By Carol Tannenhauser

Jared Fox, an Upper West Sider who teaches environmental and climate science at a NYC public school, will be helping to push the “crystal button” that will begin the descent of the ball in Times Square this New Year’s Eve. He will be joined by colleague Aida Rosenbaum and four students.

Fox, 39, was chosen for the honor when the Times Square Alliance, which organizes the event, ”made combating climate change and youth activism the theme,” according to Fox’s hometown newspaper, the Times Union.  “[Fox’s] award-winning work with students involved creating a ’clean air green corridor’ around a park overrun by heroin addicts.“

“[You’d] have to have a soul of Styrofoam not to be moved by the passion of young people demanding that we do better, and ‘listen to the science’ to start solving the problem,” Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said in a press release.

How does Fox feel about being center stage at the biggest celebration in the world before an audience of billions?

“Pushing the NYE button is a surreal experience,” he wrote to West Side Rag, “but one I am incredibly grateful for and excited about. It is a true honor to be representing science teachers (and all educators for that matter) and all of the incredible climate-related work they and their students are doing around the world and locally…It is my hope that when people see me, my students and colleague on the NYE stage they will be inspired to create their own New Year’s Climate Resolution and be inspired to advocate for Climate Action in 2020 and the coming decade. Indeed our planet and the next generation deserves nothing less than our full attention and collective efforts to address the climate emergency we are facing.

Due to an editing error we inadvertently omitted the name of the school where Jared Fox teaches. It is the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School on West 182nd Street.