First, I would like to acknowledge how great it is that this type of opportunity is made available for us to watch if we are unable to attend the event in person due to the livestream and recording. Being a college graduate of UNE, and having attended classes on the Biddeford campus, it was great to get to see the event being held in a lecture hall I once sat in. I remember during my undergraduate experience at UNE, I had the opportunity to attend a climate change teach-in located in that same lecture hall auditorium and I even had my Environmental Studies class with Bethany Woodworth, the first speaker of the teach in! I also was a senior when President James Herbert became the president of the school, and I appreciate how much effort he has been putting into making the school more environmentally conscious.

Prior to the teach-in, I had a vague understanding of the connection between climate change and how it connected to the health of our people, despite having taken classes focusing on the environment and climate in the past. To be completely honest, I have been neglectful in taking an active part in the conversation regarding our planet’s climate change crisis. I have never been one to participate in conversations that have a political undertone to them, which unfortunately climate change has become a very politicalized topic in our country. However, I do understand the importance of becoming more comfortable in talking about this issue and becoming an activist in improving not only the planet, but the health of our people as well. The causes behind climate change (use of fossil fuels, high production of waste, pollution, etc.) are also what is causing the health of our people to decline. The air we breathe and the products we consume are all dependent on the health of our planet. As our planet’s health declines, the health of our people will decline as well.

During the panel discussion, one of the panel members stated

Youth activism does not need to have one singular definition. Activism can be simply mean picking a piece of trash up off the beach, calling and writing to your local representatives, it could just be being that person that is always bringing up prevailing issues… Activism is about that spurring collective; that wanting to make the world a better place than when you came in.

This quote spoke to me the most because not only was she discussing activism within my age group, but also how anyone can be an environmental activist. I don’t have to be someone who solely focuses on the physical outdoors in order to play my part in coming up with a solution for this problem. As a nurse, it will always be my first instinct to do what is best for my patients and to make the world a better place for the health of everyone. In the future, I can help to educate the patients that I care for on how to work with their environment to better their condition while simultaneously making the environment a better place as well. For example, a patient admitted for a health complication related to their smoking habits could be instructed on how smoking is not only bad for their health but also for the environment. This is only one small example, but imagine if every patient that entered the hospital was educated on how to be a more conscientious individual in their daily lived? The world would be a much better place. I also believe that as nurses we can advocate for the hospitals we work for to be more mindful about their consumption habits and waste. I have seen it personally how much waste is produced in the hospital because it is not sanitary to keep items after a one-time use. I believe in the future, my generation of nurses will come up with solutions on how to reduce the amount of waste produced by health care facilities and how to make items reusable or recyclable. I hope that I can be a part of that solution now and in my future career as a nurse.