Impressions from the EPA International Environmental Youth Symposium 2015

At the end of our trip we finally approached the EPA Conference, the International Environmental Youth Symposium 2015, the highlight of our journey.  

The first day we learned about what the EPA is doing on climate change and we got the possibility to exchange and share our opinions and our experiences with other students from all over America and Brazil. Various lectures and presentations were at the focus on the second day. This enabled us to get an insight into topics we didn’t know that detailed before, such as climate change and safety or climate change linked to diseases. To sum up in my opinion it can be said that there are already great ideas and projects to face the problem of climate change and its consequences. However, it was obvious that it’s not enough to talk about solutions and aims, it’s just the first step. As a next step we need to become active and put our ideas into practice because there is plenty of work waiting for us.

Like Prof. Dr Heck formulated it: “We need to stop being clever but start to be wise.” It was inspiring to meet so many people who were as passionate and interested in the topic of environmental stewardship and sustainability as we are and I am grateful that I could be a part of this conference.

#LL

Attending the Youth Symposium has been a great experience that enabled me to exchange my academic knowledge with different culturally coined academic views and interdisciplinary approaches. I was amazed by the ideas and solutions to the challenges posed by climate change and environmental pollution presented by American students. The approaches and conducted research in the area were impressive and very diverse. Exchanging ideas in conversations with some of the students was inspiring and a true learning experience as I got new insights into different viewpoints and approaches. Another thing that struck me was the manner in which the symposium was conducted. Instead of the symposium consisting of one stiff presentation after another the symposium was filled with lively discussions and forms of presentations. Moreover, the way in which social media was used in order to have an ecxtended reach was quite different from what I have experienced before (official speakers took selfies with the participants, who were also encouraged to generally take selfies, and posted them on social media such as twitter and facebook). Furthermore, the U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, gave an outstanding speech.

What I appreciated most in her speech was that she pointed out that the challenges posed by climate change as well as possible solutions neither follow human borders nor elections. Instead, international cooperation and commitment is required in order to further sustainability. A viewpoint I can very much agree on and find of utmost importance with regards to COP 21.

#NC