It is Maryland's third annual Youth Environmental Summit and hundreds of high school students, from big cities to distant rural counties, have been invited by the administration of Gov. Parris Glendening to debate and envision a ``smart growth'' future. They've gone to sessions on why so few kids are able to walk or ride a bike to school to whether sprawl is a culprit in soaring rates of obesity, diabetes and asthma. They've held discussions on energy conservation, alternative fuels and mass transit possibilities. They had a seminar on media messages and why the cars in television ads are never stuck in traffic.
And now there's a near-riot at the microphone as the students get a chance to pepper Glendening himself with questions:
"How can we Ireally reduce highway congestion?"What will Maryland do about the loss of wildlife caused by the march of development?" "Can mass transit work not just in big urban counties but remote areas like Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore?" "How can the state recycle more waste?" "Will it put a transit line on a new 12-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge linking Maryland and Virginia?''
And then there's a question Glendening later says he'll remember into the future. Joffrey Blair, an Anne Arundel County student, notes the comparisons many have made between the Chesapeake Bay and a human body and puts it to the governor: "Wouldn't you say the Chesapeake Bay is dying? Oyster and crab harvests are way down, and some grasses are almost wiped out. Just imagine if you pumped all that mud and sediments and toxins into a body. The person would die. So how can the Bay survive?''
"The Bay isn't dying, but it's very sick,'' Glendening replies.
"Oysters and clams are in the most trouble, followed by crabs and a number of fish.'' And then the governor affirms the thrust of Blair's question--that the critical question is what happens on the land, including wetlands loss and the runoff from fertilizer-soaked farms and lawns and asphalt-laden developments.
But Joffrey's question, Glendening told me afterward, was emblematic of what he hoped to achieve through the youth summits. ``I saw it happen as a teacher-- the awakening, putting the elements of an equation together. This young man got it!''
Term limited from a another run for governor in 2002, Glendening can't be accused of building a personal political base through the youth summits. But he depicts the sessions as his ``effort to leave a living legacy to smart growth and the environment, rather than just a personal legislative or programmatic legacy. With these young people involved, it's a political agenda that won't be changed.''
Glendening specifically urged the students to think of future runs for public office, to consider working with nonprofits or, at a minimum, to be engaged citizens and voters.
The pitch is probably more original than one would think. Notwithstanding efforts like the American Legion's long-standing Boys State and Girls State programs around the United States, there's likely never been a state-led effort so specifically aimed at inviting youth not just to get involved in public life, but to be ready to challenge ingrained practices and political orthodoxies.
The students for Maryland's now-yearly autumn summits are nominated by teachers in public, environmental affairs or social studies. Slots are apportioned to cover the entire state. Yearly attendance ranges from 600 upward. Students help plan the sessions, open the summits, introduce main speakers and close the day.
And in afternoon sessions each year, the students get a chance to "role play'' how--as developer, road builder, zoning board member or civic association leader--they'd wrestle with such real-life issues as proposed new roads, new subdivisions or infill housing in the specific parts of the state they live in.
Glendening used this fall's summit to remind the students that Maryland is splitting its highway funding 50-50 between highways and mass transit, compared with a 90-10 split in most states. The Chesapeake Bay, open space and farmlands, wildlife, established cities and towns all will benefit from more compact development, he argued.
He also announced publication of ``Where Do We Grow From Here?''--a professionally prepared guidebook and CD-ROM for teachers' classroom use across the state (www.dnr.state.md.us/education).
Chat with the young attendees, and you can't question that their curiosity and concern about the environment and their home communities has been piqued.
Says John Frece, Glendening's smart-growth coordinator and guiding force in the summits: ``If kids walk away from this realizing they have a choice, that today's growth practices don't have to be repeated mindlessly into the future, then we're halfway there to a better future for our state.''
Neal Peirce's e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com.
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