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If the case raises the specter of an overreaching president abusing emergency powers, it also evokes fears of an imperial judiciary.

From brainy write-ups to passionate pleas for reform, here are selected excerpts from CalMatters' Earth Day op-ed contest.

Past Presentation | Created in an anti-drug PSA format, Maui students address our modern addiction to plastic.

Past Presentation | What do kids think about the growing problem of plastic pollution? Our students explore young perspectives on plastic pollution causes, impacts and solutions through interviews with Maui kids ages five through ten.

Past Presentation | This short documentary shares the story of Molokaʻi homesteader Bobby Alcain, his views on growing food, and his hopes for Molokai's future. This film was created by ʻOhana Learning Alliance (OLA Molokaʻi) students who frequently visit Uncle Bobby's farm for their papa mahiʻai (farming class).

Past Presentation | This infomercial parody pokes fun at the overuse of pesticides and herbicides and the psychology used to market them. Maui Huliau Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to promoting environmental literacy and leadership among Maui's youth. Our five main programs have served students in grades 7-12 from all Maui schools for over nine years. Our environmental filmmaking program has produced over 65 student films which have been selected more than 140 times in festivals around the world, and have won multiple awards. Through our unique hands-on programs, we seek to educate and empower Maui 12-18 year-olds to become future stewards of our natural environment.

A 17-year-old high school student claims her L.A. school violated her rights by telling her to praise cow’s milk, which many of her generation dislike.

The legal battle continues over a federal student loan forgiveness plan.

A recently settled class action lawsuit against the Australian government could help drive greater disclosure of climate financial risk by governments, central banks and companies.

Past Presentation | Inspired by the popular OMI song Cheerleader, this musical parody set to a student-written song, highlights the importance of “bringing your own” in the fight against plastic pollution.

It’s been five years since school students first went on strike for climate action. Much has changed.

Medical student Megan McGillin was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver 11 years ago.

MISTI programming shows students their air travel carbon footprint is higher than most of them had thought.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill aimed at clearing the way for construction of a controversial student housing project in a historic Berkeley park

It’s become clear that what really rankles the court’s conservatives is not the way the plan was drafted, but its generosity.

Do kids of modest means deserve the humanities?

At the end of September, students from 50 school districts across the country launched a new campaign to spur climate action in classrooms, school buildings and in the job market. Adah Crandall, a 17-year-old youth climate organizer and recent graduate of Portland’s Grant High School, talked with Beat Check about the student campaign, new legislation and recent efforts at climate change denial in classrooms across the U.S.

Questions about the fairness of Biden’s plan underscore the big problems with conservatives’ new favorite doctrine.

Past Presentation | Featuring interviews with local experts, this short film documents a study of marine plastics being conducted in remote areas of Maui's northeast coast, and what it may tell us about the sources of plastic pollution, and potential solutions

As an MSRP-Bio student in the Vander Heiden lab, Alejandra Rosario helped to reveal how cancer cells maintain access to materials they need to grow.

Student poets respond to a hotter and diminished planet. The post Inspiration From Anguish appeared first on .

Udall Foundation Scholarship honors public service commitment to environmental issues.

Past Presentation | Inspired by Dr. Suess's The Lorax, this claymation by our new middle school students uses 667 images to show how irresponsible shoreline development can impact our precious reef ecosystem.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks proposed legislation to help get around a court's rejection of a UC Berkeley housing plan. But even if the law is approved, its fate is in the hands of the state Supreme Court.

Past Presentation | In this short narrated film, three of our fall Huliau Environmental Filmmaking students share about their personal relationships with the ocean, threats facing marine environments, and why they think it is important for us all to mālama i ke kai (take care of the ocean).

Past Presentation | Using stunning high resolution images from a DSLR camera, this team of high school students show the change in our relationship to Hawaiʻi's natural resources over time. Part of the story is told from the perspective of an endemic Koa tree in Waikamoi Forest Preserve.

The master’s student and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement works toward embedding climate into every level of government.

Past Presentation | This infomercial parody pokes fun at the overuse of pesticides and herbicides and the psychology used to market them

Past Presentation | Filmed by students during a four day trip to Kahoʻolawe, this film outlines the history of environmental degradation on the island, the restoration efforts of Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission and the role of a county-funded solar installation in making the island more sustainable.

Past Presentation | In March of 2012 four students from the President’s Leadership Circle at Frostburg State University journeyed to a remote village in Uganda to discover a radically simple solution to an urgent global problem. What they found there changed their lives in unexpected ways. A Simpler Way is a documentary production from Frostburg State University and Interdependent Pictures in association with Water School. The film explores the need for simple, affordable solutions to global development issues and the role of experience in meaningful, transformative education.

Academia has a youth problem. In the past few years, youth claimed more space in the climate change conversation. However, their participation in academic circles is still lacking. The three of us met at a student-intensive workshop designed to foster student engagement in emerging environmental issues and challenges associated with the pandemic, hosted by experts across government, industry and academia. Students from around the country developed recommendations concerning policy, science and technology investment gaps, and communication considerations for enduring change. We reported our recommendations, presenting a foundation for experts to build upon. However, our peers’ ideas were left on the table. Realizing our recommendations would not be followed up on was a great disappointment, especially because it included motivating ideas, like making academic articles freely available and understandable to the public, preventing social media algorithms from pandering toward political beliefs to drive engagement, fostering trust in the government by addressing and making reparations for historical traumas, welcoming international climate refugees and bridging the gap between science and government to solve real-world problems. We pivoted to try and publish our ideas in an academic journal. We were shocked when each journal we contacted indicated that they had no place to publish the unsolicited opinions of youth. We believe excluding our voices represents a major shortcoming of journals in environmental health and science. It obstructs the institutional change we need to achieve climate goals and further disenfranchises a group that is already pessimistic about their future. We’re tired of hearing leaders say we need creative solutions to climate issues, and then ignoring the creative solutions youth present. What place do youth voices have in academic journals?There is bias in academia toward original research over discussion and commentary on new knowledge, which excludes youth because we have yet to acquire the experience and ability to conduct original research. Yet the thoughts, ideas and experiences of people from diverse backgrounds and motivations — who are influenced by the findings of academic scientists — can enhance conversations otherwise dominated by experts, often stuck doing niche research.If we want to effectively address issues of climate change and health, the scientific community needs to make more space for those groups most impacted by their work. While holding an advanced degree can be portrayed as the superior path to knowledge, lived experiences can reveal powerful truths about greater societal patterns. The experiences of today’s youth are unlike any generations that came before us. Throughout history, marginalized groups have been excluded from institutions based on race, gender, sexuality, ability and age. Excluding any group of people from participation hurts the validity of academic research. The good news is space can be made for youth within academic publications. Journals often include shorter pieces that don’t require original research such as editorials, letters, reviews and commentaries. These sections provide a place to spark discussion on controversial topics and share unique perspectives, and have been recommended by experts conducting interdisciplinary work. Youth can and should be engaged in this way; as we can approach these topics with fresh eyes and creative ideas even from early ages. Why is it important to have youth voices in academic journals?Academic journals influence decisions across entities essential to addressing planetary and health crises, like government, industry and academia. As young scientists invested in the future, we want to be engaged and make an impact through well-trafficked academic journals and not solely relegated to separate “youth spaces.”We are not the first to argue that youth deserve a say in planetary health and health equity, as decisions in these domains will impact the majority of modern youth lifetimes. This is not a future problem, but an ongoing burden on our mental and physical health. However, youth do not deserve to be heard solely because we are highly invested in these ongoing crises — rather, we have the skills to address them. Youth’s tech savvy is an asset, having grown up engaging with technology that more experienced generations generally struggle to navigate with fluency. Studies show that youth are exceptional at creating social capital and cohesion by way of social media, an ability that could help build support for, and resilience into, planetary and human health movements. This is exemplified by social capital’s ability to predict recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and as well as natural disasters. Moreover, the unbridled creativity of youth is generally unmatched, having yet to internalize the many real and falsely perceived constraints that life experience teaches. What can you do to increase youth agency, opportunity and access?The aforementioned skill sets can complement those of more experienced generations. Carving actionable solutions needs both youth’s creativity, and older generations’ wisdom and lessons-learned. Accomplished professionals have also accrued valuable resources (such as equipment, spaces and funds) and participate in networks that hold power, influence and seats at the decision-making table.As youth engagement becomes more fashionable, it is important to discuss what constitutes engagement. The following are eight recommendations targeted toward youth’s inclusion in academic journals, but many are also applicable in other spheres of planetary and human health organizing.Make academia more accessible. Making existing resources more accessible allows us to bring fresh takes into a historically elitist and exclusionary institution. This should be done with all marginalized groups in mind and can look like dedicating resources within your university or organization to make academic publications and their findings more easily digestible, or committing to a simplified writing inclusive of a broader audience.Utilize the spaces that youth find themselves in to get us excited to participate in academia! You can associate science with play and creativity, with camps or other experiential learning that allow kids to get hands-on..With older youth audiences, utilize social media platforms (Hank Green and the work of channels like SciShow are good examples of making science more engaging for a youth audience).Dedicate resources to youth engagement by having a plan to put youth ideas into action, making your needs well-known and be open to new solutions and integrating it into the duties of academia, especially for employees of an institution that work with external communications or outreach.Elevate our voices by creating youth advisory boards or representatives that regularly meet with administrators to make recommendations. Make sure you create a clear, simple path to getting youth voices heard. Once these recommendations are taken into consideration and implemented, include youth in the implementation!Consider diverse thought. Use editorials, letters, reviews, commentaries and other valuable journal articles to spark discussion and share unique perspectives and experiences. Such formats make the voices of youth more accessible to project and listen to.Follow up. Being told that we are heard once is great, but hard to believe. It is consistent efforts of those in power that will yield engaged youth participation.Open the door and also give us the resources to walk through it. Devote resources to helping us navigate the complexities of academia. Give us the time and energy needed to effectively mentor us. Don’t assume we are, or treat us as, experienced professionals who have the same publishing knowledge as experts.Value our time and energy and set clear expectations for us so we can do the same for you. Don’t treat our time and energy as infinite or disposable.Want better for our generation and yours. Making the world better should result in greater equity and transparency for subsequent generations. Removing obstacles will benefit everyone; because feeling like one must struggle immensely to succeed is counterproductive.Emory Hoelscher-Hull (she/her) is an undergraduate student at Montana State University where she studies Environmental Health. She can be reached at emory.hoelscherhull@student.montana.eduJoey Benjamin (he/him) is an undergraduate Sustainability and the Built Environment & Geodesign student at the University of Florida, where he has written about student volunteerism in community gardens. View more of his work on his ePortfolio or contact him at joseph.benjamin@ufl.edu.Sierra Hicks (they/them) is a Systems Engineering Ph.D. student at Cornell University and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Reach out to Sierra at sh2337@cornell.edu.The authors acknowledge the insights shared by Ayesha Nagaria (Texas A&M), Caden Vitti (Penn State), Octavia Szkutnik (Penn State) that inspired this work.

After the ranch manager, Chris Bechtold, killed and bled out one of the estimated 700 bison in the herd, the students approached the carcass to participate in the traditional process of breaking down the animal. It was bitter cold out, but the organizer stoked a big bonfire to keep everyone warm. Dugan Coburn, the director […] The post Indigenous Foodways Are the Focus in a Growing Number of Classrooms appeared first on Civil Eats.

Flavio Emilio Vila Skrzypek, a graduate student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, wants to design cities without inequities.

Now Playing | Heavily armed officers of the University of Florida police department in Gainesville, FL, responding to a 911 call from a neighbor who heard screams, break into the campus apartment of Ghanaian graduate student, Kofi Adu-Brempong. Clad in SWAT gear and ready to attack, they see the disabled doctoral student, sitting with a metal table leg in his hand and within a minute of entry, shoot the unarmed man in the face. Adu-Brempong, who because of childhood polio, needed a cane to walk, and had been suffering from mental illness, now has severe facial injuries, and is charged with resisting arrest. He is guarded outside his hospital door, his legs shackled together when going to the bathroom. The officer who shoots Kofi, and who had previously been caught cruising through town throwing eggs at residents of a Black neighborhood, is not suspended or fired. Student protests lead the administration to drop charges but calls for revoking SWAT-like teams on campus go unheard. Kofi’s shooting is not an isolated incident but part of an ongoing pattern of police brutality against Blacks and a stark reminder of the dangers of increasingly militarized campuses nationwide. In His Own Home came out of outrage by a small group of concerned community members committed to seeing social justice happen on a local level. This documentary is an educational and organizing tool, especially calling for our communities to be safe from violence by racist and over-armed police.

A fourth-generation civil engineer, graduate student Katerina Boukin researches the growing yet misunderstood threat of pluvial flooding, including flash floods.

The 10-week pilot program Totemic Species in Schools shows how Indigenous science can be woven into the existing curriculum. Students, teachers and parents provided positive feedback.

Two different state courts in recent months have ruled that the human noise created by future tenants in housing projects are a form of pollution that cities must address. Lawmakers and the governor are working to reverse that novel interpretation of environmental law.

We're excited to have Allison Guy, a longtime writer and communicator in the environmental nonprofit space, and Andy Damián-Correa, a student majoring in bilingual Spanish journalism at San Francisco State University, joining our team for summer. Guy, a master’s student in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, will join us as a reporting intern covering plastic pollution, the petrochemical industry, and the intersection of toxics and chronic disease. While at MIT, Allison reported on an audacious conservation plan to rescue Florida’s corals from a fatal disease, and on the role that covert infections may play in chronic illness. Guy majored in environmental studies at Yale University and earned her first master’s degree from the University of Amsterdam in new media. For the last decade, she has worked as a writer and communicator for human rights and environmental nonprofits in Washington, D.C., most recently at the forest restoration organization American Forests. Damián-Correa will join as a bilingual multimedia journalist. He began his career in hotel and restaurant management, and he moved into journalism to create awareness of the challenges faced by the Latinx community. He served as reporter and editor for the City College of San Francisco's award-winning Etc. Magazine and The Guardsman. Damián-Correa was recently honored by the Journalism Association of Community Colleges Northern California division for his column writing in Spanish. He is the President of the San Francisco Student Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). Have a tip or story idea? Send them to Guy or Damián-Correa.

PhD student Alexis Hocken is working with manufacturers to keep their products from (literally) falling through the cracks in the recycling process.

Cinema Verde presents an interview with Director Malini Schueller about her film "In His Own Home" in which heavily armed officers of the University of Florida police department in Gainesville, FL, responding to a 911 call from a neighbor who heard screams, break into the campus apartment of Ghanaian graduate student, Kofi Adu-Brempong. Clad in SWAT gear and ready to attack, they see the disabled doctoral student, sitting with a metal table leg in his hand and within a minute of entry, shoot the unarmed man in the face. Adu-Brempong, who because of childhood polio, needed a cane to walk, and had been suffering from mental illness, now has severe facial injuries, and is charged with resisting arrest. He is guarded outside his hospital door, his legs shackled together when going to the bathroom. The officer who shoots Kofi, and who had previously been caught cruising through town throwing eggs at residents of a Black neighborhood, is not suspended or fired. Student protests lead the administration to drop charges but calls for revoking SWAT-like teams on campus go unheard. Kofi’s shooting is not an isolated incident but part of an ongoing pattern of police brutality against Blacks and a stark reminder of the dangers of increasingly militarized campuses nationwide. In His Own Home came out of outrage by a small group of concerned community members committed to seeing social justice happen on a local level. This documentary is an educational and organizing tool, especially calling for our communities to be safe from violence by racist and over-armed police. Our full catalog of video interviews and streaming films is available to members at cinemaverde.org.

Past Presentation | From Farm To Table is an Eco-documentary film showcasing a school's commitment to integrating stewardship of our earth's resources into its curriculum. The film follows students working in their school garden and sustainable organic farm from planting to harvesting and demonstrates the link between fresh locally grown sustainable products and healthier eating while simultaneously building community and promoting the stewardship of our earth's resources. The important issues of conservation, preservation, biodiversity and animal welfare are addressed. In conclusion, as a call to action we are encouraged to learn more, ask questions and take action by growing our own food and buying local food.

With the support of each other and MIT faculty, students in the MCSC’s Climate and Sustainability Scholars Program are making their impact on real-world climate challenges.

If the Legislature approves the sweeping proposals to reform a landmark environmental law that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Friday, industry groups and developers may have one less roadblock to face in constructing ambitious projects, including affordable housing and critical infrastructure.  But if the concerns of environmentalists go unaddressed, the state may set off a new […]

Past Presentation | As We Grow is a short documentary following the development of Tallahassee Sustainability Group, a young Tallahassee student organization dedicated to educating the public about food and agriculture, increasing accessibility to fresh, healthy, food, and strengthening communities by means of urban farming. Though there are many problems that exist in our current industrialized food system, motivated people can begin our transition to a healthy food system by taking action locally and building a sustainable local food community. The concept of urban farming is paramount to this transition and growing food on unused or underutilized land where people actually live is the first step to food security and empowerment

If you’re reading this somewhere in California and within sight of a window, this probably won’t come as news: It’s raining. A lot. Again. With the 10th atmospheric river of the winter now drenching an already sodden state and threatening to melt a historic snowpack across the Sierra, California water regulators have opened the floodgates […]

From CalMatters’ housing reporter Ben Christopher: Ever since a California court ruled earlier this year that UC Berkeley violated the state’s premier environmental protection law by failing to account for “student-generated noise” at a proposed housing development, we knew this was coming. In response to that ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the state’s environmental review […]

In a comment in Nature Reviews Chemistry, Ph.D. student Hannah Flerlage and associate professor Chris Slootweg of the University of Amsterdam’s Van ‘t Hoff Institute for...

A collaboration between MIT and Miami-Dade County has students working with city planning officials to understand why people wait patiently for a bus — and why they bail.

MIT students traveled to Washington to speak to representatives from several federal executive agencies.

Senior Sylas Horowitz tackles engineering projects with a focus on challenges related to clean energy, climate justice, and sustainable development.

Assistant Professor César Terrer and recent visiting student Stephen Bell describe how agricultural lands that are no longer productive could play an important role in carbon sequestration.

Passionate about materials science “from the atom to the system,” Elsa Olivetti brings a holistic approach to sustainability to her teaching, research, and coalition-building.

Fifteen MIT students traveled to Washington to speak to representatives from several federal executive agencies.

Gokul Sampath and Jie Yun have been named 2023-24 J-WAFS Fellows.

Earth Day Op-Ed Contest Winner: 4th Place More than 100 high school and middle school students across California submitted opinion pieces to CalMatters’ inaugural Earth Day contest. The contest theme was “How have changes in climate impacted your community?” Guest Commentary written by Jesse Morris Jesse Morris is a high school student from Tulare County. He […]

A growing number of students nationwide are fighting the government's mandate to serve cow's milk in public schools.

A dispatch from CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn: UC striking workers are facing a high-stakes game of Deal or No Deal. Friday evening, the University of California and the negotiating team representing 36,000  striking academic workers approved a tentative agreement to end the five-week work stoppage — thought to be the largest-ever labor action […]

From CalMatters politics reporter Alexei Koseff: ​​For months, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have been projecting optimism in the face of a grim budget picture. At a press conference in January where he unveiled his plan to deal with a projected $22.5 billion deficit next year, Newsom assured Californians: “We are keeping our promises.” […]