Mayor Adams, Fix My School: Students Launch Challenge to Share Climate Stories, Demand Green Healthy Schools

NEW YORK, NY (01/08/2024) (readMedia)-- TREEage, an organization of young New Yorkers fighting for environmental justice, is launching a contest today for NYC public schools students to grade their schools on how "green" and "healthy" they are, to identify the schools in most need of energy upgrades. The city's aging public school buildings use oil and gas for heating and emit the equivalent of 154,000 cars' worth of carbon dioxide every year. TREEage is demanding Mayor Adams speed up plans to retrofit public schools and make them safer, more productive, and all-electric learning environments that comply with Local Law 97.

"Studies show that air pollution decreases memory function and makes it harder to focus, on top of increasing asthma rates. Our schools are contributing to climate change, falling apart and making us sick, – yet we spend eight hours, five days a week there! Mayor Adams' plan for 100 all-electric schools by 2030 doesn't cut it. We need Mayor Adams to protect our health, our education, and our future by retrofitting 500 NYC public schools by 2030," says Kathryn Gioiosa, Co-Executive Director of TREEage.

Students can submit TikTok or Instagram videos by tagging @Treeage_Team and adding the hashtags #MayorAdamsFixMySchool #GreenHealthySchools. Videos should show what makes the student's school especially toxic – i.e, fossil fuel-burning furnaces, poor ventilation, and proximity to other polluted areas. Videos are due on February 2, and 10 schools graded A to F across the 5 boroughs will be revealed in early February.

A 2021 study that reviewed a nationwide panel of school districts shows that air pollution is associated with lower academic performance among children. Other studies link pollution to a decrease in memory function, poor concentration, and more absences due to health issues like asthma, associated with bad air. Inferior ventilation has also been linked to worse exam performance. Low-income students of color experience the brunt of this, with their homes and schools more likely to be located in highly polluted neighborhoods. In NYC, asthma disproportionately affects Black and LatinX children, as well as those residing in high poverty neighborhoods.

In October 2022, Mayor Adams announced that 100 schools would go all-electric by 2030. That's only 5% of NYC schools, and a rate far too slow to comply with Local Law 97 which requires an 80% total decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

This contest is part of the Green, Healthy Schools campaign demanding Mayor Adams electrify and upgrade 500 public school buildings by 2030, prioritizing schools in environmental justice communities, and to make NYC a zero emissions school district by 2040.

About TREEage

Since 2019, TREEage has focused on educating high school and college students on the magnitude of the climate crisis, legacies of environmental injustice, and our vision for an equitable future; training the next generation of climate activists to lead their schools and neighborhoods and build winning campaigns; and championing Green New Deal legislation and mobilizing young people to make it a reality.