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Valeria stood squarely, a force of energy, her brown hair pulled back tight, compact and confident in her royal blue polo shirt. “It really isn’t difficult to see the effects of climate change. You can see it in the weather that we’ve been having and all of the different disasters. Recently in California the wildfires we’ve been having are the most destructive there have ever been,” she said. “Our project devised a way to genetically modify this harmless bacteria, M. Luteus, so it would take in carbon dioxide and methane gas, which are two of the most detrimental greenhouse gases to our environment. We plan on implementing it on factories and on cattle farms which are two of the largest producers. This will minimize the amount of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere.”
In the process of doing their science project, Valeria and two teammates confronted a real-world problem and invented a world-class solution using creative thinking and hard work. Their particular project would use CRSPR DNA sequencing to reprogram the bacteria to behave differently than it normally would. The modified bacteria could make a significant impact on reducing carbon in the air while minimizing unintended consequences to the environment or people.
Designing a project that would engineer bacteria to remove carbon and slow global warming may not resemble our science class activities from back in the day. But today it is not uncommon to see students engaged in active learning. But this project is also activism for carbon reversal. Student work like this is driven by their own interest, not their teacher’s curriculum. And it is grounded in factual evidence that is often available on any smartphone.
More and more high school and college students are becoming passionate about taking action to slow steadily rising carbon levels. Since Dave Keeling first measured the CO2 concentration in 1955 at 310 ppm, the atmospheric CO2 concentration has climbed past a healthy level of 350 to 415 ppm. The IPCC and NCA tell us that without acting aggressively during the next decade, computer models show irreversible dire scenarios for everyone on the planet. If the Climate Strike was any indication, over a million students from around the world are alarmed enough about the future of their lives to take action on the streets. And that activism manifests itself in different ways. Some students aim to mitigate carbon with new technology. Others demand more climate-friendly policies such as taxing carbon, subsidizing renewable energy, and global political action. Following the Harvard-Yale football game last week, 500 students stormed the field in a climate protest shouting “OK Boomer!”.
And that’s not all. During the next couple of election cycles, Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Villasenor, Valeria, and a tidal wave of thousands of 18-year-old-plus Americans will vote as adults in local, state and national elections. Grassroots activism is in their veins, and they are making themselves seen and heard. Some of them are doing a good job of making adults feel uncomfortable.
Why? Many student activists are doing what the majority of adults don’t. And the students are wondering out loud why, despite undeniable climate destabilization, most American adults are complacent and shirking activist roles for the sake of their kids and grandchildren. Regardless if you think student activists are heroes or hippies, one thing is for sure. Battalions of them will be passionate single-issue voters less than a year from now in November 2020.
