Daniel Shapiro’s Passion to Save the Environment

Emily Schall ‘22

    Environmental heroes and advocates have been appearing all throughout the nation during the recent, ever-expanding fight to save the planet. Golda Och Academy sophomore Daniel Shapiro expresses his passion to save the environment and works hard to spread awareness throughout the school. 
    Shapiro joined the school in his freshman year, around the same time he started to become interested in climate action. He has always enjoyed doing biological science-related activities, so once he began to learn about the danger the planet is in, he was immediately invested.

    “My interest in the environment started a bit after Greta Thunberg’s speech and marches. Once more and more of her marches began to pop up, I realized that the environment is severely threatened and that we need to take action immediately,” Shapiro said.
    Shapiro saw the GOA Environmental Club as a great opportunity to teach other members of the GOA community about his passion. He has become a crucial member of the club and worked to get more students to join. 
    Dr. Klein, the faculty advisor of the Environment Club, said “Daniel is a driving force in the High School Environmental Club. He brings ideas that reflect his personal commitment to the cause of environmental protection. The best part of being a club’s advisor is when a student, like Shapiro, leads and educates the group and in doing so makes a lasting difference in the work we set out to do.”
Shapiro is specifically interested in the Fridays for Future Movement, which works to spread climate crisis knowledge and organizes protests to fight for environmental action. In mid-March, the movement began their live protests and Shapiro was quick to promote the organization at school. 
“When Fridays For Future started their live protests on March 19, I took it upon myself to raise awareness around school by bringing in some signs and trying to talk to kids during lunch about it,” Shapiro said. 
    A school environmental issue Shapiro hopes to improve is the recycling system. He believes having the bins in the building is a great start, but that there is room for improvement. A way to better the system, he suggests, would be to ensure that the bins are in concrete, clear places all throughout the school, so students always know where they can go to recycle. 
    Shapiro said, “if it could be done, I would add composting bins as another option. I see students constantly throw food in the recycling bins, and I think having the compost bin option would help fix that issue.” 
Not only is Shapiro involved in the Environmental Club, but he also is an editor for the Flame. He was appointed as the assistant SchecterLife Editor at the beginning of the year, but for the fourth issue he took up a new role. Shapiro convinced the Flame team to add an exclusive environmental section to Issue 4, taking on a more senior position for this issue as the new section’s editor.
“Daniel’s interest in creating an environmental section in the Flame comes from his passion for learning about our environment and sharing information that is important to him,” Mr. Langer, advisor for the Flame, said.
Shapiro stresses the importance of the environmental section.
“People deserve to know what is happening but also that there is a solution,” he said. “I find that environmental news tends to stray towards the depressive, rather than focusing on how if people take action, progress can be made.”