About

Who we are

The Carroll Park and Friends Climate Challenge is a neighborhood effort – started by your aquatic teenage neighbors - to minimize our personal impact on the environment, reduce our neighborhood carbon footprint, and engage in larger environmental and social justice issues.

We are inspired by all our Carroll Park neighbors do to make the world a better place. If you simply walk down the street, you can see how they do it:

Dave not only composts, but he also personally takes his recycling to the recycling center to increase the chances they will actually be recycled.

Dominic installed grey-water lawns throughout Carroll Park, making it a Long Beach showcase.

Amy buys locally grown produce from the farmer's market to supplement what she grows in her organic garden. She also vermi-composts!

Michael's organic garden is the crown jewel of the neighborhood. He makes some killer dried peaches too!

Donna and Ariana share the bounty of their loquat harvest with neighbors.

Kerstin and Jan have a bountiful urban farm on Gladys Street. Kerstin stopped using styrofoam packaging at Portfolio's long before the city banned it.

Diana, Clare and Jackie are active in getting out the vote, and have written reminder postcards until their hands cramped up. Just heard that Diana has written 500 postcards!!!

And that's just Carroll Park West!

Your Carroll Park & Friends Climate Challenge Co-Founders

Liam Williams

Co-Founder

Isaac Sweeney

Co-Founder

Liam's Story

I have lived my whole life (except for the first six months) in Carroll Park next door to Kay and Tony Tortorice. Throughout my life and especially these last few years, far and away my strongest interest has been the weather. Many times a day, I check the weather for many different cities, some that I am familiar with and others that I am not. In addition to current weather, I also research past weather-- and one thing I noticed before I even heard about climate change is a general warming trend-- more so in some places than others but it seems that pretty much every corner of the planet has seen its temperatures increase with very few exceptions. Since temperature changes

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that radical seem to only occur over thousands of years and this is happening in just decades, we are clearly experiencing climate change that we ourselves are influencing. 97% of scientists agree with me and my little weather station. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a sixth mass extinction event.
Aside from, yet connected to, weather, I am also very involved in water activities, many of which rely on the once-clean waters of the Pacific Ocean. This summer, I participated in the Long Beach Junior Lifeguard Cadet Program, which trains you to be a lifeguard on the beach. Also, I am learning to surf and am a swimmer as well. Since I enjoy seeing that pretty ocean water so much, I also must focus on keeping it healthy. The use of petroleum-based, single use plastics along with oil runoff pollutes our ocean to the extent of species dying out. Then the fish that depend on those extinct species for food will suffer, die out, and so on. A major change has to take place, but it won't be easy as our whole economy and lifestyle is wrapped up in plastic. I've decided in my own life to take personal steps to reduce my use of plastics. Beyond that, I hope to join with my neighbors in efforts to reduce plastic use in our community and world.
Last month, my mom and I completed the Climate Reality Leadership Training by former Vice President Al Gore. I was amazed by just how severe the impact of climate change has been in the past few years, but equally amazed by how much progress has been made to combat it. I got to (virtually) meet dozens of people my own age to see what actions they were taking. I was inspired, but wasn't so sure where to start, until one climate activist (who's also a tight rope walker) named Tim said all you need to do is step off that platform and give it a go. That's exactly what I am attempting to do by starting this campaign.

Isaac's Story

My name is Isaac and I practically live on the ocean. I have been sailing since I was born and surfing daily for about 6 months. Because of my constant interaction with the ocean, I see the effects of plastic pollution and man-made climate change on a daily basis -- from coming across plastic bags while surfing, seeing plastic balloons while sailing in local waters, to biking through trash that has collected on the side of the road. By starting this initiative, we hope to reduce the amount of trash in our local area and bring awareness to the vast problem that is climate change.

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