A way some people could get rid of gifts they don’t like after the holiday season is a gift swap. For some people the gifts they receive is actually what they want, but for some people they receive gifts that they probably won’t ever use, which is where this idea comes in. This can be a community event or a school event where everyone comes together after the holiday season and you place all of your gifts on a table or out in the open. Then you  swap your gifts with someone else’s gift they didn’t want. The way you swap your gifts is  adjustable to how  people are there and  what the people want, it can vary. In the end , this a good way to receive something you actually want and will use instead of letting it collect dust on a shelf or worse, throwing it away which would intern more carbon emissions. This idea is also customizable to where you don’t have to swap your gifts for someone. It could be where everyone brings the gifts they didn’t really want or think they’ll use and then you’ll collect all those gifts and then you  could donate them to some charity or organization that could use them.

This is a really fun idea!

When I calculated my carbon footprint I found that I was far above average because I travel a lot. Air travel is something I do quite often and traveling in planes releases a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere. There is little I personally as a kid can do about this but, some companies could limit their flights. A Some airlines fly extra empty flights just so that they can keep their status, but they are not thinking about the effects that has on the environment. Air travel amounts to about 2.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions which is a lot that most likely could be cut down. We can do our best to limit unnecessary air travel, but in the grand scheme of things we need to be careful and mindful of how the things we do change the environment we live in.

I agree its bad but we cant just limit flights

As a high schooler, I agree it is difficult to affect how you do your air travel, as that is mostly up to the parents. I find myself in the same situation. Another way you might be able to help with all that air travel is making up for it by instead of driving to some places, ride your bike, or walk. That's what I have been doing, and I find that helpful.

Train systems are an incredibly eco-friendly option for long distance traveling. In Japan, this form of transportation generates about 80% less CO2 per person. Very sustainable.

I ride the bus which releases carbon but that doesn't really change anything considering a bus has a designated route it drives everyday so me not riding it wouldn't matter

yeah cuh

Yes it wouldn't add to YOUR carbon footprint, it will still add to other so even if you don't ride the bus it will still add to the total carbon. Yes it does have a designated rout that doesn't change how much carbon it adds to the air.

It depends if you pay, as that gives them money to continue. City buses (at least in seattle, where I am) are generally more eco friendly though.

It doesn't change the amount of carbon releases which is what I said, all I said was me not riding the bus wouldn't change the amount of carbon it releases in all. I said me riding it wouldn't change the direct amount of carbon released

Riding bikes!

Our items and belongings that we have, clothes, technology and such should be kept if it is able to be used. For example, the clothes that I have are good enough and I do not need or want to buy new ones. There is no need to buy new clothes if the ones that I have are already good, and it would just be a waste of money and it would damage the climate. The fashion industry already makes up 8-10% of the total global carbon emissions, and me buying new clothes would make it go up even more.

you're totally right about this, the fashion industry is insane for carbon emissions. i never realized it was like 8-10% of global emissions until i started researching. honestly keeping the clothes you have is way smarter than constantly buying new stuff. plus most new clothes are fast fashion that fall apart anyway so you end up replacing them more often. if everyone just wore what they already had and took care of it, the fashion industry's carbon footprint would drop so much. it's crazy how simple the solution is but nobody does it.

I completely agree with you on this, I think that it will always be smart to keep your clothes till you absolutely can't fit them any more. I also think that many more people should shop at secondhand places and thrift stores when they need new clothes. Of course for some things you need to get them new but for most things thrift stores work just as well and are usually much cheaper. I knew the carbon admissions because of the fashion industry where high but I didn't know they where that high.

You're totally right  the solution is simple but nobody wants to do it because they're too lazy. the world needs to change people need to wake up and realize that we are causing global warming. I'm not saying you need to go all crazy and buy the stuff that is expensive, even the stuff that is good for the enviorment is bad for example electric cars how do the charge.they use fossil fuels to charge.

Turning off the lights when you leave the room

yes is completely is and its human cuased

Yes, it is absolutey human caused since everything we do releases co2

While I am under average in almost everything I am wildly over in the travel section and should probably cut down on that

Me too, i think that it might be from when i went on trips for fun over summer break. I could cut back on these to reduce my footprint.

I was also wayyyy over the transportation section and that's the only section I really need to improve more on

Me too, i flew way too much this year which really contributes to travel.

I am quite the opposite because I rarely ever take flights for trips. Driving, yes, but if I were to fly more my carbon footprint would skyrocket.

Maybe its not that we should travel less, just less by car and airplanes.

use more public transport and/or carpool.

Protect our planet

keep our wildlife safe and respect animals habitats.

we need to limit ai/ google search use too, the carbon foot print challenge doesn't calculate it but it still produces a lot of co2.

All internet use of any kind effects the climate change and student carbon footprint.

ai uses a lot of water to cool down its system causing places to have less water. it also impacts global warming.

A sustainable city should have good public transport so people don’t need to use cars as much. It should also have green areas like parks and trees. This helps reduce pollution and makes the city healthier for people.

I want to go a step further and just eliminate cars. Public transportation (if it works well) could be faster than lots of individual people stuck in traffic, and it would definitely take up a lot less space.
The city could have a mix of wind, solar, and water powered energy sources so that it could still store energy in any weather. Instead of a power plant, energy could be taken from a bunch of different sources and then spread evenly across a grid.
This is a very far-fetched idea with current technology though.

Malcom your idea isn't far fetched we have ways to make fast public transportation. We have the technology we just need people to do it.

Another way to reduce car use is to make more bike lanes to encourage people to bike more.

Good luck NYC

I personally think that you do not need the latest tech. Sure it might be funner or a little more efficient in the long run, but in no way do you need it. I do not get a new cell phone unless mine is outdated to the point I can’t use it, or I break mine (Luckily hasn’t happened!). I have not personally thought of the effects this has had on the environment until I did this. I think if you’re addicted, it’s helpful to look at nature, and remember why the world around us is so beautiful! You know? Thanks for reading!

Its so wastful to get new devices everytime a new model comes out

We get a lot of new models and it seems that there is a very small difference between them and the older models.

The production and use of new tech so often greatly increases your carbon footprint, so it is best to limit that.

Before purchasing something new, I check if i already have something like this. Getting the new model isnt just bad for your footprint, its also expensive.

It depends on whether or not your current model is sufficient for what you do with it.

Climate Change is a consequence of the rapid industrialisation of the world and human neglect/unawareness of pollution. The industrial revolution, while an important event in modern history, also kickstarted industrial pollution and as a consequence caused climate change. Are there any real ways to prevent it, or does the current political landscape not allow any such preventive actions to be put in effect due to the favoritism showed to corporations, industrialists and how they see these preventive actions as 'non-beneficial'?

this makes a lot of sense and i understand what you mean by "are there any real ways to prevent it..." i do think there are at least a couple but they might not be possible at this point in climate change.

"STOP" and "NOW", absolutely not, "lower drastically" and "over the next decade or so", very possible.
if all of humanity managed to agree to some policies and promises then we could likely meet the goal of less than 2°C by 2030 (maybe 2040)
1st we need to stop all burning of coal NOW,
coal is by far the worst, dirtiest, and least efficient fossil fuel, its a technology that belongs in the industrial revolution.

2nd we need better public infrastructure,
while one train (even electric) produces more co2 by itself than a car, if a hundred people are in that train then that train produces much less greenhouse gases per person than a car, so the answer is more electric trains, subway systems, electric ferries to islands, and electric busses where applicable, its also not just enough to have these things we need to

2.5lf encourage people to use public infrastructure and discouraging use of cars
cars are convenient sure but they pollute a lot, if we could make parking harder to find, more walking streets, one ways, reduce the number of lanes on highways, trains that run on time, and better accommodations, for example on one of these points, LA opened a new lane on one of their highways a few (dozen) years ago, and congestion got worse over the entire city, because people found it more convenient driving they would drive more and thus more cars on the roads, and that has lead to a joke in civil engineering "just one more lane and that will solve it"

3rd the world needs to transition away from coal, oils (petrol, diesel, crude oil), biofuels, and natural gas,
some fuels are less bad than others, for example crude oil and coal are much less preferable over the RELATIVELTY clean natural gas and biofuels, still not ideal fuel sources but just better if for example cargo ships run on biofuel over crude oil.
so we need to adapt industry away from that, foundries need to use preferably something like hydrogen gas or induction heating ovens,
ships need to use more efficient fuels or even hybrid ships (electric ferries for shorter trips are amazing (trust me, I'm on one right now))

4th we need cleaner powerplants to run this new industry. lets say we get every company and industry on the planet to somehow go fully electric, we still need the source of that electricity to be clean or we are just moving the problem from the production to the source. solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, are obviously the goal and the best for this, but we need a ton of electricity it in a very short time, so might I suggest nuclear energy,
nuclear energy is much safer than people imagine (I mean global warming kills more people per year than nuclear energy ever has,) fossil fuels also contaminate more than nuclear and produce waste that goes into the air and is harder to manage than barely radioactive rocks that you can reuse 97% of and then throw the waste into a hole. because nuclear energy is so scrutinized that means that like airplanes its one of the safest forms of doing what they do, any time anything goes wrong everyone is talking about it so they have to hire the smartest people they can to make sure everything is safe.
another benefit of nuclear energy is that the only waste is a rock you burry a few kilometres underground to safely decay, and some water vapour that condenses back into safe water.

After all of the damage that humans have done to earth is is true That it cant be fixed now but right now we can take steps to save the future earth even small thing like turning off the lights  make a difference however small. But if the entire world turns off lights when not in use it can make a huge difference.

It is very true that we can't make climate change disappear overnight, but we can reduce carbon emissions. Even if everyone only did a little bit, it would still make a huge difference.