Speaker: Michele Drucker, Miami, FL USA
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Michele Drucker: Hi, my name is Michelle Drucker. I'm an attorney and I am a volunteer in the school setting. I am the environmental chair for the Miami Dade County Council PTA and served as the environmental chair for the Florida PTA as well. I have been trying to promote green schools to reduce environmental impacts and cost. We focused on everything from installing solar to electric car charging stations, to food waste reduction with share carts and back of kitchen composting and recycling programs. We passed a resolution with our school board in 2021 to commit to 100% clean energy by 2030 we had a task force that met for nine months and created a comprehensive report on how to save the schools $100 million over the course of the next decade and also to implement food waste reduction campaigns, which is what I'm working on currently. And I always tell the kids that food waste reduction is the number three climate solution which would reduce emissions 70 gigatons. And I make the analogy it's the equivalent of taking all cars off us roads for 70 years. And then I explained to them by showing them the Drawdown poster that I have that recycling is only ranked 55 and only would have the impact of reducing emissions 2.5 gigatons and they're really astounded because they had no idea that food waste reduction is such an important climate solution.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Michele Drucker: My inspiration for being a climate activist comes from growing up in Martin County on the Indian River lagoon. It's the most biodiverse waterway in North America. My father was a sailor and he wanted to have a property on the water. It was a very underdeveloped community, one of the smaller counties in Florida on the east coast, about 100 miles north of Miami. And I spent my childhood with my Black Labrador Retriever. Jumping in the water, picking up oysters and hermit crabs and seeing manatees and dolphins and rays and just had such a magical childhood experience that my mom likes to compare to Huckleberry Finn. So I spent a lot of time um in those waters with my best friend and we had a little, a tiny red dinghy and we painted the word the Titanic on the back of it that just had a little five horsepower engine. And we used to go to the sand bars with our dogs and just enjoy nature and the wildlife
