TheBurg

18 | THEBURGNEWS.COM | 01.23 I f there's a face, or voice, of climate change awareness in Pennsylvania, it might be Greg Czarnecki's. As climate change and research coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), he's the only person dedicating his entire focus to climate change at a Pennsylvania state agency. For more than five years, he's been crisscrossing the state, giving about 60 presentations annually, about the impacts of climate change on the Keystone State. His audiences include nonprofits, businesses, colleges and state agencies. at's more than 300 speaking engagements about climate change, and counting. But last summer, there were three that stood out as perhaps more vital than all the others. "ey were definitely my youngest audiences, and it's really important for two reasons," said Czarnecki. "Number one—they're the ones that are going to suffer the brunt of what we've done and are still doing to the earth. And number two—they're the ones that are going to be saddled with solutions, especially adapting to climate change." He's talking about the next generation of Pennsylvania's climate change agents. NATURAL LEADERS About 100 teens—nominated by their teachers as outstanding students destined to become the next generation of park rangers, biologists and researchers—gathered for three separate weeks of intense summer study. Camps, organized by the nonprofit Wildlife Leadership Academy (WLA), deep in the woods of Centre County's Krislund Camp and Conference Center, nearly pinpointed Pennsylvania's geographic center. And on Aug. 2, within one of those camps, Czarnecki's presentation got to the heart of climate change issues in the commonwealth. Czarnecki, 63, a 33-year veteran of the environmental field, began by explaining the greenhouse effect— the science that explains why the earth's climate is changing. "Sunlight travels through our atmosphere, to earth—and think of our atmosphere as a blanket, an insulating blanket that holds in some of that heat," Czarnecki said, his PowerPoint graphic illustrating the process. "Greenhouse gases—think of them as the fiber in the blanket. We've nearly doubled the normal amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." CHANGE AGENT Meet Greg Czarnecki, a man on a mission to impact climate change, one Pennsylvanian at a time. BY KAREN HENDRICKS Greg Czarnecki Photo by Dani Fresh Mia Carado journaling at Wildlife Leadership Academy CLIMATE CHANGE

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