NHS Students Take A Strong Stance On Climate Change: Can You Hear Us?

“We children are doing this to wake the adults up. Can you hear me?” Greta Thunberg once declared in her speech at the House of Parliament, speaking on behalf of our generation.  

What started off as a one person strike in Sweden has reached the whole world一even Niskayuna High School, where students are not only spreading awareness about climate change, but also acting on it. On September 24th, Niskayuna High School took action by organizing a protest against climate change, joining many countries across the world in a “Friday dedicated to the future”. 

At the protest, coordinated by the Recycling Club, students came prepared with signs and posters. Groups of students boldly made themselves known and visible, assembling at Crossroads. The Recycling Club’s sign-up sheet had more than two pages of student names, eager to join in the protest. Senior Mathena Rush, one of the organizers of the protest, said she wanted more students and administrators to prioritize climate change. Often there is a discouraged mentality of “what can one school do?” from the start, but a single school can do a lot more than you think! 

Speaking of what inspired the protest, Rush says “what this whole demonstration was about [was] demanding the protection of our future. There are so many changes we can make as a school community that are more eco-friendly.” Rush noted that Niskayuna High School is like the nucleus of the town一in many ways the town revolved around the high school. “If Niskayuna doesn’t set an example for the school and take action, who will?” she challenges. Rush asserts that if the high school sets an example, people will follow. 

Returning students may have noticed construction vehicles blocking doors in the beginning of the year, forcing students to walk out the front entrance if going outside. With that construction finished, a new parking lot smiles back at you, while the track being rebuilt remains an eyesore一both investments costing around 10 million dollars, according to the Daily Gazette (The Daily Gazette, Oct. 6th, 2022). But the next construction should also take steps toward sustainability一such as solar panels. 

As a senior, Rush observed that changes due to Covid and taking health precautions have sometimes been at the expense of ecologically sustainable actions. Rush hopes to return to some of these pre-Covid actions, starting with two simple steps: going back to reusable trays and metal silverware for school lunches, and restarting a composting bin in New Cafe. “We did it before and we can do it again,” she believes.

“What is the use of a house, if you don’t have a tolerable planet to put it in?” Henry David Thoreau once questioned. What is the point of learning if in the future our planet may be ruined? There are many steps Niskayuna can and is working on to make the school more eco-friendly. Solar panels may take a while, but that is an end goal we can all strive for. 

Other schools in the Capital Region have also started to take steps toward increasing sustainability. In the Bethlehem school district, almost every school has solar panels and facilities for recycling and compost一produce grown in school gardens is even used for student lunches. Niskayuna has been meeting with them to see which ideas we can implement on our campus too. In the past, the Horticulture Club has used the school garden to feed the students once a week, another eco-friendly action community members are working to bring back. We have many people at the school who care, but the next step is translating this into an effort to drive quantifiable changes.

The Recycling Club will be sending two recycling ambassadors to each homeroom once a week to empty the recycling bins into the larger bins in the hall. This ensures that when you deposit a bottle away in the recycling bin, it will actually be reprocessed and reused一your effort will not be wasted. 

One sign at the protest read “why care about homework when nobody cares about the planet?” At the end of a long day of school, with seemingly endless problems to solve and essays to write, why worry about the ever so slightly hotter winters each year, it's just one less snow day, Or the one plastic bottle thrown in the garbage instead of recycling? Climate change may seem like an afterthought, separate from our everyday concerns. Another student sign read, “a fire drill can’t save us when the whole world is burning, can it?” Our school community has hundreds of people and, as seen from the demonstration and other actions administrators and students are taking, Niskayuna can take significant action on sustainability. If we collaborate, we can make a difference. 

Author’s Note: An article on this topic will be written at the end of the year to update on the changes made throughout the year. Hopefully, there will be much progress to report about!