BHS Juniors Launch the Environmental Justice Club with Mission to Protect Local Climate and Uplift Community

Rebecca Cunningham, Staff Writer
April 16, 2021

Thursday, April 15, the Environmental Justice Club (EJC) gathered for their third in-person meeting. Snacking on smartfood and trail mix, boys and girls spanning every grade level ran through a list of housekeeping tasks scrawled on the whiteboard: emails to write, research to do, advertising to finish, materials to buy, and projects to plan. Wasting no time, they broke into teams and got to work. 

BHS juniors Ella Mason and Kiran Bleakney-Eastman started the EJC two months ago with the goal of creating an inclusive club focused on action-based environmental projects.

Both Mason and Bleakney-Eastman completed a Burlington City and Lake (BCL) semester in the fall. There they learned about the importance of taking care of their natural world and their community. BCL inspired them to act.

“People are going to die,” Bleakney-Eastman said. “We are going to be underwater and the temperatures will be rising. Our job now is to slow that down as much as possible. As a kid, I can’t pass legislation and I don’t have the confidence of Greta Thunberg, but I want to do everything I can.”

Mason shared a similar sense of responsibility and urgency.

“We get numerous resources from our environment,” Mason said. “It’s where we live and where we work and I think a lot of times, as humans, we take it for granted.”

So the duo created the EJC. 

 

ESJ logo credit: Gloria Kigonya of Colchester High School

Now, the club is in full swing, meeting weekly with roughly 25 members. They are currently painting a mural, organizing an alternate mode of transportation week, and purchasing plants to hang around the school. 

Mason and Bleakney-Eastman chose these projects because they help to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, educate students, and everyone can participate. 

“The EJC is focused on what can we do right now to help the environment,” Mason said.

This includes working to improve the BHS school community.

“There are a lot of different ways to think about the environment,” Mason said. “We’re all part of the natural environment, but in addition, we are part of the school environment and the environment of Burlington and the state.”

Sofia Wells, a freshmen member of the EJC, believes that community service is a great way to build community. 

“We can make BHS, especially in this new downtown area, more connected if we come together and work on problems together,” she said.

However, the EJC has faced a challenge trying to encourage a diverse group of students to join. Right now the club is primarily white, middle-class students who grew up in Burlington. 

“It is a privilege to be an environmental advocate because a lot of people are worried about way more important issues in their lives,” Bleakney-Eastman said.

EJC members are actively working to recruit a broad range of students. They are advertising on social media, hanging fliers around the school, and spreading the message that the environment is in danger.  

“We need to help heal the environment because it is our home,” Junior member Zoe Fisher said. “It gives us everything. We build everything from our earth.”

For more information about the EJC contact Ella Mason or Kiran Bleakney Eastman at [email protected]. The next meeting will be held on April 29, at 3:30, in room 261.