Former President Bill Clinton was in Lexington Monday to talk to thousands of school kids about the environment. His speech was the highlight of the Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council’s Earth Day Celebration.
The student led, student run group includes students from Lexington’s five public and three private high schools. Clinton volunteered to come to the event after receiving a letter from one of the council’s members, Jane Brady Knight, a senior from Henry Clay High School.
"This is a student event and I thought that would capture his attention,” Knight said of her letter to the 42nd President.
In her introduction of Clinton, Knight said Clinton “is truly a living metaphor for sustainability."
Clinton praised the group for being what he believes is the only county in America “where high schools do anything like this together.”
"What I want to say to you is the most important thing we should ask is what can we all do to make it good economics,” Clinton said of sustainability efforts to change how we produce and consume energy.
Clinton said the youth in the sustainability group “understand what we have to do.”
"Don't say they are a bunch of idealistic kids and when they grow up they'll know better. They're on to something. This is good economics. Changing the way we produce and consume energy and deal with local resources is the single most important thing we can do to create jobs in America today. It is."
Knight called Clinton’s Earth Day message “inspiring” saying it “voiced our message.”
