The 2019 North & West Eco-Ambassadors have recently completed their program! Each of them had the opportunity to reflect on the two weeks they had together. Their reflections are pretty great!
Mia Grant-Funck, Earth Ally
I am so lucky to have participated for a second time in the Eco-Ambassadors program. I really enjoyed learning in-depth about climate change and what it is doing to the Earth and its inhabitants. I was also fascinated by the solutions that people have come up with to combat climate change, such as electric cars and public transportation.
It gives me hope to know that countries around the world are working on solutions to climate change. It inspires me to implement changes in my community and school such as adding solar panels to buildings to become more energy efficient. I am grateful to have been a part of this program with people who are also committed to finding and implementing solutions to climate change.
Katie Ellingsen
During this wonderful program I was able to connect with other people who share a similar interest as me. It was cool to collaborate with the rest of the team to come up with how we can do small things in our communities to help a greater cause like climate change.
It was interesting with the first 3 days to see everyone’s passion for climate change. The next 3 days camping was amazing working with an actual restoration worker who was educated and also fun. Going on the nature hike with Mark to see four ecosystems and learn some plant names was really a unique experience. I loved that by the end of the camping days I could identify invasive species that I could eradicate in my city, I had greater appreciation for the Earth that supports us, and it made me want to fight for the cause even more.
Jake Van Santen
The Eco-Ambassadors program taught me a lot about how people are reacting to climate change in real time. Many countries are shifting from the use of fossil fuels towards the use of renewable energy sources like solar energy and wind energy. It makes me really hopeful that so many people are actively working on ecological conservation and preservation.
My experience with restoring an area of woodland in Deer Grove gave me a greater understanding of how simple tasks can go a long way in restoring the local ecosystem. It is easy to get caught up in the hopelessness of climate change because one individual can’t restore an entire planet. Through this program, I realized that people around the world are individually working to stop climate change and when you put those people together you get a team.
Though we may not realize it, climate change affects all of us – through variations in temperature, worsening natural disasters, and even in disrupted crop production. Which is why it’s so important to stop it. There are opportunities such as ecological conservation all around us, and everyone can help in their own way. Helping fight climate change not only helps the planet, it helps all of us, and it promises a healthier future. It’s not too late to make change happen.