Taking the Lead on Climate Change
Clean energy, green jobs and sustainable resources will be among the topics John Doyle ’09 will be advocating for with his peers at the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznań, Poland, as a SustainUS youth delegate. As one of 23 young environmental activists chosen through a competitive nation-wide process, Doyle and the U.S. youth delegation will meet before the conference with 70-80 international youth to strategize and unify their positions on climate change issues. While in Poland, the youth delegates serve as observers, meeting with representatives from the U.S. State Department and advocating for positions they believe best represent the interests of the world’s youth.
Doyle’s personal stance on the climate crisis is focused on change.
“We need to make fundamental changes in our consumption habits and land use. As the rest of the world develops, we need to recognize that America is not the right model to emulate. Sprawling suburbs and a 1:1 ratio of cars to people is not sustainable. Instead of asking the rest of the world to change, we need to take the lead and be better role models,” he said.
Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, Doyle’s passion for sustainability grew his junior year during a semester abroad at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa. At the UKZN, Doyle spent much of his time in the development studies department.
“My professors taught me about the intrinsic relationship between environmental justice and social justice and the simple but profound truth that ‘alternatives are not inherently compromises,’” he said.
His study abroad led Doyle to internships related to environmentalism. This past summer he interned with the U.S. Green Building Council, helping to develop their Green Campus Campaign. Most recently, he co-coordinated UMBC’s Power Vote campaign with leaders from Students for Environmental Awareness. Power Vote is a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition and is endorsed by the Maryland Student Climate Coalition. UMBC contributed 1,320 of the 341,127 pledges nationwide calling for “clean and just energy” to be a top priority in the 2008 Election.
Along with Doyle’s international and national work, he has also worked on a local level. Coming to UMBC as a baseball pitcher, an injury his freshman year put him out of commission for the remainder of his years at UMBC. He then began devoting his time to volunteer work with the Shriver Center by assisting with an after-school program in Baltimore. Shortly after, he visited the Study Abroad Office and left for South Africa, returning with a more defined set of interests.
Doyle also serves as the environmental affairs advisor for the Student Government Association and is an undergraduate representative on a number of campus task forces. In spring 2009, he will be heading abroad again, this time traveling to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for an internship with Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team. He recently took the LSAT and plans to attend law school upon his return to study environmental law.
The UN Climate Conference runs from Monday, December 1, to Friday, December 12. For more information on the U.S. Youth Network for Sustainable Development, visit www.sustainus.org.
Keep tabs on Doyle and other U.S. representatives at the UN Climate Conference at www.itsgettinghotinhere.org/, where Doyle and others will blog “their dispatches” from the Youth Climate Movement.
(11/21/08)
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