(Seguin) – While most kids are resting and having fun this summer, one local Seguin High School student is busy leading an environmental campaign. With a public presentation set for this Saturday at the public library, SHS Senior Diego Hernandez hopes to share more about his chosen campaign, “Save Money, Save the Environment.”
Hernandez’s effort is under the umbrella of Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Group), a national non-profit designed to unite students with the hopes of creating a “greener, healthier, more meaningful future.” With many sister affiliates across the country, Hernandez says he has picked up one of the group’s activist toolkits with the desire to bring on change beginning here in his community.
“Student PIRGs has multiple campaigns where students like me can get out in the community, become an advocate, try to make a change. I chose to campaign for ‘Save Money, Save the Environment.’ I am currently reading to further my research into the environment, ‘Not the End of the World.’ I actually got it here at Pecantown here in Seguin by Hannah Ritchie. It’s really eye-opening to everything because my campaign, it seeks out signatures and petitions to keep funding for the IRA and basically, what that means is if we keep funding for the IRA, we will have money so America can have an easier transition into a greener lifestyle by providing tax reductions. It also gives us funding to create those green energy facilities like solar plantations and wind plantations especially if we want to reach our carbon net of zero in the Continental United States by 2050,” said Hernandez.
Carbon net zero, also known as net zero emissions, is a “state where the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by human activities is balanced by the amount removed over a specific period.”
Now, instead of just dreaming of this healthier world, Hernandez is taking action to engage and educate folks in smaller communities like Seguin.
Not only is he the chair of the energy environment committee for Seguin High School’s Student Council, but Hernandez has already spent much of his personal time with the public leading community efforts such as trash cleanups along Walnut Trail.
Hernandez’s latest effort in his environmental campaign will be an informational meeting this Saturday in the Seguin Public Library. Hernandez says the event is simply an opportunity for folks to learn more about how they can improve things.
“Like I said, this book that I’m reading is really eye opening. It’s telling us that it’s not the end of the world. We are actually on good standards right now but what we need to do is keep that track going and by keeping this funding. We can stay on that track to provide a better future. I would love to see more people care about the environment. It is definitely something that is lacking in smaller communities. My organization is non-partisan, so it’s not politically affiliated with anybody. It’s mainly to bring awareness and to teach people how we can live a better future and how we can be an advocate for that better future,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez’s presentation will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday in the library’s conference room. The library is located at 313 W. Nolte St.