Opinion: Celebrating Earth Day during the Year of the Kid

Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin Sara Rodriguez is celebrating Earth Day and the “Year of the Kid” by calling for bipartisan action to protect the environment and future generations. 

Along with many of my fellow Wisconsinites, I take pride in the fact that Earth Day was started here in 1970 by our former governor and US Senator, Gaylord Nelson. More than 50 years later, Earth Day offers us a chance to celebrate the planet we call home and recommit to leaving a better world for generations to come. 

Not only is today Earth Day, this year is also the “Year of the Kid”, as Governor Evers declared. These goals are more connected than you might think: by protecting our environment, we are ensuring the well-being of our future generations. 

As lieutenant governor, I’m inspired by Gaylord Nelson’s example of environmental stewardship. I believe that we can protect the environment and reinvigorate the economy at the same time by investing in clean energy. And as a nurse with decades of experience in public health and healthcare leadership, I also believe it’s our responsibility to ensure that every child has the ability to drink clean water and breathe clean air. 

Governor Evers’ administration is doing our best to position our great state to do exactly that. Our “Year of the Kid” agenda includes a $300 million investment to remove lead service lines and address lead contamination in homes, schools, and child care centers, which have proven especially harmful to children’s health and development. It also allocates over $145 million to fight contamination from PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, including providing emergency resources like bottled water for affected communities, supporting cleanup efforts, and strengthening PFAS standards statewide. 

For decades, environmental activists have been sounding the alarm about air pollution. Unfortunately, exhaust from cars and toxic smoke from wildfires have made things worse, not better. In recent years, Wisconsin has experienced some of its worst air quality in over a decade. In 2023, the air quality in parts of our state was among the worst in the world because of the Canadian wildfires. Pollution levels reached “very unhealthy” levels in areas like Madison, while other parts of the state faced “unhealthy” conditions. 

Too often, kids pay the highest price. A 2023 EPA report found that children are expected to bear the brunt of health impacts related to climate change as the world warms, while a Stanford led study found that children exposed to air pollution, such as wildfire smoke and car exhaust, for as little as one day may face higher rates of heart disease and other ailments in adulthood. 

These consequences aren’t just devastating; they’re also expensive: a 2024 report estimated that climate change would cost a typical child born in 2024 at least $500,000 over the course of their lifetime and as much as $1 million through a combination of cost-of-living increases and reduced earnings. 

That’s why it’s so important to invest in clean energy while taking action to protect our water and air—doing these things isn’t just the right thing to do or a smart choice economically, it’s also an investment in our children and our future. We were thrilled that dozens of Wisconsin school districts received $32.7 million from the EPA’s Clean School Bus Rebate Program to purchase low- and zero-emission school buses. We were also excited that more than 100 Wisconsin municipalities were allocated $402 million to build water infrastructure projects, replace lead service lines, and address emerging contaminants such as PFAS. 

It’s so important that municipal, state, and federal governments partner with the private sector to strengthen clean energy investments and invest in the health of our children. As we head into warmer months, we’re likely to see school closures due to extreme heat, as we have for the past several years. Students and staff in schools that lack air conditioning face an elevated risk of heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses. 

Rather than accept this as the status quo, we must continue to view the health of our planet and children as intertwined and take steps to protect both. In the face of wide-reaching cuts by the Trump administration that severely undermine the health of communities across Wisconsin, inaction from state legislative leaders is not an option. We must embrace Wisconsin’s history of bipartisan cooperation to protect our environment and our children. As long as I have the privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin, I will continue to advocate for our environment and for empowering our younger generations, this Earth Day and every other day of the year.