CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) – Eight students from Carlisle, East Pennsboro and Mechanicsburg Area School Districts, Dickinson College and Shippensburg University hosted, ‘Protect our planet: Students Speak Out’ at Carlisle Area High School.

“Climate change is very real and it’s here and people need to go out and get educated about it,” said Shippensburg University junior Mary Martin.

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This Week in Pennsylvania

These students along with local organizations including Appalachia Audubon Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Dickinson College Center for Sustainability, Move Past Plastic, PA Interfaith Power & Light, South Central Pennsylvania Wild Ones and Yellow Breeches Watershed Association are worried about the future of our planet and want to encourage people to take action along with them.

“It is devastating to kind of watch the climate around us get worse and worse. And it seems like nothing’s being done about,” said Martin.

The students facilitated discussions with community members on topics including social and environmental justice, human impact, clean air, and native flowers, plants, and trees.

One goal of the workshop was to brainstorm ideas for future action projects.

“Hearing other voices too are so important because everyone has these great ideas. And if we can combine them all and share them, we’ll be unstoppable,” said East Pennsboro High School junior Morgan Stellfox.

Ideas include encouraging local municipalities to encourage biking, calling for stronger enforcement of no-idling, especially tractor-trailers, pushing for better public transportation and walkability, encouraging homeowners and businesses to plant native plants, plus many other ideas.

“Getting started is the hardest part. It’s never, something is never too little to start. It doesn’t matter what it is. Maybe you’re going outside, and you just happen to be on a walk, and you see a little piece of paper. If you pick it up, that is making a difference,” said Stellfox.

Cumberland Valley Rising was also part of putting together the free educational workshop.

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