News Story by Alysen Boston | FāVS News
As a teenager, Dylan Richardson joined a protest to prevent residential development on one of the last native grasslands in southern California. The land, now protected by a trust, was his favorite place to hike, bike and run.
“I was sitting in front of a bulldozer thinking, ‘Wow, we can actually do something to protect the things we love,’” Richardson said.
Richardson and his classmate Libby Bunch, who both major in political science and environmental studies at Whitworth University, were among the few U.S. college students invited to attend the U.N.’s annual climate summit, COP28, as official observers.
COP28 – The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference — was held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 at the United Arab Emirates. The students attended virtually.
At the end of the summit, world leaders agreed to transition away from fossil fuels, including oil and gas, for the first time in the conference’s history. But COP28 fell short of making a concrete plan to ensure this happens before 2030, the year climate hazards are expected to increase if fossil fuel emissions haven’t been cut in half.
“This level of multinational collaboration was amazing to see,” Richardson said. “But on the other side, this is the international cooperation with the greatest potential to create change, yet every year we come out wanting for something.”
Bunch, the child of two lawyers, agrees it’s time to act.
“Let’s see the work,” she said.
But the two students differ on how to achieve change. Richardson said witnessing the discussions at COP28 solidified his resolve to work within existing laws rather than trying to change the current system. Bunch, however, sees environmental lobbying as the way to go, and she is pursuing a Congressional aide internship after her graduation this spring.
“We need to have these important conversations in the political sphere. Renewable energy lobbying is one way to do that,” Bunch said. “There’s so much potential that’s untapped right now.”
Bunch grew up in Tacoma, one of the most contaminated areas in the country. Watching friends and neighbors have their lawns torn out because of high levels of arsenic and lead in the soil sparked her interest in environmental justice, she said.
“Then I became a Christian at Whitworth,” Bunch said, “and my professor fostered my passion for creation care, which is seeing the environment as god’s creation and our need as people to protect it.”
The concept comes from Genesis 2:15, where God instructs Adam to work and take care of the Garden of Eden, Bunch says. The idea that humans are tasked with the stewardship of God’s creation forms the basis of Christian environmentalism.
“Failing to live up to that vocation should be one of our main concerns as Christians,” Bunch said.
