Education & Youth | Environment | Arts & Culture
| Adrian Huq (with a nod to Greta): Nothing more romantic than loving the earth. Lucy Gellman Photos. |
Adrian Huq knew exactly how to spend Valentine’s Day—by showing some love for Mother Earth.
A senior at Metropolitan Business Academy, Huq is one of the leaders of the New Haven Climate Movement, a youth-led, grassroots initiative pushing climate education and action in the city. In the past year, the group has been at the forefront of climate actions in the city, including rallies, marches and speaking engagements during the Global Climate Strike last fall, as well as pushing the city to adopt an Emergency Climate Resolution last August.
Friday, members gathered in the atrium of City Hall to write valentines for the planet, after which they planned to distribute them to the full Board of Alders and to Mayor Justin Elicker.
It marked the second social the group has had this year, intended to bring new members in as several of the current members depart for college this year. In addition to distributing valentines for the planet, the group plans to meet with Elicker on Feb. 20, to present a list of climate demands.
Huq said those include new, paid positions in community and neighborhood organizing, transportation, safe streets, public health, and affordable housing as well as a climate education coordinator for the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS).
“I think there’s no better thing to do today than have a social,” they said Friday, bouncing between a table with blank valentines, lacy hearts, hot chocolate and homemade, heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies. “There are Valentine’s Day strikes that are going on throughout the world. Greta [Thunberg] actually said, ‘There’s nothing more romantic than loving the earth.’”
“We’re just here to spread love for the planet,” they added. “I’m feeling a lot of that today.”
As members munched on cookies and wrote valentines, they also made the argument for more climate infrastructure in the Elicker administration and in New Haven. Nayelimar Fuentes, a senior at The Sound School, said that she’s been thinking about how to better spread the message that “climate change is happening right now,” with increasingly more severe consequences. This spring, she plans to paint a mural on climate change as her senior capstone.
“Climate change is a huge, central issue that we need to be focusing on right now,” chimed in Libby Fontana, who is also a senior at the Sound School and plans to study environmental science in college next year.
| Elizabeth "Libby" Fontana and Nayelimar Fuentes. |
At a nearby table, Huq went through a list of the city’s elected officials, making sure there was at least one valentine per alder. A stack of close to 50 sat already stacked, prepared for delivery to Elicker’s office.
“Stop climate change because/We’re losing trees and without trees we can’t breathe,” read one. “Stop climate change because/I have so much to learn!,” read another. “Stop climate change because/“This is my home,” read a third.
Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School junior Kiana Flores had already written a valentine to Ward 15 Alder Ernie Santiago, who represents the section of Fair Haven where she lives. Currently, she said, she doesn’t hear a lot about climate activism in the neighborhood. But she would like to—because the air quality in the neighborhood doesn’t seem healthy to her.
Alissa Boutviseth, who is also a junior at Co-Op, said she came out to speak out about climate change to amplify the young voices that are leading the movement.
“We’re just giving a voice as the youth,” she said. “I feel like we’re trying to form a little army.”
| Alissa Boutviseth, Alia Salem, and Kiana Flores. |
As attendees prepared to deliver the valentines to the Board of Alders—most members of which were not in on Friday afternoon, but all have mailboxes at City Hall—Huq thanked their fellow climate comrades for coming before heading over to the aldermanic offices.
In the atrium, Yale/Downtown Alder Eli Sabin wandered in to see what was going on, and stayed to learn about the activity.
“Thank you for doing this,” he said. “It’s awesome to see young people out here fighting for our planet.”