students have been among those leading the charge to address climate change and a group of young climate activists from across the country including from Hopewell Valley Central High School recently converged on the capitol urging Congress to address an issue they see as disproportionately impacting their generation and their future joining me now are two of the high school's Juniors who were at the Washington DC rally students Lucy Webster and Ben polara welcome to you both let me ask you Ben first what specifically compelled you to take part in this action down in D.C um so as a student in New Jersey I already experienced climate education in school because the standards just changed this year um but I want to ensure that students around the country can have that same kind of education that I experience private education is empowering and I want students to feel empowered not fearful of the future and climate anxiety also plays a role Into Climate education students feel anxious of the future because of climate change and climate education will help students feel empowered yeah okay Lucy let me ask you about that obviously you all have lived through some of the most extreme weather patterns we've had in Generations just in your lifetime tornadoes just this weekend through New Jersey what effect does that not have on your mental health and what do you feel is your role in helping to bring about some change well I think I speak for a lot of kids my age when saying that climate change climate change feels like a very pressing issue for our generation and so a lot of us feel as though we have to act in order to protect the world that we're growing up in and just like as you said of those storms that came through New Jersey over the weekend um when that happened I was actually driving down Route One and I was immediately like fearful thinking back to the storms we had in September with hurricane Ida and was worried about the impact they were going to have so that's just an example of how climate anxiety and fear of these more erratic storms caused by climate change is affecting young people and acting as almost a call to action and encouraging many of us to get involved Lucy which lawmakers or Advocates did you actually get a chance to talk to what were your conversations like um well we met with our Congress person Bonnie Watson Coleman she is already a co-sponsor on the resolutions that we were going down to DC to talk about so we had a very productive conversation with her about the importance of her co-sponsorship and thanked her for her work and we also met with one Congress person from Vermont representative Ballin and one from Colorado we met with her staffer representative Peterson and Ben that resolution of course is what you all helped to draft to require this K-12 climate education very quickly did you walk away feeling like you had some resolution or at least some possible resolution yes so we know that in a republican-controlled house that these resolutions will have a tough time being passed but both Representatives that we met with said yes to both resolutions that we were trying to pass one on climate education and the other on mental health advocacy in a changing climate so we both felt very empowered after both of our meetings all right Ben polaro Lucy Webster both Juniors at Hopewell Valley Central High School uh thanks so much for sharing with us tonight thank you thank you [Music÷}