Youth Voices for Climate Action

The Greater Cincinnati Area wants your help creating a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan to tackle pollution, clean our air, and help communities affected by environmental problems.

A collection of cities and counties in Greater Cincinnati called Thrive Together are working to address environmental issues facing residents. The counties involved in Thrive Together are displayed on the map to the left; if you live in any of the included counties, you can participate!

Thrive Together created a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) that briefly describes some challenges the area is facing and how we intend to solve them. Visit the document below to view the full PCAP.

Some examples of environmental issues and proposed solutions from the PCAP include:

Improving Tree Cover:

Some neighborhoods have very few trees in them, meaning more of the buildings, roads, and parking lots are exposed to the sun. Exposed surfaces absorb the sun's heat and radiate it back into the area; this is called the Urban Heat Island Effect. Ever touched hot blacktop? Urban Heat Island is like that but on a bigger scale, heating whole neighborhoods until they are much hotter than neighborhoods with trees.

By planting more trees in areas experiencing Urban Heat Island Effect, we can help cool neighborhoods, keeping residents and buildings much more comfortable in the heat of summer. The PCAP includes plans to increase the amount of trees in neighborhoods with low tree cover.

Solar Power Progress:

Our energy use drives a huge demand for coal and natural gas. Both of these fuel sources emit greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change and increase air pollution. Want to know one way to help fight climate change and clean the air in our communities? Switch from natural gas and coal to solar power. Solar panels generate energy without needing to pollute our air or dig for natural gas and coal. The PCAP encourages local governments, landowners, and communities to install solar panels to provide their own energy.

Dealing with Food Waste:

Did you know around 40% of all food produced never gets eaten? This food ends up in our landfills where it releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that’s contributing to climate change. But, there’s other ways to get rid of food that does not have the same impact as the landfill. That’s where composting comes in! Composting is when food waste, like fruits and vegetables, and yard waste decompose to create a rich, healthy soil for farming the next crop of plants. Composting allows us to recycle our food back into more food and keeps organic matter out of the landfill and methane out of our air. The PCAP has plans to create more composting opportunities and reduce the food in our landfills.

Our next step is creating a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan that gives a more detailed description of the innovative solutions to environmental issues. But we want your opinions! You’re the expert on the environmental problems your neighborhood is dealing with, which is why we want to gather your thoughts. On this page are some options for voicing your concerns, problems you see, ideas to fix those problems, or just some topics you think should be addressed. Your responses will help us craft a plan that could improve the environment and the lives of people in 16 counties!

Not a young person but want to be involved?

Check out the attached presentation titled Thrive Together Partner Meeting Slides to find out how you can help get young people involved in this effort!