North Shore Teens ask "Why?" in Environmental Action Video to Motivate Action from Lawmakers

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Youth Corps just released the video Why? Questions from Leaders of Tomorrow. It is available through social media and video outlets YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. The video asks important questions about our environment here in Illinois, the Midwest, the US, and beyond our borders. Its goal is to urge today’s leaders into making effective environmental laws, creating public policy to protect natural resources, and also developing more sustainable and greener business practices.

“The Youth Corps has the benefit drawing on the backbone of history and research from the Natural Resources Defense Council. This fact-based insight gives us credibility and allows us to merge our passion for the environment with the knowledge and history of the NRDC,” said Jack Kenter, a New Trier High School senior. “That powerful combination is what makes me enthusiastic about the opportunities we have to make an impact on our environment and protect our limited resources.” Elisse Albian, also a senior at New Trier, and Drew Miles, a senior at North Shore Country Day School, are fellow co-presidents.

The NRDC Youth Corps began with students from a couple of schools on the North Shore. Today, the effort has expanded to both coasts, including students from New Trier Township High School, North Shore Country Day School, Loyola Academy, the Latin School of Chicago, Tabor Academy, The Taft School, The Thacher School, Glenbrook South, Lake Forest Academy, and Lake Forest High School.

Since it began in 2012, the group has spread from coast to coast. Founding board member John Canfield, a senior at Sewanee: The University of the South, said, “The NRDC Youth Corps has a remarkable history. It’s a board for high school students, and I graduated after our first year. Often, it seems that youth groups fizzle despite the best of intentions. I really give the presidents after me a lot of credit: not only did they keep the group alive, but they expanded it more than our founding members ever imagined. Of course, the incredible support of the NRDC has also been so important in generating the excitement behind the Youth Corps.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council works to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. The Natural Resources Defense Council Youth Corps is affiliated with the NRDC’s Midwest Program Office in Chicago.

By Teddy Fischer, NRDC Youth Corps Member

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CygUn39tmdg