By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
Stonyfield Yogurt founder and Holderness resident Gary Hirshberg and ultra-runner and Dublin native Abby Levene helped lead the virtual New Hampshire Youth Climate Town Hall Wednesday night that focused on the connections between COVID-19, the world’s climate crisis, and the upcoming election.
The fact that the world can change so quickly in a pandemic is proof, speakers said, that change on climate science is possible.
The forum, conducted on Zoom, included members of various youth groups in the state, state senators from Durham and Keene and environmental leaders logged on, too.
Hirshberg said he has lost four friends to COVID-19 and to him it is horrific and very real.
“But as a pathological optimist I choose to look at the silver lining,” Hirshberg said.
Hirshberg said there is a lot of new opportunity that is resulting from a variety of concerns and that food safety is becoming increasingly important. And people are realizing that change is possible and necessary to deal with a threat, which can be a killing virus or climate change.
“We are facing a whole shift in the way this economy is going,” Hirshberg said.
He said he is seeing increased demand for organic products and more of a science-based rationale for decision-making in general.
Hirshberg said it
is a great time to support local, buy organic and use this as “a moment
for reinventing ourselves.”
Levene grew up in
Dublin and runs races in the mountains that are longer than marathons.
Levene is now a Boulder, Colo. resident working with the organization Protect Our Winters and its POW Action Fund.
She said she wanted to urge young people to pledge to vote in the upcoming elections.
Levene has encountered many obstacles running and has now seen ways to push forward in other ways, to ensure that young voters like her get out in the fall to help select new leaders who believe in climate science.
New Hampshire plans a September primary for all seats under the State House dome in Concord, from the governor to all 424 members of the House and Senate and the Executive Council. The winners from each Democrat and Republican party will then go to a general election in November where voters can also choose their candidate for president of the United States.
“It is so imperative that we elect people who are going to base their policies in science. I mean, the parallels between the pandemic and climate change are just so striking and I switched my perspective from feeling really just helpless, to okay, how can we use this as an opportunity to engage people and to show them that this is really important?” she said.
Also speaking on the call were Brian Rogers, state director for Next Gen NH, Molly Lunn Owen and Molly Biron of the NH Young Democrats, Corey Cronin of Protect Our Winters Action Fund, Rob Werner of the League of Conservation Voters and Doug Marino of 603 Forward, all of whom organized the virtual climate forum.
Hanover’s Ed Taylor of NextGen said people are dealing with a global pandemic at the same time sea levels are rising and people are feeling the effects of climate change at the same time.
Stunning as it is, it is also a time for people to see that big change is possible when dealing with an existential threat.
“The large-scale structural change that we are seeing as an attempt to contain the virus is proof that America and the world can rapidly enact large-scale action to combat an intermediate global threat. Young people have to get into this conversation on how our world recovers from this pandemic,” he urged.