Northridge High School 2901 Northridge Road Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35406
est. 2003
THE OCTOBER 2019
NORTH RI D GE
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REPORTER
The student est.voice 2003of Northridge High School
VOLUME 16 ISSUE 2
CREEPY CONTROVERSY
Northridge students raise awareness for climate change
JOSH ELLIS NEWS EDITOR/STAFF WRITER
As millions of students around the world take to the streets to protest the effects global warming will have on this world, students are raising awareness for and combatting this very same issue within Northridge High School. During the two weeks of strikes, Girls Learn International had discussions and presentations to raise awareness towards climate change and to formulate ideas of what Northridge can do to stop climate change, an issue which a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts could cost the world at least $54 trillion dollars if left unchecked. On Sept. 20, GLI began discussing climate change in its meeting. Seniors Jennifer Stroud and Charlotte Farrar gave a presentation on the effect that climate change is having. “The two weeks the climate strikes were happening, we weren’t able to actually do the strike or anything because we were in school, but both of our meetings were about climate change” Stroud said. “The first week, me and Charlotte did a presentation about climate. We talked about climate change and climate justice.” One thing that was a major discussion point was climate migrants, an estimated 24 million individuals each year who are displaced by climate or weather disasters, such as the 2,300 Puerto Rican families uprooted from their homes by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and still looking for permanent housing, all according to an article by the National Public Radio. “Climate migrants and refugees is something that is
becoming an increasingly big issue, but not many people know what that is,” Farrar said. “These are people who have been displaced by climate change, either within their own countries or having to cross international borders [because of ] some effect of climate change, usually something like drought or famine or a natural disaster has forced them to flee their homes.” Aside from climate change, Girls Learn International (GLI) discusses a wide variety of controversial and important subjects, ranging from sexual harassment and inequality to intersectionality and gun control. GLI has chapters in 30 states and 11 countries and supports organizations across the globe, such as Heifer International, an organization Northridge GLI has held fundraisers in the past for, which fights to end world hunger and
In the second week of striking, Northridge GLI watched Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN Council, as well as things that can be done around the school to stop climate change. Many different options were brainstormed for making Northridge a more eco-friendly place. “We have been talking about different things we can do around the school like making sure people are recycling, maybe putting a [recycling] bin in the lunchroom, we’ve talked about composting and just doing things to be raising awareness all the time for climate change,” Farrar said. GLI member Carson Ledbetter (senior) has begun taking action to make Northridge more eco-friendly using her position on Northridge’s Student Government Association. “Currently, SGA has five teams of people who collect and sort recycling schoolwide throughout the week,” said Ledbetter. “The green recycling bins you see in almost every classroom are hand-sorted
“Climate change affects us every day
of our lives, so it’s important to be working on it every day of our lives. -CHARLOTTE FARRAR poverty. Mallie Humber, who sponsors the program, said that she never really chooses which topic the group talks about. “They choose the topics they want to talk about, so it’s really student-led,” Humber said. “They kind of pick what issues they want to discuss, and then their students are presenting about things, so I’m really just providing the space for them to have these conversations and support that. It’s really up to them what they want to talk about and how they want to talk about it.”
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by SGA members. This saves SO much waste from going to landfills. We are looking into expanding this program to the cafeteria as well.” In addition to these efforts, GLI and SGA both are continuing to work towards finding more ways Northridge can be more environmentally friendly. “Climate change affects us every day of our lives, so it’s important to be working on it every day of our lives,” Farrar said. Photos and graphic Tribune News Service
AT A GLANCE KISIMA FOR KENYA
DRUID CITY PRIDE
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LAWN DECORATIONS
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