When Roots and Shoots members senior Katie Christiansen and sophomore Gabe Kaplan found out their petition to the state governor concerning carbon and greenhouse gas emissions was denied, they, along with local environmental organizations, did not give up in their effort for cleaner air.

According to Christiansen, she and her fellow youth petitioners have to re-submit their petition because of untimely presentation to the state government.

“We have to re-submit the petition because, after initially submitting it in September, Governor Dayton denied it and decided not to take action because he did not want to start implementing a cap and trade program because it would be a long process that would carry over into the next governor’s term,” Christiansen said.

Christiansen and Kaplan partnered with two environmental organizations, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) and iMatter, to help with promotion and legalization of the petition.

According to MCEA Director of Public Engagement Aaron Klemz, MCEA’s role in the process is to be the students’ legal representative.

“MCEA is primarily a legal organization, and we represent the students,” Klemz said.“We serve as their attorneys and we also work with them to try to get the message out. Our goal is to help them both as legal counselors and as communication directors to make sure their message gets out.”

Klemz stipulated the re-submission of the petition is not yet concrete, and his organization with the rest of the youth petitioners still have to figure out the best way to go about the matter.

“(We) would have the ability to, or the option to, submit that other petition, either during this administration or the beginning of the next governor’s administration,” Klemz said. “We’re working with the students and others to try to decide what the best strategy is to get the goal we want. The goal we want is for the government to take action and regulate greenhouse gas emission.”

iMatter director Larry Kraff, also involved with the effort towards possibly re-submitting the greenhouse emission petition, said his organization has mostly been helping Roots and Shoots by promotion of the petition and instruction for the club.

“Katie and Gabe are both members, and we (have supported) them and the Roots and Shoots club, as kind of an adviser for the club for a number of years. I connected Katie with MCEA when they were looking for people to work with,” Kraff explained.

According to Kaplan, working collaboratively with these different organizations proved to be very helpful.

“(Working) with the different newsgroups and climate advocacy groups like iMatter are a really effective way of actually making change,” Kaplan said. “Uniting youth is much better than working alone, or working as just a few people. (Making) bridges across the state has been the best way to make change.”

Klemz also reiterated how important this endeavor is to the future of the planet’s ecological well-being.

“It’s important because we don’t have any more time to waste when it comes to regulating greenhouse gas. The recent UN climate report that came out says that we have, at best, 12 years before catastrophic climate impacts occur that we can’t reverse, and Minnesota has made some really strong goals to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to pretty significant reductions below 2005 levels, but we’re not reaching those goals right now,” Klemz said.

According to Klemz, due to the slow progress in addressing climate change problems, it is even better that students are getting involved with spreading awareness on the issue.

“In 2015 we were supposed to be 15 percent reductions by 2015 and we only reached about 4 percent,” Klemz specified. “Because of that, we have to take strong action now if we’re going to avoid the worst. (That’s) why it’s great that all the students are working with us to try to get the state to take action now.”

Kraff agreed on how important it is to enlist young blood in the issue. According to him, having students be the voice of the issue eliminates political degradation.

“It’s young people’s future, more than older generations like me, so you deserve to have a voice in it. When you speak up about issues, especially this issue, it can cut through all of the political side of this. It shouldn’t be a political issue … (students can) connect with people in a different way, in kind of an emotional pull. I think young people on this issue are terrific messengers,” Kraff said.

According to Christiansen, the possible re-submission of the greenhouse gas emission petition does not have a set date to be released. Check out TheEcho for updates on Roots and Shoots’ involvement with this issue.