Click the link to read the transcript on the Colorado Public Radio website (Carl Bilek, Joe Wertz, and Ryan Warner). Here’s an excerpt:
January 29, 2024
A college freshman from Denver will chair the Environmental Protection Agency’s first National Environmental Youth Advisory Council. 18-year-old Gabriel Nagel graduated from Denver East High School and now attends Stanford University. He said young people can make a difference in addressing issues like climate change if they just get involved.
“They need to start speaking up to leaders in their community, whether that be their school district, even just their high school working to make local change. That could be really impactful,” said Nagel.
From the EPA’s National Environmental Youth Advisory Council webpage:
Gabriel Nagel is an accomplished youth climate justice activist and community organizer. He is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Light CO2, which launched a carbon footprint tracking app, curated a collection of youth-written articles, and planted 10,000+ trees. Gabriel is also the founder and co-leader of the DPS Students for Climate Action team, which developed an environmental justice policy passed across 200 schools, impacting 92,000 students. The policy is one of the first among all US school districts to address social and climate justice. He serves on Denver’s Sustainability Advisory Council, which manages a $40 million budget, and as the United Nations Association’s Climate Action Ambassador, where he is drafting the first UN Youth Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to being featured on NPR twice, he spoke at NYC Climate Week and met with Vice-President Kamala Harris to discuss climate anxiety. He is honored with the President’s Environmental Youth Award.