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On November 8, 1988, I sat in the Hawk ‘n’ Dove bar on Capitol Hill drinking beer with my fellow Clean Water Action canvassers and watching the presidential election returns. I was 23 years old. As the night wore on, and it became apparent that nothing less than a miracle could save Michael Dukakis from losing to George H.W. Bush, a group of loud, big-haired yuppies (it was still the 80’s after all) cheered at the table next to us. One woman in a ruffled dress with big shoulder pads glanced over at our tie-dyed shirts and dismal faces and shouted over the din, “I used to be idealistic like you guys. I voted Democrat and thought I could change the world. But when you get older, you realize that it’s just not practical. You’ll want to keep your money. And then you’ll vote for the conservative guy. You’ll see.”
“Never,” I thought. “I will never become so cynical. I’ll always be an activist and stand up for what I believe.”
Well, I’m still an activist. And I still stand up for what I believe. But these days, I am more easily disheartened. When I allow myself to really see the immensity of the environmental problems we face, I want to crawl into bed and hide. I don’t do that. I keep moving forward. And thankfully, I haven’t grown cynical enough to vote for the guy who will let me keep more of my money at the expense of other people or the environment. But I do sometimes doubt whether my actions are making a difference.
Some would call it maturity and say that with experience come realistic expectations. But is the world changed by realists or by people who remain optimistic despite terrible odds? By people, in fact, who don’t realize there are odds in the first place?
Green Kids to the Rescue
Like my friends and me in the late 80’s, there is a whole new crop of idealistic young people coming up who are committed to solving our environmental problems, from climate change to plastic pollution, and for whom there are no limits. We need them. We need them desperately! And recently, I was able to meet a few of them.
Jordan Howard
Jordan Howard is a leader. But don’t take my word for it. Check out her keynote address at the Environmental Youth Conference in 2009. And yet, she wasn’t always committed to protecting the environment. A student at L.A.’s Environmental Charter High School, Jordan told me that in the beginning, even though she was attending a school whose purpose was environmental education, she wasn’t convinced that she should care about anything more than herself. A typical teenage girl, she was interested in shopping and boys and whatever would benefit her in the short term. She says she was not “anti-sustainable”, but she wasn’t pro-sustainability either.
And then, in her 10th-grade year of high school, Jordan was selected to attend the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA, not because she was an environmental activist but because she was seen as a leader. She went reluctantly, telling herself, “I would not let those people brainwash me.” The light bulb moments happened as she learned about all the different environmental solutions that had already been developed. Compostable bags, recycled carpet, solar energy, organic clothing. She learned that living a green lifestyle was not only real, it was realistic, and most of the environmental and economic benefits were measurable!
And that’s when Jordan’s natural leadership ability and her growing interest in green living merged.
Rise Above Plastics
Learning about the devastating consequences of plastics in the environment, Jordan Howard worked with Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics campaign and Green Amabassadors to create the Rise Above Plastics (R.A.P.) student speaker series in order to
not only educate high school teens about the harms of plastics on the environment and to humans, but to empower them to share the message and travel to schools and businesses across Los Angeles, educating people of all ages.
Why her interest in plastic? Jordan says:
Well, plastics is the most practical to me! Refusing plastic bags, bringing your own cup, bringing your own fork, using stainless steel canteens. They each have drastic long term effects on the planet but can be done by people of all ages so
