by Madeline J. Kovacs -
Jul 26th, 2009 
While the planet's future climate is being determined by lawmakers in Congress and the United Nations Conference of the Parties this December, some students who are too young to vote are taking their future into their own hands.
Oregon’s Corvallis High School was named “America’s most eco-friendly school” in the Earth Day Every Day School Challenge, where the combined effort of teacher Colleen Works, the CHS Green Club, and the school's Political Action Workshop and Economics of Conscious Consumption classes won $20,000 to put toward a large solar panel installation.
In all, 460 groups applied for the grant, evidence of the rapid growth in youth green initiatives across the country.
Teens are aware that climate change and its associated challenges will define their generation's work, said CHS Green Club Co-President Chris Becker. For many of them, the inspiration to take action doesn't come from fear as much as from the opportunity to create "cool" solutions.
"I think young people definitely understand this is a huge issue, probably bigger than anything any generation has ever faced before," Becker said.
"We showed in this past election that we can step up, and I hope that this generation will only become stronger, even more organized, and even better connected so we can solve this climate crisis and save our planet."
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