Kids from schools across Detroit gathered together last month at the Lincoln Street Art Park to discuss how climate change affects their communities.
“Climate change definitely affects us, especially now,” says Kierra Pleasant, a senior at
Cass Tech in Detroit.
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Curtis Schabath, Director of Education at Green Living Science
That morning, these students went door-to-door in Detroit’s Grixdale neighborhood to get residents involved in a recycling program aimed at reducing waste. On that day alone, the kids were able to get nearly 40 households involved in the city’s recycling program. This is something the organization,
Green Living Science, is passionate about.
“It’s all about protecting the environment, being climate stewards and focusing from the core of it all with the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) and making it a big community thing,” says Curtis Schabath, director of education at Green Living Science.
The organization collaborates with youth in over 70 schools across Detroit to educate them on the power of recycling through workshops, assemblies, and field trips. The organization is an outgrowth of
Recycle Here!, a recycling drop-off facility for the city of Detroit, which has helped increase the participation rate in the city's recycling program to 43% over the last decade.
Through Green Living Science, students not only learn about the environment but also how to apply that knowledge and make a positive change in their community.
“Our biggest thing is education to action,” Schabath says. “Every single year we find someone, multiple someones or groups that we work and connect with that take that into their own spaces, their own communities, their own schools, neighborhoods, wherever it may be and turn what they’ve learned and make that into actionable change.”
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Green Living Science educates students on how to reuse materials like making tires into planters.
Youth Want to Be at The Forefront of Environmental Conversations
Detroit is one of the most impacted cities when it comes to climate change. It is one of the
hottest heat islands, and the youth are feeling the effects. Children's bodies are naturally warmer, making them more
susceptible to heat illnesses like heatstroke than adults.
The city also has some of the
most polluted air in the country, with
nearly 15% of children having asthma compared to the whole state, which is only 8%. Many of these kids feel unheard, and to Schabath, the youth have absolutely no filter when it comes to talking about the future of the climate.
“Older people have the mentality that since it’s not happening to them, it’s not their problem, but it sort of is if the air is polluted, you’re still breathing the air so it is part of your problem too,” says Amya White, a student at University Prep Science and Math High School. The rate of asthma in adults in Detroit is
29% higher than the state average.
Pleasant adds, “Sometimes older people, they overlook some issues because some stuff has been going on for a long time, but then there’s other stuff that’s new, so we might see something that you don’t.”
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Kierra Pleasant, Senior at Cass Tech.
Schabath says youth are coming forward and turning those negative impacts into positive opportunities. Like Pleasant, who is working to create a recycling block club at school and in her Highland Park neighborhood, and White, who wants to get her school enrolled in the Paper Retriever Program, which provides a way for students to recycle and earn money for the school.
“The more the youth can put themselves out there, like starting fundraisers for local communities to get cleaned up or donating to nonprofit organizations, they’ll be able to meet other people who also want to do that,” says Reign Winston, one of the organization's Recycling Ambassadors. This group offers a paid opportunity to canvas, table, and educate other Detroit residents in their respective neighborhoods and at events all over the city to help further the mission of a cleaner, greener Detroit.
And as cliché as it may be, they are the future, Schabath adds.
“[The youth] have seen so much, have so much access to information, and they are the ones who are getting the generations of generations of the negative impacts dumped on them immediately, so they want to take action,” Schabath says. “But we know we have to do this together.”
Green Living Science hopes to work with more communities in and outside of Detroit, continuing to inspire the future of environmental stewards.
“It truly all comes down to funding, grants, and support that allows us to grow,” Schabath says. “Our staple programs are the education, community, and business pillars we've expanded over the last few years. From the education side, we'd love to bring back more field trips for schools, expand the length of our Student Recycling Ambassador program, and create student-led Recycling in Schools programs for as many schools as possible.”