GREEN TEENS AT THE ARTIST ALLEY

Catch our budding green artists at the conference Artist Alley. This special area will highlight creative, green teens and their environmentally-theme artwork or masterpieces made of eco-friendly materials. Some of our young, talented artists include:

• Iris Martinez, 16, Photo
• Ana Baranda, 19, Painting
• Peter Meitzenheimer, 13, Etching
• Juan Correa, 14, Drawing
• Charbel Rizk, 18, Sculpture
• Emmanuel Galvez, 17, Painting
• Rebecca Guerrrero, 20, Arch-shaped mobil using recycled materials
• Eugenia Barbuc, 21, Natalie Polanco, 17, and Ivan Melchor, 19, a collaborative art piece using recycled materials

Also on display will be art work by the Million Trees LA contributing artists: Juan Rosillo, Jean Wells, Hamerslag, Kevin Inkwich, Cindy Surianyi, Ron Howard, Fumiko Armano, Goose Black Finger, Steven McElroy and Abel Alejandre.

Make sure to stop by!

FOR the Youth ... BY the Youth

What makes the Environmental Youth Conference different from other conferences you've attended? Well, how about the fact that the conference speakers are mostly teens like you? Yes, there won't be much adults at the mic. That's right! This conference is FOR the Youth and BY the Youth.

This year's conference panelists will discuss projects related to eco-consumption, urban forestry and water. Check out who they are:

Genesis Godoy
Genesis is 16 years old and attends Environmental Charter High School. She organized fashion shows highlighting 20 clothing outfits made from recycled materials which were created by 15 of her youth colleagues. Her goal is to exhibit the fashion show at 15 community events to over 700 people. www.greenambassadors.net

Kelley Butler
Kelly is a tenth grader at Harvard Westlake, and is from South Los Angeles. She and her volleyball team started the Clean Canteen program that promotes reusable containers for liquids. She is also a member of Jack and Jill, an African American organization, which uses its recycling program to raise funds for charities.

Tosh Sivertsen

Tosh and his mother co-authored a book called Generation Green which is an eco-guide for teens to “green” their lives through several ways, including green careers. www.generationgreenthebook.com

Jesus Navarro

As a youth, Jesus worked on a recycling project with the Bureau of Sanitation’s summer program and is now working for the City department.

Daniela Esparza
Daniela works with Pacoima Beautiful Youth group and partnered with a local elementary school to build and maintain a community garden and to plant trees. They also work to promote sustainability and environmental justice in communities. www.pacoimabeautiful.org

Alex Castro
Alex works with Pacoima Beautiful Youth group and partnered with a local elementary school to build and maintain a community garden and plant trees. They also work to promote sustainability and environmental justice in communities. www.pacoimabeautiful.org

Adam Gerard
Adam is 13 years old and is President of Board for Tree Musketeers, a youth organization focused on trees. From 2003-2008, the group has planted over 500 trees along the stretch of Imperial Highway that borders LAX. www.treemusketeers.org

Evelina Weary
Evelina is a student at Santa Monica High School, and works with a student group called Team Marine that competes in science competitions in Southern California. She and her peers have worked on numerous eco-projects including cleaner oceans and water pollution. www.teammarine.org

Daniel Farahdel
Daniel is a student at Santa Monica High School, and works with a student group called Team Marine that competes in science competitions in Southern California. He worked on a YouTube video to promote the problems associated with plastic bags called “Danny Going Green.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsDdFOaSd3c

Blanca Perez
Blanca is 16 years old and a student at Animo Film and Theater Arts Charter School. She is Co-President of her school’s Guerrilla Gardening Group that promotes eco-activism including water conservation.

Inconvenient Truth youth presenter is conference keynote speaker

The City of Los Angeles is pleased to announce that Alec Loorz, 14, is the 2008 Environmental Youth Conference keynote speaker.

Alec is the founder of Kids-vs-Global-Warming, a youth-inspired and youth-led organization that informs, trains, and empowers kids about the issues of global warming to inspire action. He gives multi-media presentations to schools and conferences, and starts Action Teams to empower the next generation of green leaders. After giving his own youth-focused presentation over 30 times, Alec was invited by Al Gore to be trained to give the official Inconvenient Truth presentations. He is currently the youngest trained presenter. In June, Alec and his team installed an environmental activist project called SLAP (Sea Level Awareness Project,) showing how far underwater the city will be if nothing is done about climate change.

http://www.kids-vs-global-warming.com/

GET YOUR GREEN ON at the 2008 Environmental Youth Conference

Come with your school. Bring your friends! Be part of the largest youth environmental event in the west! All Los Angeles residents ages 12 to 21 are invited to this green education event for the youth and by the youth. Come with your school, church or neighborhood group, and learn all about environmentalism through tree plantings, green jobs, and buying eco-friendly. Surprise guests will highlight this fun-filled learning experience.

What did you think of the 2007 Environmental Youth Conference?

More than 3,000 young Angelenos came out to the Los Angeles Convention Center on December 8, 2007 to join Mayor Villaraigosa, Wilmer Valderrama, Tyrese Gibson, Mad Mike and stars from the Disney Channel for a day of learning about climate change and what we can do to make a difference on the environment. If you were part of the event, or wish you were, tell us what you think! Post a message below.

Here's an excerpt from one e-mail that Million Trees LA staff received recently:

"... (I) forgot to share with you what my daughter Melissa said. She said she had the best day of her life and that she wants to work with the City when she grows up - cute huh. You and your Department did such a great job that my daughter is already looking to work with Million Trees... Thanks again for making her day!"

From Daniel Ruiz, Los Angeles