NDSU student attends the Copenhagen Climate Council
Written by Adam Desautel Friday, 22 January 2010 08:00
While many students were worrying about studying for semester finals, NDSU junior Megan Constans was overseas attending the Copenhagen Climate Council in Denmark, representing the youth voice of North Dakota in the push for greener energy and an international replacement and follow-up for the Kyoto Protocol.
The Will Steger Foundation sent Constans to represent North Dakota as a youth delegate at Expedition Copenhagen, a Midwest youth delegation that visited the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen.
The Will Steger Foundation sent Constans and fellow delegates to high schools and colleges to present a curriculum focused on the science behind climate change, the socioeconomic impacts, and how people can go about changing it. It’s a science-based curriculum and certified by the National Education Association.
“A lot of people are skeptical about climate change, but don’t know the science behind it. The program that they launched was to have delegates go within their states and distribute these documents, give talks, and then get the classrooms engaged in what we were doing in Copenhagen and follow us virtually by our blogging, Twittering, and any video blogging that we did, as well. We were kind of like students’ eyes and ears in Copenhagen,” Constans said.
Constans works to serve as a mediating advocate between the politicians, students, and different local and national organizations involved in the energy issue. She believes that personal education is important in this issue.
“People need to think for themselves, rather than just believing everything you see on TV,” Constans said.
There are several key steps that Megan suggests students can take to become more involved: voting for clean energy legislation, pressuring state legislators by writing them letters or e-mails, as well as supporting local organizations who strive to implement cleaner alternatives.
Constans has worked with Greenpeace, attending the “Change It” conference in Seattle for campus leadership and effective message creating techniques. She also helped organize Power Shift, a seminar held last fall at the Fargo Theater and the NDSU Business College.
This semester, Constans will be taking over as president of the Student Environment Advisory Council, the NDSU student organization responsible for implementing the recycling bins around campus.
Constans is majoring in biotechnology with a minor in chemistry. Her future plans involve possibly going to medical school or studing biotechnology in graduate school.
