Photo Courtesy Of Samantha Yale

Monica Harnoto, who graduated from St. Francis in June, left, attended the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2 and had the opportunity to chat with Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, center, and Marvin Salazar, fellow Climate Champion.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hosted the 2009 Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2 in Los Angeles last month. The summit convened a network of U.S. governors, global diplomats, environmental executives and corporate officials to expand national and international collaboration on building a more sustainable future.

Among the sea of adult delegates was a group of 12 teens that I was a part of, the California Climate Champions.

At the Summit, the Climate Champions had the privilege of interviewing several prominent participants, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost authority on chimpanzees; and Aaron Frank, director of environmental affairs at The Walt Disney Company.

I was fortunate enough to talk with Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Sutley raised an interesting point: One positive about our efforts to stop climate change is that the effects we have on the world are tangible. We have the ability to measure physically whether what we are doing is helping or hindering the overall well-being of the planet. She provided us with a personal example from her New York childhood. There was a bay near where she lived, but she was never able to swim in it because it was too polluted. Today, thanks to restoration efforts, it is clean enough to swim in. It is small, visible successes like this that affirm that our hard work is paying off.

Overall, I found that the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2 was an extremely effective demonstration of Californians leading efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It also succeeded in promoting worldwide collaboration and networking among countries.

For the Climate Champions, it was a unique opportunity to gain perspective from the delegates and to learn about the creative solutions individuals have envisioned. We were further encouraged to follow through with our individual projects by the success of those described at the Summit.

Although the problems we face are diverse and multifaceted, the more we do now, the better off we’ll be in a few years. In a way, it seemed as if our presence served as a reminder of what’s really at stake: our future.

Having a youth perspective at the conference allowed the conference to reach an even larger, younger demographic. While we may still be learning, teens have the ability and the responsibility to inspire their peers to take action against climate change. After all, it is our generation that will carry the burden of the effects if we act too slowly.

Monica Harnoto, a freshman at UC Berkeley, graduated from St. Francis High School last year.

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