Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education is remotely hosting its 3rd annual YEAH conference on April 21st, and new work from Mothers & Others for Clean Air will be presented alongside other exciting youth-led environmental projects. MOCA’s research intern will be giving a 10-minute presentation on his role in creating the Healthy Indoor Breathing Toolkit, an online tool on the MOCA website that helps people avoid everyday sources of indoor air pollution. Did you know that nonstick pans can release chemicals called PFOAs, known to cause cancer in most animals? The presentation will cover information like this and more. It will be a broad lesson on indoor air pollution, a personal story about how the online tool was made, and a statement on the importance of science communication. The Healthy Indoor Toolkit is currently in its final stages of editing and will be publicly available in May.
The theme for this year’s YEAH conference is Environmental Conservation, Sustainability, and Equity, and the speakers are all college students presenting the results of various projects related to these topics. Speakers come from a variety of international institutions, and the topics are diverse, from our emotional connection to nature during the COVID-19 pandemic; how edible plants in cities can stop dangerous heat waves; to an analysis of how squash and bees are used in African and Native American Cuisine.
YEAH is an international network that connects students across institutions, disciplines, and nations under the banner of global sustainability. The group places an emphasis on collaboration and evidence-based methods, meaning that its members can tackle anything from biodiversity to environmental equity to engineering transportation systems. This diversity is clearly seen in the list of speakers for the YEAH 2021 conference. Its membership primarily comes from the United States, Australia, and the UK.
For information on YEAH events and initiatives (including the 2021 conference), you can go the their website: https://yeah-net.org/
