Climate heats up students

Earlier this year, Boston Latin School teacher Cate Arnold showed Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to her five eighth-grade history classes. Inspired by the movie, the youngsters decided to form an after school environmental club, and Arnold agreed to be the advis er.

The first meeting drew 90 students and four parents. "It was overwhelming," said Arnold. "We had to get a bigger room to hold everybody."

On Saturday , Boston Latin's Youth Climate Action Network, as the club is named, will try to expand its reach across the city.

The group, which now has 170 members, is holding a youth summit on the environment at MIT. Organizers say all high school students are invited.

"We're hoping people will come from all over," said Hannah Mogul-Adlin, a 16-year-old sophomore at Boston Latin and member of the youth summit organizing committee. "The purpose is to educate students about global warming and to network with each other."

Mogul-Adlin said attendees from other schools will be given kits and instructions on how to start environmental clubs at their own high schools. There also will be workshops and training.

Boston Latin students have contacted youth groups throughout the Boston area and invited them to the event.

The keynote speaker will be Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT and leading authority on global warming. Mayor Thomas Menino also is scheduled to address the gathering.

Only five months old, Boston Latin's environmental club has been busy. There are seven committees that have tackled a number of projects.

One committee sold energy-efficient lightbulbs and raised $5,000, which is going toward the youth summit. Another committee is investigating energy-efficiency measures at the school. A nother recorded a public service announcement, which the students are hoping will be played on local cable television.

Arnold said she has been amazed by the enthusiasm of the students. "They just watched the movie and felt they had to do something," she said.