By Derek Wilson
Marinscope
“I couldn’t stand back and see the planet burn,” said Corte Madera teen Sarah Goody, even as wildfires continue to rampage across Northern California.
Spurred into action, Goody in April 2019 founded Climate NOW, a youth-led organization with the goal of educating other youth about the climate crisis and providing them with the skills to take climate action in their community.
Her efforts over the past four years were recognized recently as she was awarded a third-place honor worth $300 from Action for Nature’s 2020 International Young Eco-Hero Awards, given to young people, ages 8-16, for their environmental achievements.
“The past four years of my life have been defined by activism,” Goody said. “I suffered from depression in the sixth grade around the time I found climate activism. I learned I could fight and do something influential. It seemed crazy that I could use my voice to make a change, but it makes sense.”
Now a sophomore at Redwood High School, Goody was awakened to the urgent need for climate action by her sixth-grade science instructor at Hall Middle School who taught the class about climate change.
“I discovered that I played a key role in the increase of CO2 in our atmosphere,” Goody said, “and without urgent action, global warming will result in the extinction of the human species.”
She became a youth council member for the nonprofit Greening Forward, and attended one of their conferences in New York where she met climate striker Alexandria Villasenor. Goody joined Villasenor in an all-day strike outside the United Nations building and was inspired.
When she returned home, Goody began striking in front of the San Francisco Ferry Building every week.
However, Goody soon realized that there was a lack of climate activism in her own community.
“I saw that there was no way for children to get involved in climate action on a local scale,” she said. “In fact, most students didn’t even know what climate change was.”
Goody said recently, “I saw there was a lot of activism, but not from young people. The action was all led by adults and senior citizens. I thought ‘ This can’t be it. There has to be a way for young people to get involved.’ This is an issue that will affect us for the rest of our lives. I was confused why there are not more youth leaders in our community. Young people have voices powerful enough to make the necessary change.”
Helping others to learn how to become climate activists has been a full-time job for Goody, but one that has unexpected rewards for her on a personal level.
“Even though I spend a lot of days working with young people to stop climate change, and it takes a lot of effort, I’m seeing my depression going away,” Goody said. “Sure, I’ve had to give up a number of more rigorous classes in school, like my AP and honors classes and theater. I love theater, but I had to make choices.”
Thus far, Climate NOW has given presentations at eight public schools in Marin County, reaching more than 500 K-12 students. Goody is also focused on collaborating with local high school environmental clubs, providing them with a platform to connect to the wider climate movement, and joining them in fighting for composting and recycling programs on campus. She has become a major voice in the fight against climate change as she reaches out through to the public the media and at speaking engagements.
On September 20, 2019, Sarah joined forces with Youth vs. Apocalypse to lead more than 40,000 people in a San Francisco Climate Strike, the largest climate strike that had ever taken place in the city.
“The most important thing that Climate NOW has taught me is how powerful my voice is,” Goody said. “I have spoken with hundreds of children about the climate crisis and experienced the same feedback every time. These children tell me that they wish they could do something to stop climate change and that I have inspired them to take more action. Knowing that I have been able to show these children that they are capable of making a difference in their community means everything to me.”
The planet does not have much time before the effects of climate change could become irreversible, according to Goody, who said action has to be taken before 2030. We are already seeing the drastic impact of climate change with deadly wildfires burning through California and the Pacific Northwest, as well as sea level rise already threatening homes in Marin County.
“Living in California, we’ve seen the direct impacts of climate change,” Goody said. “We live in the constant fear that our homes will burn down and there will be nothing left. Literally, climate change is right in our faces. It’s hard not to believe in climate change. We have to take action now.”
Goody encourages everyone to take part in coastal cleanup events happening this month, and to take action as individuals and as a community.
At age 15, Goody is too young to vote in the November election, but she and other teens still use their voices to pressure public officials to address climate change.
“It’s absolutely terrifying to think we have to go from almost zero action to everyone working together to increase green power and energy and to reduce our carbon footprint before 2030,” Goody said. “You look at how far we have to go and it’s terrifying. It’s depressing and it creates a climate of fear and grief in all of us, even children. But look at how far we have come and it’s still possible to reach our goal.”
(Derek Wilson can be reached at dwilson@marinscope.com.)
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