Season 3, Episode 19: Willow

Climate Action Figures celebrates passing 2,500 podcast downloads, sharing a listener QuickFix from Linda in Indio, California about switching from plastic reusable bottles to aluminum, and discuss recycling energy savings. They interview grade 12 student Willow McGrath from St. John, New Brunswick, who describes how nature and camp shaped her environmental passion and her work leading Earth Ed Experiential Learning. Willow explains receiving a $3,000 Ocean Wise grant to run environmental education visits in local elementary schools, add green spaces like planters and an outdoor classroom, and create a 10-poster campaign with youth artists across Canada. She recounts representing youth at conferences, including Ottawa’s National Forum for Environmental Learning and the World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, where youth co-wrote the Global Children’s Call to Action. Willow shares concerns about an AI data center proposed on wetlands, AI’s impacts on learning and energy use, her birch-tree magnetic field research, plans to study environmental science, her love of houseplants, and hope from like-minded communities.

00:00 Welcome and Milestone

00:42 QuickFix Aluminum Swap

01:45 Willow’s Nature Roots

02:45 Camp and Earth Ed

04:13 Ocean Wise School Program

07:02 Conferences and Youth Voice

10:04 AI Data Centers Concerns

13:24 Staying Balanced and Research

15:45 Future Career in Conservation

16:44 Plant Mom Climate Action

17:57 Hope and Closing Thanks

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Transcript

Willow 0:00

Hi, I'm Willow McGrath and you're tuned into Climate Action Figures.

John 0:13

Hello and welcome to an exciting new edition of Climate Action Figures. Exciting because we have another inspiring young guest for you to meet, but also because we just found out that we passed the 2500 mark in podcast downloads. And that does not even include our YouTube downloads, so you can see why we're so excited today. My name is John Whidden, and in just a moment you get to meet Willow. But first, we always love to hear your QuickFixes and share them with others, so please send them in via email or social media, and we will use them on the program. This week's QuickFix comes to us from Linda in Indio, California and she says, switch your plastic reusable bottles to aluminum. Aluminum cans are one of the most efficiently recycled items. About 75% of all aluminum produced is still in use today. So thanks to Linda for that QuickFix, and welcome Willow. What do you think about that QuickFix?

Willow 1:16

Really nice to know. I'll definitely be looking for more aluminum.

John 1:18

I don't usually chase down statistics to verify them, I leave that to our listeners, but for some reason I did this time and I found that not only is that true, that, uh, 75% ish is, uh, is recycled. I also learned that recycling scrap aluminum requires only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminum from raw ore. So that's pretty cool. So I might be just switching over to aluminum from plastic too.

Willow 1:43

Yeah, for sure.

John 1:44

Now enough about aluminum. Let's talk about Willow. You are a grade 12 student in St. John, new Brunswick. And describe yourself as extremely passionate about the environment. Tell us about the roots of that passion.

Willow 1:56

Mm. Well, honestly, living in St. John New Brunswick, uh, you're kind of surrounded by a whole lot of nature. Um, we have the really special Acadian Wabanaki Forest. I have the St. John River and Reversing Falls running right through my city. I drive by it every night. But also I always went to camp when I was younger. Um, Camp Glenburn, it's really close to my heart. Um, and growing up there, I got to spend literal weeks in the woods, canoeing or hiking or just playing with sticks. Um, and it really, really helped foster a deep love of nature and the outdoors in me as a young child.

John 2:38

So it sounds like you love to spend time outside and you love being a camp counselor. By the sounds of it.

Willow 2:42

Oh yeah, definitely. It was dream come true.

John 2:45

When we were talking before the show, you mentioned loving to also provide experiential learning to campers. Why is that? And just being outside for young people important to you.

Willow 2:55

We run certain programs at camp. They're called IGs or interest groups, and I'm the leader of what's called Earth Ed IG, which was actually my favorite IG when I was growing up as a camper. Um, I remember actually. It was the first time I learned that, like plants tasted like things. Somebody told me that golden birch tasted like mint and it blew my mind. So it's really special to me, um, to now be running that. It's kind of like a full circle moment. But also it's really important to me to kind of deliver that outdoor, tangible, experiential learning is what we call it, because I find it so engaging, and it, it sparks so much passion like it did in me. but also I feel it's so important, to learn about things. Uh,'cause I really feel like that's kind of the, the first start, to a lot of future advocacy and stuff like that. And environmental and climate advocacy is, is super important to me and I hold it pretty dear to my heart. So I love trying to kind of pass on or sow the seeds of that, uh, to future generations.

John 4:05

It is so important for young people to get those outdoor experiences. So good on you for continuing the tradition that you grew up with. Now you've also mentioned that you received a grant from Ocean Wise. Uh, tell us about how that came about and what you're doing with the funds.

Willow 4:20

Actually they're really, really interlinked. they're kind of both surrounded by the same premise of experiential learning or learning about the environment, and I actually learned about the Ocean Wise Grant, like right before I was going into camp. So I was filling out the application at nighttime while my campers were still asleep. Um, which is pretty fun. It's uh, a grant of$3,000. Thank you so much Ocean Wise. And I've used it to start this environmental education program with elementary schools in my district. I have one of my friends, Ryan, he, he helps me out with it. And every Friday that we have off, we set up an appointment to go to a different elementary and we spend about an hour or two there. We talk about any topics that really interest the kids, be it soil chemistry basics, or forestry or even just like how plants work. The really exciting thing is the money from the grant is used for two main things. One of them is to kind of work to install a type of green space in that elementary school. So one of them, my elementary school, we put an outdoor classroom in it. But then most of the other ones we bring like planters for the kids to take care of. Most of them kind of include tropical plants and stuff like that, just'cause it's easy enough to take care of inside. Um, and then the other thing that it funds is super exciting. It's this poster campaign that I put together. It's about 10 posters. They're all about differing environmental topics. Some of them super, super basic, like pollinator basics and some of them a little bit more nuanced, like rain gardens and kind of what they are and how they work. But what's super exciting about this poster campaign is that I asked a couple of my friends from all across Canada to kind of each make two posters for it. So we've got some posters made from kids in BC and kids in Alberta, and kids in New Brunswick. So it's pretty fun.

John 6:35

How did you get connected to all those young people from across Canada?

Willow 6:38

I've, uh, gone to a lot of different, conferences kind of all around the topic of the environment or, kind of environmental education. Um, so some of the kids I met at UNESCO conferences, some of them I met at AP Nature Ed conferences. I've kind of started to make a whole web of friends all across Canada, which is really exciting.

John 7:02

Now Willow, you have represented Canadian youth on matters of environmental education at many conferences, do you want to tell us about one or two of those?

Willow 7:11

I think the main two would probably be the National Forum for Environmental Learning which was in Ottawa. And it was all about creating a national framework for environmental learning to guide education curriculum across Canada, so I just threw in some student input into that sort of creation. The bigger one, or probably the more important one would be the World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, which I attended this last October, so October, 2025. that was crazy. It was farthest I've ever been for sure, but it was, uh, super cool. It was kind of a team of 10 youth, some from Canada, but others from Peru, Madagascar, and India, and also Columbia. We kind of wrote this paper called the Global Children's Call to Action. We spread a bunch of surveys around our local communities concerning education and what it's lacking or, or what it really has that's super great or what can kind of be improved about it and then looking at the results, we saw a lot of need for kind of more Indigenous influenced education and environmental education in general. There wasn't a lot of high confidence that children had in their sort of climate literacy. and so then over the course of a lot of Zoom calls, some of them super, super late for me because of time zones. Um, some of them super, super late for others. Through all of the responses in the survey and, and our personal anecdotes into this paper with six points. And so then we took those six points and we kind of presented it to anyone and everyone who would listen to them at the World Conservation Congress, hoping that they would, take note and maybe start making them into their, um, I kind of forget what they're called, resolutions or something like that. Yeah, it was super fun, super, super cool.

John 9:20

Why is it important for us to hear the voice of youth in terms of climate?

Willow 9:24

Who better to hear about education and what needs to change about education than the people who are directly receiving it. But in general, I think it's super, super important to hear about youth on, climate or really any topic because, I mean, we make up a large percentage of the population and we do have consciousness and we do have brains. So we kind of observe things. And sometimes also we're not as scared to sort of speak up about things that we observe and things that we find should probably change.

John 10:04

I'd love to get your opinion from a youth perspective on another topic we've talked quite a bit about, and that's AI. This is a huge open question for you, but what are your thoughts about AI? What's your perspective on the way it's going and maybe some of the positives or negatives?

Willow 10:20

I think AI is definitely a huge, huge topic. It's especially a huge topic, super relevant in my community right now. We have this area out west, it's called Warrenville, it's got a lot of really, really old and completely untouched wetland areas. Um, they're super important to not only the community of Warrenville, but St. John and the environment and everything that lives in it. And a huge thing that happened, um, over the past year or two is that there's the proposition for a big AI data center to be built right on top of those wetlands. So, I mean, I, I hold a, a negative view on AI, if I'm gonna be completely honest. Partly because of that personal connection and that that threat to, um, natural and very, very crucial habitat in my community. But also just I feel seeing it, uh, in school being used to, not so much cheat, but do a lot less of the work than you need to. Uh, I think it's having a huge negative impact on my peers in terms of their intellectual development and creativity. But then also there's this whole other perspective, in terms of kind of energy usage. and I think that is a huge issue that I'm not seeing a whole lot of communication about. um, There's this huge global effort, um, well this huge dwindling global effort, but it's still a little bit strong to kind of decarbonize our energy sectors. Um, and it's pretty prevalent here in Canada. Uh, and I think AI poses an enormous threat to that. I know here, um, we're really, really trying to kind of push towards more wind and more hydro power, but the AI data center would've been fueled by a lot of like natural gas, um, kind of power production and stuff like that. But then also generally, like there's, there's stats out there that are, that are saying that like in a decade or so, or, or a little bit further down the line, like AI is gonna be the majority of our power usage and well, I doubt the other power usages are gonna go down at all. So that means our overall power usage is gonna be pretty high and doubt we'll have the infrastructure for all of that to be renewables. Which is pretty concerning to me, and I think poses a huge, huge threat to the kind of global decarbonization efforts that we've, we started so strong on.

John 13:07

Yours will not be the only community that's facing this right now. The prospect of a huge data center going in. There's gonna be a lot of money that goes with those, so people will be very tempted. So very good to think about the, the possible ramifications before we start signing agreements. Right.

Willow 13:23

Mm-hmm.

John 13:24

Now you mentioned, uh, school. When I think about myself in high school, grade 12, I was pretty focused on just getting through my grade 12 year. But you're doing that and you're also involved with so many important causes. Do you ever struggle with feeling like you're over involved or you've got just too much going on?

Willow 13:43

No, I don't find that's a huge issue for me, honestly.

John 13:46

Well, I'm glad to hear that. Doing all of those things, what helps you to stay balanced or, uh, energized and inspired to take action?

Willow 13:55

A huge benefit is that it, it kind of is my main focus. Um, so climate action or even just learning about the environment is, is where I want my career to lie and, and where I'm really focusing most of my energy in right now. But I think the fact that I kind of am involved in learning about the environment or climate action from so many different perspectives and so many different activities helps a lot in the feeling of balance. I go to these conferences, I've gone to around five or six of them now. So those are kind of the big, huge events and then I have my own personal passion projects. So what I kind of pursue in my own free time, I have a research project, um, that I'm working on. So kind of from more of an academic perspective. I'm exploring how magnetic fields can help boost resiliency of birch trees to climate change. That's pretty fun. And then also. In my recreational time, like at camp, like I'm, working on environmental education and being in the climate, being outdoors, like, so I think, kind of a big thing about it is like, it's so integrated into my life and into every single activity that I do, that I don't have that certain overwhelming feeling'cause I guess it's just like. It's just there. Like it, it just, that is what I do every single day. Um, no matter what I'm working on, I'm, I'm sort of working on that overarching topic. So, um, maybe it's kind of like, I don't even really notice that that's like what I'm working on,'cause I'm working on it from so many different of perspectives, I guess.

John 15:37

it's great to have such a, a passion and love for what you're doing, and it sounds like you've developed quite a number of skills in a lot of different areas. Do you have any idea what direction in life you want to take those in terms of a career or a future path?

Willow 15:52

I definitely want to be a scientist. Next year I am gonna be studying environmental science, either at UNB or Dalhousie. I'm kind of into a lot of different things like forestry and biology, ecology, geology, like they all are so cool to me. Um, so that's kind of why I'm taking a general environmental science class. Hopefully one of them will really, really call to me. Then what I want to do is I want to work in conservation in whatever field I choose. so I want to do a lot of field work, a lot of research, identifying problems and, and kind of working on solutions, uh, to help conserve habitat and species and biodiversity and all that. That's kind of where I want to be in my future for sure.

John 16:39

Great to keep those doors open and just stay general for next year and see where that takes you, right? Before we run out of time today, Willow, I have to ask you what your climate action is that you've chosen to share with us today.

Willow 16:51

I am a passionate plant mom. If you walk through my house, I don't know if there would be more furniture or more plants. My parents kind of hate me for it a little bit, but I think it's starting to grow on them. That's probably my climate action is just taking care of all my plants.

John 17:09

That's what keeps you going: you have so much oxygen in your house.

Willow 17:13

Yeah.

John 17:14

Do you have a favorite plant? Can you, can you pick one or is that an unfair question?

Willow 17:18

No, that's definitely a fair question. Um, the amaryllis I don't know if you know it, it's kind of a Christmas plant. It goes into hibernation. Um, but then once it come, once it comes out of hibernation around like November, it'll shoot up. Mine's pretty old. So mine gets to like three feet high, within the span of like a month. Like it's insane. The growth rate on this thing is insane. And then it'll sprout four huge flowers literally the size of my hand. And then those flowers will just stay there for about a week or two, and then it just turns into a leafy plant and it's super, super cool. I don't know, I just love how big it is and how fast it grows. It's kind of insane to me. It makes me think it's seaweed.

John 17:57

Willow, what gives you hope?

Willow 18:00

Uh, honestly talking to like-minded people. I think that's a huge thing that's given me a lot of energy over the years. I mean, being as lucky as I have been to go to all these conferences and meet people all across the world who are working towards the same future as I am. It really gives me a lot of hope and gives me a lot of reason to kind of keep going, keep working on what I'm doing.'Cause I know I'm not the only one out there. I mean, if there's that many like-minded people, then why can't, why can't it happen?

John 18:34

Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your passions with us today. Willow.

Willow 18:39

Thank you for having me. It was really fun.

John 18:41

And thank you dear listener or viewer. If you know of a young climate action figure like Willow that we should talk with, please let us know. That's how we find out who we should be interviewing. You can tell us via social media or at Climateactionfigures@gmail.com. We will be back again next week, same time, same place to hear from another young climate action figure. Until then.

Willow 19:02

Go figures!