Kathryn's Letter

Dear Northern Forum:

My name is Kathryn McCarron and I was sponsored by you to go to the Youth Eco Forum 2005 in Akurery, Iceland. I would like to thank you for that amazing experience. I gained an incredible knowledge of other cultures and how global warming is affecting everyone in the world. I also gained a better understanding of how other countries’ governments work and how they feel towards the global warming issue.

The topic of the Eco Forum this year was climate change and renewable energy. I had learned a little bit about climate change at the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action Summer Get-Together in August, but before that I didn’t really know any of the major issues in climate change and even after the get-together I wasn’t sure on how climate change was affecting the world. I was very interested in the topic though.

We started out at the forum by telling everyone the different issues pertaining to climate change and renewable energy that were happening in our regions. We were able to better understand what the other regions were going through and what their governments were doing about climate change. We discussed what we thought could be better and what we could do to help. We laid out the different effects and causes climate change was having on the world. We also laid out different ways to solve and adapt to the problem. We worked on that for most of the week and then we were able to come up with a declaration. The declaration stated all of the causes, effects, mitigations, and adaptations that had to do with climate change and renewable energy. Our finished piece was something the group was proud of because we had written it and our thoughts and ideas on paper would actually go somewhere. We gave the declaration to the mayor of Akurery and to the U.N., among selected others.

The most important thing I learned from this Eco Forum is that knowledge really is power. The more people know how climate change is affecting everyone everywhere, the more people can do about it. We have to convince people that this is a problem and that there are ways to slow down the change. We have to find ways around companies and people that don’t want to realize climate change is happening and figure out a way to get the public involved in finding renewable energy.

I am from Homer and having lived here for many years I have encountered people from all around the world. I have been able to see glimpses into other cultures and other people. I developed a deep love of learning about other countries and a passion for wanting to travel to foreign places. It was amazing to go to Iceland, a place where I probably never would have gone on my own. I got to hear a new language and see how people interact differently. I also got to see little pieces of Russia and Japan with the people form those countries at the Eco Forum. It was neat to learn how Icelandic people truly believe in trolls. They took us to a “troll field” and showed us the trolls frozen into the mountains and they told us that at night they come alive. It was also cool to see what kind of music the Russians and the Japanese listened to. The Russians liked really hard rock music whereas the Japanese listened to Japanese pop.

I would like to once again thank you. I enjoyed this opportunity thoroughly and gained a lot. I will be giving a presentation to my local AYEA chapter and will also be writing an article about the importance of knowing about climate change to my local paper.

Sincerely,

Kathryn McCarron