Green Time TV: May 2016: Young Environmental Activists and Ideas

by Don Fitz 

Protection of the environment requires experienced activists forging young ideas and training youth to take over their roles.  May Green Time episodes look at developing actions and people, both in St. Louis and around the world.

What experiences did young people have at the UN climate talks in Warsaw and Paris?  What type of climate activities are students from around the world participating in?  In the first May Green Time, host John Hickey covers these issues with Rachel Westrate, of Wash U Students for International Collaboration on the Environment, Nick Annin, a Washington University student, and Natalie Lucas, with Care About Climate.  They explore climate issues students are addressing on campus and after graduation, the issues that students are most passionate about, and how they recruit students to the climate movement.

During the second May Green Time, host John Hickey discusses cost-effective energy efficiency measures businesses can implement along with energy audits of residences with Steve O’Rourke, of Microgrid Energy, and Kellye Markowski, of Energy Smart Homes.  They estimate the annual energy cost savings per person will be $368 by 2050.  How can businesses take advantage of savings?  There could be 84,260 construction and operations jobs created by transitioning to 100% clean energy.   

Sylvester Brown came up with the idea for the Sweet Potato Project, which began in 2012 with 25 youth.  In the third May Green Time, he and host Don Fitz discuss how youth get summer jobs as they plant food, grow it, make a product from it and develop the product through marketing and sales.   Project Veteran Marquita Williams describes how the project helped her develop responsibility, leadership and business skills.  Project Leaders Edie Adams and Travion Johnson describe how they discovered the project and what they learned from it, including how to turn sweet potatoes into cookies.     

Sweet Potato Project Founder Sylvester Brown believes that land ownership can be key in changing the black community.  During the fourth May Green Time episode, he and host Don Fitz discuss the 8000 plus vacant lots in St. Louis which people can use to grow food.  When Keon Williams first joined the Project in 2012, making a product from sweet potatoes seemed strange.  But he became part of the group which decided to make cookies and sell them.  Darryeon Bishop uses a plot at a church to grow sweet potatoes.  He  realized that  having an agricultural project means attending to the crop, including watering and weeding it.  Sylvester Brown emphasizes the need to discover the unique talents of every young person in the project.  

May shows include the movies 2015 Sierra Club Highlights: Join the Movement, 200 Dirty Coal-Fired Power Plants Closed, Ready for 100, Clean Energy Effect, SPP 2015 program video and SPP Land Ownership short. 

Green Time appears at noon on Saturdays in St. Louis on Channel 24-1 and at 8 pm on Mondays in St. Louis on Channel 24-2, Springfield on Channel 39, Joplin on Channel 36 and Marshfield on Channel 17.  Green Time programs air on these dates:

?1 May 7 & 9: “Youth in the Climate Movement,” 
?2 May 14 & 16: “Benefits of Energy Efficiency,”  
?3 May 21 & 23: “About the Sweet Potato Project,”
?4 May 28 & 30: “Sweet Potato Project: Land Ownership.” 

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