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Miami teen working to give more power to solar

Florida-based Delaney Reynolds talks to Avril-Ann Braganza about working towards changing laws in favour of the environment

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Delaney Reynolds at a recent presentation with school students in Miami
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Age can never be a barrier when you want to make a difference, and Miami-based Delaney Reynolds is proof of it. At 17, she convinced South Miami's mayor Phil Stoddard to pass a law, which requires the city's new houses (and some renovations) to have solar panels. When Reynolds learned that San Francisco had enacted a solar mandate, she thought that if Florida could get a similar law, it might help ignite the movement towards solar power becoming widely embraced. She also knew that experts predicted that about half of Florida's energy needs could be derived from solar power within her lifetime – information that motivated her to talk to local municipalities.

"I wrote letters to around ten cities in South Florida to suggest that they implement a law along the lines of what San Francisco and two other cities in California have already done," says Reynolds, who has grown up in a solar-powered home. Mayor Stoddard, who also lives in a solar-powered home, was the first to positively respond. But there was a condition – she had to help write the law. Since Reynolds had no experience in writing laws, mayor Stoddard taught her how to go about it. The rest, they say, is history. Since then, the college student has begun working on advocating a similar law throughout Florida. And she's making a difference; St. Petersburg (Florida) has voted to begin researching and drafting a similar law for their community, after a presentation about her efforts in South Miami.

Reynolds, who splits her time between Miami and No Name Key – an island located in the lower Florida Keys – grew up around the water in Miami and on No Name Key, where she fell in love with these fragile habitats. Then, in the third grade, her class wrote a book about the universe and each student wrote and illustrated one chapter. This task, coupled with her love for the environment, No Name Key and its animals, inspired her to write three books –about the animals, fish and birds on the island – for children, when she 8, 11 and 13 respectively. With each book book, she gained more knowledge about the environment and included sections on the local turtle hospital, the plastic pollution we pour into our oceans, and solar power. Along the way, "I learned about climate change and the fact that the rise in sea levels threatens the environment, which motivated me to want to solve our climate change crisis". That led her to begin writing her fourth book about climate change and rise in sea levels in Florida, and founding The Sink or Swim Project.

Through the Sink or Swim Project, Reynolds aims to educate people, especially children, about climate change, the solutions, and ways to mitigate the damage that has begun. The other aspect is related to political and social activism, whether it's writing to local politicians, making videos to appeal to viewers on a range of political and social topics, helping to write laws, and encouraging governments to engage in climate change mitigation and solutions.

Of course, Reynolds has had her share of challenges, perhaps the most surprising being that "a good number of people do not believe in global warming and sea level rise". The biggest difficulty she says, is overcoming politics and politicians protecting special interests. Whether it's the local power company, developers, or the fossil fuel industry, "there is a great deal to overcome that which has been institutionalised before I became involved".

But this has not hindered Reynolds' plans to continue her work and her efforts to expand the 'solar mandate', which includes finishing and publishing her fourth book soon. "I have interviewed dozens of people who have been impacted by sea level rise, or working on the problem and the book gives their perspectives along with the science of climate change," says the soon-to-be freshman at the University of Miami, where she will be studying marine science and biology.

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