Alec Loorz, a 14 year old high school student from Ventura and a nationally renowned environmental expert and advocate, gave a presentation on empowering the next generation of green leaders at the outdoor amphitheater at the Sly Park Conservation & Environmental Education Center on January 6.
Sly Park is residential environmental education school in the Eldorado National Forest and is operated by the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE).
"As the future stewards of our environment, Alec's own story showed our sixth graders that they can make a difference, that they do have the power to make change," said Sly Park Principal Phil Romig.
At age 12, Alec founded 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 multimedia presentations to schools and conferences, and starts Action Teams to show young people ways that they can learn to become green leaders by encouraging teenagers to speak up and let their voices be heard on the issue of global warming.
He gave more than 30 global warming presentations before being invited by former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore to be formally trained with the Climate Project in October of 2008. The Climate Project (TCP) consists of 2,500 dedicated volunteers from throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Spain, and the UK, all personally trained by Al Gore to educate the public about climate change. TCP presenters hope that by raising awareness about this issue and informing others about potential solutions, people can preserve the climate balance. Alec Loorz is the youngest trained presenter with The Climate Project.
In June 2008, Alec, and a team of others, installed an environmental activist project called SLAP (Sea Level Awareness Project) showing how far underwater the city of Ventura will be if nothing is done about climate change.