Although the frigid winter air may make you wish climate change was happening faster, the COP21 conference in Paris was another step forward in the prevention of climate change. Although the Paris Climate Agreement reached at the conference is not perfect, “today it is the most beautiful and the most peaceful revolution that has just been accomplished: a revolution for climate change,” said French President François Hollande, in reaction to the agreement.

The agreement states a main objective is to “[hold] the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C.” It acknowledged the international community’s need to reduce its carbon footprint.

Senior Karina Franke, a leader of Hackley’s Earth Action League, HEAL, said that “like many others, I’m optimistic about the Agreement because there seems to be an acknowledgement that while government regulations are important, they will never be enough.”

A fellow member, Junior Camille Butterfield, wishes the club will be “more organized about spreading the word about it” in the future.

HEAL is, however, arranging for a speaker to come to Hackley on Earth Day, as well as a school-wide Crayola Marker recycling project. Camille also wants to tie in information from the sustainability-focused Round Square trip to Singapore to HEAL’s next meeting.

On the Round Square Singapore trip, Hackley students toured the United World College of South East Asia, which brags Singapore’s most advanced cooling system. A part of this is the green wall — a section of the wall covered in climbing vines and hanging plants that shade the hallways and reduce AC usage.

The sophomores who attended the conference talked about issues from women’s rights, to starvation, to education. “We plan to find a way to have [the leftover food] go to homeless shelters and places with people in need instead of wasted,” said one attendee, sophomore Kioni Marshall.