The climate crisis is no longer an abstract concern in a distant future. Every month without action deepens the severity and duration of the crisis.

As a member of our elected Spokane School Board, I am asking you to address this emergency in three specific ways:
1.) adopt a K-12 climate literacy curriculum: young people need to understand the full complexity of the science behind climate change. How can we prepare young people for the future, if they do not learn about one of the greatest problems of our age?

2.) transition to a 100% electric school bus fleet in Spokane: each EV school bus not only avoids 54,000 pounds of heat-trapping pollution going into the atmosphere each year, they are also better for student health. Repeated exposure to diesel exhaust is linked to higher rates of lung cancer, asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis and heart disease. Yet millions of children ride school buses powered by diesel fuel — and stand in lines next to idling buses nearly every day for months.

3.) commit to installing solar on all remodeled and new schools: the new school bond passed by Spokane citizens is an important opportunity to start building resilient schools equipped for the 21st century and its challenges. Every new or remodeled school should have rooftop solar panels to create clean energy and opportunities to learn first hand how renewable energy works.

​The youth of the world are right. We need dramatic climate action now. Their future and ours is at stake. Please do everything you can to take action now.