how to repurpose plastic.

Mabulo and others said that even small efforts, if done by enough people, can make a difference.

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