How a student activist in Madison, Wisconsin, is working to get others involved in local climate change efforts

Mario Canacasco is a 20-year-old communications student who edits a climate podcast and speaks on panels with other youth climate activists.

• Mario Canacasco is a communications student in Madison, Wisconsin, who plans to be a  journalist.
• He's involved in many local environmental causes like a climate podcast and speaking on panels.
• He says one of the reasons he got into the climate movement was to see some Latino representation.
• This article is part of a series focused on American cities building a better tomorrow called "Advancing Cities."

Madison, Wisconsin, is home to thousands of acres of parkland. It's 20-year-old resident Mario Canacasco's favorite part of living in the city. 

"It's nice that I can just walk five minutes and I'll be at a park, and you don't have to go too far to find a bike trail," he told Insider, adding that enjoys playing soccer and basketball, riding his bike, and hanging out with friends in the local parks. "People don't realize the importance of green spaces and just how important it is to have trees instead of just concrete buildings."

Canacasco, a communications student at Madison Area Technical College who plans to have a career in journalism, is committed to protecting his hometown's greenspaces and multiple lakes. He's involved in local environmental causes, like the podcast he edits called "Youth Talk Climate" that's aimed at getting more young people, especially from underrepresented communities, involved in climate action. 

"I think it's really important because once you develop a sense of helping your community when you're young, you focus on that when you're older, too," he said. 

Here's a look at some of Canacasco's climate action efforts.

Breaking down complex climate topics for the average resident

Canacasco enjoys writing essays and research papers in his free time, and he's involved in the Wisconsin Action Fellowship, a local program of the national organization Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE). The group provides education for young people to organize efforts to educate others about climate change. 

"That helped me organize my group for the podcast, which is what I did most of my work on," he said. "We wanted to shed some light on all the different avenues of climate change since climate change is huge and encompassing a bunch of things, and sometimes that can be overwhelming."

"Youth Talk Climate" focuses on breaking down complex climate topics. One episode covered phosphorus buildup in Madison's lakes, how that can lead to algae growth, and what residents can do to mitigate the problem, such as keeping leaves out of drainage systems and using natural plants and grasses. 

"When you break things down to somebody, they have a better idea of what's affecting them locally, and they can find a way to help," Canacasco said.

He took a break from the podcast last fall to focus on school, but said he hopes to start another podcast soon to include some political topics, too.

Bringing more youth into the climate movement 

Last summer, Canacasco spoke on a panel with other youth climate activists as part of the nonprofit Clean Wisconsin's speakers program. Organizers of another local climate conference asked him recently to serve as an adviser to help get more minority youth involved in the climate movement, though he's still working out the details of that effort.

"At least one of the reasons why I got into the climate movement was I wanted to see some Latino representation," he said. "It's not to say that there isn't minority youth that's interested in the climate movement. It's just that one of the biggest hurdles is the accessibility of it." 

Latino, Black, and other underrepresented communities are often affected most by climate change, but may not have resources to "champion their voice," he added. 

He commended Madison for launching its Climate Forward agenda, which sets goals to reduce emissions, improve resilience, and support green jobs, because he said it provides residents with resources and education on what they can do to help minimize the impact of climate change. 

Green job training will help young, underrepresented residents get involved, Canacasco added. This is an initiative of the city's climate agenda, and Madison's GreenPower program trains unemployed and underemployed individuals to install solar panels. 

"You're teaching a group of underrepresented people to install solar panels and giving out really good wages, so you're basically taking them out of the place that they're in and putting them in a better place," he said.

He urges young people to get involved with local environmental organizations and find a climate issue they're passionate about. For Canacasco, that's protecting Madison's lakes and parks, especially since the city is located on an isthmus, surrounded by lakes. 

"It looks very nice," he said. "But having all these lakes poses a sustainability issue. We have the problem of overuse in the lakes, pollution in the lakes, invasive species in the lakes — all that's caused by climate change."