As leaders including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Microsoft president Brad Smith, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and many others have vowed to fight climate change, students at Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Wash. are doing the same.

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The teens created Schools Under 2C, a student-led organization that aims to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions at their school and others worldwide.L ee and others launched Schools Under 2C in November when it was becoming clear that the Trump administration was likely to abandon the goals set in the Paris Climate Accord.

“What we really hope to do is to prove that kids across the country care about climate change and together we can form a powerful network,” said Anne Lee, the group’s president and a junior at the Redmond high school.

Already 20 schools in Washington have signed the group’s pledge and the organization is working with students in Texas and Australia. About 80 students at Tesla STEM are involved in Schools Under 2C.

The students focused on school operations that they could influence, Town said. They calculated that the school produces about 4-5 tons of greenhouse gases each month from electricity use and waste sent to landfills, so they would need to shave a little more than 1 ton from their output to meet the Paris goals.

But even if other schools and students can’t precisely figure out and reduce their emissions, the most important objective of Schools Under 2C is providing accurate information about climate issues and helping students consider the impact of the choices they make about transportation and energy use. It’s about empowerment.

“We built this school on the concept that science and engineering can solve the grand challenges our society faces,” said Town, who is also the school’s environmental science teacher. “The thing that I sense with the kids with the Trump election is the unbelievable sense of frustration about the world that they’re inheriting, and the role that the United States is playing.”

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