The first Montana Youth Climate Summit is two weeks away!
The Montana Youth Climate Summit is just two weeks away!
For over a year, students at the Park High Green Initiative, with some help from us at Park County Environmental Council, have been working to make this summit a reality. We’re excited to share more information about it with you.
Two weeks from today, Thursday, October 12, and Friday, October 13, we will host a youth climate summit for students from around the state of Montana. Our kids are stepping into a world already deep in climate chaos. For years, students with the Green Initiative have been leaders in our community. At PCEC, we are honored to work alongside them and support these passionate young leaders as they work to build solidarity across the state of Montana.
Are you excited about this idea? Here are two ways you can help:
1) Share the event registration with an interested high schooler you know.
2) Show your support with a donation today! Every dollar we raise helps finance these young activists’ travel, accommodations, and event participation.
This two-day conference will bring together like-minded youth to learn from each other, various climate professionals, and storytellers of all kinds. The summit has a variety of breakout sessions, including Living with Wildfire, Ice Patch Archaeology, and stories from the Held plaintiffs (and so much more!).
The Youth Climate Summit will include two keynote speakers: Dr. Cathy Whitlock, a professor at Montana State University and lead author of the Montana Climate Summit, and Dr. Steven Running, an emeritus professor at the University of Montana and former NASA scientist who served as a lead expert in the Held trial earlier this year.
How did the summit come to be?
Each year, the students with the Green Initiative identify one overarching project to work on. Last year, the students declared that their goal was to attend a youth climate summit, but the closest to be found was 1,000-plus miles away. So, they made it their goal to host a summit. Students have been a key part of planning this event and have helped to build a coalition of partners and planners from across Montana. By involving these diverse groups, we ensure a well-rounded perspective that will incorporate a range of expertise and ideas into the summit.
You can see the schedule and breakout sessions below.
The conference is generously supported by many individuals, and the Park County Community Foundation, the TRA Fund, National Parks Conservation Association, the Rieschel Foundation, the Sierra Club, and the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
If you are a student or teacher that would like to attend or you know one, please click on the link above to register!
What will the summit look like? You can learn more on our website.
It is fast approaching, and we want to be sure that everything is put into place for accommodations and other logistics as we get closer to the date. Please let us know if you have any questions, need help registering, need funds for scholarships, etc.
Please, reach out with any questions!