When it comes to looking after our planet, it seems the future may just be in female hands. In my opinion, it seems today’s young women are more progressive about environmental issues and they may end up being the ones setting the standard for future generations.
Rebecca Mask and Campbell Metzger are currently interning at Accelerate Climate Solutions in Naperville.
“It’s our planet and I have grown up caring about it. It makes me feel better if I am doing something about it,” said Mask, a 19-year-old Naperville student majoring in marketing and minoring in sustainability at the University of Dayton in Ohio. “I really care about the environment.”
Campbell Metzger, 17, is a senior at Naperville North High School, where she is a member of the Environmental Science club.
“There are only a couple of guys in the club,” she said. “I want to be involved with the environment and sustainability. I am very passionate about it.”
The girls are part of a 13-person intern team working this summer at the Naperville nonprofit, which was started in January 2023. Selected from 42 applicants, most of whom were girls, they may not directly follow in the footsteps of organization co-founder Catherine Clarkin, she sets a wonderful example, they said.
Among those who attended Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force’s July 15 community meeting about youth climate leaders were, from left, Alicia Mathew; Sabrina Tse; state Sen. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville; Riley Leu; Soham Dongre; DuPage County Board member Lucy Chang Evans, who represents Naperville; Saba Haider, a candidate for DuPage County Board; and Catherine Clarkin. Kneeling in front is Jensen Coonradt. (Catherine Clarkin)
“Cathy always says there is hope and the more you act to do things, the better it will be,” Mask said. “All of my female friends that are passionate about things tend to get involved when they are younger than men do. We tend to spread the word more. I like working with the team. Cathy picks great people. It’s female heavy. I feel really empowered.”
In addition to handling the nonprofit’s social media and website, the interns are responsible for EcoBLAST, an environmental fair held every August at Naperville Central High School. They also run a student climate competition, Blast. Last summer Campbell and her team competed against about 15 others in the Naperville-Aurora area and won $500 after redesigning the school’s recycling system.
Clarkin reminds us that global warming and the need to take care of the planet is nothing new.
“Since the mid-19th century, we have known that fossil fuel traps heat,” she said. “Lyndon Johnson was the first president to be briefed on global warming. There has been a lot of effort made to put the burden on individuals, but we don’t want to put the burden on young people. We want them to have agency to make an impact.”
Clarkin, 58, is also chair of the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force (NEST), where more men are involved. NEST advises the city on what steps they can take to improve the local environment and educate Naperville citizens. In addition, she’s an education facilitator at Fermilab.
Clarkin, who grew up in Wheaton, was interested in science from childhood.
“I was good at math and my parents wanted me to be an engineer, but I didn’t want to,” she said. “When I was at school you just needed good grades and a sport, but today’s students have so much pressure. I didn’t need to do internships.”
After doing two years of chemistry at high school, she majored in the subject at the University of Illinois.
“I realized I really enjoyed environmental chemistry and worked in three different labs in college,” she said. “I got my master’s in environmental science from the University of North Carolina and became an environmental chemist.”
Clarkin has worked and moved around the world with her husband, who worked for the Peace Corps. In 2009 they moved to Naperville, where she started volunteering with NEST before becoming its chair. She joined Fermilab in 2018.
NEST has just started working with the Green Energy Justice Cooperative on projects in Aurora and Naperville.
“The population is different in the two cities,” she said, “so we have different projects. In Aurora, two big solar blocks are being added to a warehouse where we are going to provide energy to low-income families we are working to enlist. Naperville is wealthier so we are looking for people who want to get rid of natural gas in their homes. We are still in the early stages of research but looking for early adopters who can help bring the price down.
“In the United States, 42% of our energy-related emissions come from our homes and cars. By electrifying these, we reduce those emissions and the reductions become more significant as the grid gets cleaner.”
Clarkin says she cannot sit back and do nothing.
“We are living in a climate crisis,” she said. “A lot of what we are doing is kind of new to me. I’m organizing people to take action. I really do feel there is so much we can do to create change. All of it matters. Every fraction of a degree we can make to the climate makes a difference.”
It seems the next generation agrees. Said Metzger: “I don’t know what the future will hold so I want to do what I can now to make sure I have the same opportunities as my parents and my children and grandchildren will too.”
Clarkin could not agree more.
“That’s a definition of sustainability right there,” she said.
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved to Naperville from England in 2007. She can be reached at hilarydecent@gmail.com.
