As I reflect on my daily habits and lifestyle choices, I cannot ignore the fact that my carbon footprint is pretty high. From the amount of energy I consume to the transportation I use, I recognize that I am contributing to the negative effects of climate change. It is time for me to take responsibility and make changes to remediate this impact. I will commit to reducing my energy consumption, using public transportation or walking instead of driving when possible, and recycling as much as I can. It is essential that I acknowledge my role in this issue and take proactive steps to reduce my carbon footprint for the benefit of our planet and future generations.

I totally agree with you on reflecting on my own carbon footprint. I also feel a bit guilty for my carbon footprint being very high as well. I really like how you're self-aware and list ways to plan on changing it; I think that's very inspiring. I wonder how your experience in a different country varies from the experience with carbon footprints in the US?

Hi! I love how you are taking action for your high footprint! I wish I lived in an area that I could do the same but it is just not feasible for me to do so. I already help out with my footprint because I do recycle, but it is the transportation that is getting me.

That's a fantastic attitude man! You're right, we have to take responsibility for our footprints, even the smaller ones as it all makes a difference. We always have room for improvement so I'm sure that we all will be working on those areas of our lives that we can change to benefit our world.

Best of luck to you, Razvan. That is the first step that all of us as inhabitants of this beautiful planet must do if we want to see change for the better. We must admit to our mistakes and change and improve. If we all do that together, then there is still time to save the world.

I agree with you completely. In day to day life we all use our cars frequently and don’t recycle bear as much as we should. Due to this we are not benefiting our environment in any way. Also walking/biking is always a great way to get exercise and reduce your carbon footprint.

Congratulations, the dedication is the hardest part now. You have realized where you could to better now it is time to execute. I also see myself driving a lot or even just sitting in my car wasting gas and hurting the environment. I also will try to either car pool or ride a bike to somewhere that is close enough to ride to.

I love how you are able to realize a problem you are making and fix it that is very important to decreasing carbon emissions. I am sure after making these lifestyle changes that your carbon foot print will decrease greatly. I hope this path towards a more environmentally friendly lifestyle works out well for you.

Hello! I love the self awareness from your post. You could not be more right, if everyone could use that attitude we would start to see some real change in the world. It seems to insignificant to just try and live your life a little differently to make a difference in the world. If everyone thinks that it doesn't matter if they contribute in small ways where they can because not enough people care about it then no progress is made. All it takes is recognizing where you go wrong and what you can improve to start little by little.

I agree with everything you said about thinking about my carbon effect. I also feel bad that my carbon effect is so big. I like that you know yourself and have a plan for how you're going to change. That's very inspiring. I'm eager in learning how your experience with carbon footprints in another country is different from your experience in the US.

Very good that you know that you need to take action to reduce your carbon footprint. Keep up the mindset and you'll have that number down in no time.

This is a great way to see it! While one person making some changes in their methods won't save the whole planet, if enough people take action and work on their footprints, we will see a difference. It would be much better for our environment if more people carried the same mindset as you. Keep working on it!

It is very admirable to not only see you reflect on your impact, but take action too. To take initiative and change how you do something is something that I believe more people should do. It seems a lot of people nowadays expect scientists or researchers to simply find a solution to global warming but don’t actually see their how much their own actions mean, and how much of a difference it would make if they tried. It is very hard sometimes to recognize when you are doing something bad and then have to change your ways when you have grown accustomed to it. I myself have a high carbon footprint as well and this inspires me to make a change too.

It’s really cool that you are taking action to change your carbon footprint! All the things you mentioned are all really good ways to do so. I really like what you said about acknowledging your role too. I hope many more people choose to acknowledge their role so that we can slow or even stop climate change.

I understand I do have my fair share of contributing to this negative effect. I often try to recycle us as much as possible I also use public transportation to get home and school but I do notice I use a lot of electricity. I am almost always on my phone when I turn on the lights when it is not needed. My solution is to stop being on my phone and go outside  and pick up trash if I see some and stop wasting energy.

Hi Razvan,
I'm glad i'm not alone when it comes to my carbon footprint being higher than expected on things in my life i can easily work on not doing or using as much,your we'll both be helping our earth out a lot, We got this!

I am also ashamed that my carbon footprint is high but alas, with the conditions of living nowadays, it is impossible to stop using all of the stuff we need.

Hi Razvan,
I'm glad i'm not alone when it comes to my carbon footprint being higher than expected on things in my life i can easily work on not doing or using as much,your we'll both be helping our earth out a lot, We got this!

It's so gratifying to see someone reflecting on the consequences their habits have on the environment.
It's important that we all recognise our impact, every single step is essential for the well-being of the planet.

Your initiatives are all good ways to reduce your footprint, you are an example for all of us to follow.

I can completely understand where you are coming from! It's refreshing to see someone who sees the issue of their carbon footprint and wants to fix it. I think that a lot of people should be this way and try to help fix this issue of the large amount of carbon in their footprints. When I was calculating my carbon use, I realized that there are a lot of things I should try to cut back on to help lower my carbon use. I now often feel a bit guilty for the amount of carbon I use in my day-to-day life and I want to strive for a better environment and try to find myself in a good mindset set as you have shown. I wonder how my carbon use would be different if I had been more aware of carbon and why it's bad for our environment.

I am glad that you have seen the impact that us humans have on the world. Although many of us may think that other people will handle this problem it is truly up to us in order to better the world ourselves.I have also felt this way through seeing how much power I use to play video games or how many lights I leave on in the house and I have also devoted my mind to think more about how I can be more sustainable and better the earth. according to an article published by the European Youth Portal they suggest that we eat less meat and if your willing to give that up then I think that is a great way in order to lower your carbon footprint, this is something I have worked on aswell

This takes a lot for some people to admit. I often feel guilty as to my carbon intake as well, Personally i have been trying less but i still use a good amount. It is admirable though that you can admit this and really try to take bigger steps. While it is also important to do what you can its also important to remember the role big cooperations. One big step you can take to help with reducing carbon as well is spreading word of how much these corporations put out. Try spreading knowledge about it to your community, or getting people to sign petitions. These are some other steps you can take to help with our carbon footprint.

I definitely agree with your view on this and it opens my eyes to be more aware of my carbon footprint. Being able to own up to these issues at a young age is a skill many people don't have. When you are aware of it young, it will benefit everyone in the future. We are the generation that can make or break our earth. I found it very interesting that even thought you are in a different country than me, we have very similar experiences with our feelings toward this issue.

Planes are a huge contribution to carbon emissions. For me personally and my carbon footprint, my transportation segment was up to 13,626kg which is very high considering the average in my region is 2,557kg. I was below average in all the other categories but transportation is what seemed to trip me up. According to sierraclub.org, just 2 people in a fairly efficient (30 mpg) car generates lower emissions per person than the average plane. To put this into perspective, one gallon of gas produces 19.37 pounds of carbon dioxide, and one gallon of jet fuel produces 21.50 pounds. Although plane rides are sometimes inevitable and we cannot completely avoid them, it is important to sometimes think about alternative options to flying and really run through how much CO2 the plane you're onis emitting into the atmosphere.

Plane rides are one of the most carbon-emitting ways of transportation. From my personal carbon footprint, my transportation section was up around 6,000 kgs more than normal because I took many plane rides around the world. According to billiontrees.com, a plane emits around 90 kg of C02 per hour. To put that into perspective a normal car emits around 1 kg of C02 per hour. Planes emit way more carbon because they burn a lot more fossil fuels than any other type of transportation. A plane like a Boeing 747 uses approximately 1 gallon (about 4 liters) of fuel every second. Although it is hard to avoid plane rides, the next time you are on a plane think about how much carbon the plane is emitting into the

There are  profound ways in which students can adopt the following to help to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the ways of converting it is through the transformation of physical resources to digital resources for academic work. For instance: Instead of re-printing out numerous drafts of a potential dissertation students can use online platforms and services. Instructors who require assistance to complete their work can easily look for services and get quality services while remaining environmentally friendly. Students also save trees when they use computers as they replaced the drain of energy and cutting down trees during the writing process.

I greatly agree with this statement. replacing physical resources to digital resources really could make a difference with reducing our carbon footprint by not using certain physical sources, like papers and such. Considering paper is more cheap than digital devices, do you think money could be a roadblock to this carbon footprint solution, considering some countries may not have the money to provide these digital resources? as stated in many sources, some countries do not provide money for education, like Comoros, where education spending is around 2.4% of the total GDP. In addition, At my old school, we could not afford enough computers for every class, resulting to most of our work being done on paper. Your idea displayed can definitely help many schools and students around the world reduce their carbon footprints, but I do think money could be a big factor between whether certain schools and students can or cannot switch to this decision.

source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/25-count … otal%20GDP.

In this world, people are still learning about the problems for combustion engines, and transportation such as cars planes and buses that have on the for the fossil fuels to our atmosphere. All transportation run by combustion engines releases mass amounts of fossil fuels into our atmosphere, which leads to climate change due to greenhouse gasses. Planes especially have a contribution to the fuels, since they are huge and need lots of power to take off and maintain speed while flying. Also, with millions of cars on the streets daily, fossil fuels are also being released at an alarming rate. Even electric vehicles require a lot of energy to produce which causes the release of fossil fuels. There are a few possibilities to where we can fix this problem. For one, taking public transportation is one of the best ways to begin shortening our carbon footprint. Two, buying electric vehicle takes a huge step from combustion engines, which will extremely shorten our carbon footprint. Although they require a lot of energy to produce, if used long enough, they are more efficient than combustion engines. And finally, making commercial electric planes will help reduce the carbon footprint of many travelers.

Clothing and purchases are a huge issue relating to carbon emissions. Not only do factories release harmful gasses into the air, but it is hard or almost impossible for the materials used to decompose. According to airly.org, factories emit lots of pollutants into the air, a main one being green house gases, which mainly consist of carbon dioxide. Especially this day in age, keeping up with the trends is super important, but at what cost? People need clothes, but many purchases people make are just wants to have more. But, the more people buy, the more impact it has on our environment. 10% of carbon emissions are due to fast fashion industries. This really has me thinking, is my next purchase worth it? What do you think? Next time I will try to think before I buy.

Schimbările climatice reprezintă modificări semnificative ale climei Pământului într-o perioadă lungă de timp. Există o mare consens în comunitatea științifică că schimbările climatice sunt reale și sunt cauzate în principal de activitățile umane. Emisiile de gaze cu efect de seră, cum ar fi dioxidul de carbon, provenite din arderea combustibililor fosili, precum cărbunele, petrolul și gazele naturale, contribuie la creșterea temperaturilor globale. Defrișarea masivă a pădurilor este, de asemenea, un factor important. Aceste schimbări climatice pot avea consecințe grave asupra mediului și societății, inclusiv creșterea nivelului mărilor, fenomene meteorologice extreme și pierderea biodiversității. Este important să conștientizăm aceste probleme și să luăm măsuri pentru a reduce emisiile de gaze cu efect de seră și a proteja planeta noastră.

Vehicles such as cars are a big part of getting around in the present day. But the carbon footprint they leave is huge. Gas cars release about 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, as more cars are bought and produced the number quickly climbs. About 60% of Americans don't take public transportation or other forms of more environmentally acceptable transportation. Instead choosing to take their cars to travel, around 79% being gas cars. Instead, promoting public transportation or other forms of eco friendly transportation can support the ecosystem. Replacing travel with a gas car with public transportation reduces 45% of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, doing the same with a bike or walking can further help.

One major habitat that is hugely impacted by an increase in temperatures is the coral reef. These groups of reefs serve as home to many incredibly diverse species. However, as the ocean temperatures rise due to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the corals go through a process called "bleaching." Corals have a symbiotic relationship with a kind of single-celled dinoflagellate called zooxanthellae. The zooxanthellae live inside the corals, giving them their vibrant colors and energy through photosynthesis while the corals protect the organisms. As the temperature of the ocean rises, the corals experience stress due to the shift in their environment, leading them to release the zooxanthellae. This rids them of their beautiful colors (hence the "bleaching" part) and their main source of food. So, as these corals starve and eventually die, all of the organisms that rely on the reefs as a habitat are also affected, effectively destroying an entire ecosystem. When such an important ecosystem is impacted so strongly, the rest of the world will be affected in some way, so it is vital that coral bleaching is stopped and measures are put in place to protect the reefs and other environments affected by climate change.

I agree, coral bleaching is a very serious problem impacting our oceans, and there needs to be action to fight the massive disruptions to coral reef ecosystems. For example, many species are getting pushed out of coral reef ecosystems or having to adapt to their changing habitats. Invasive species, like lionfish, are also becoming a problem in these habitats. Research by NOAA outlines the effects of invasive lionfish on coral reefs and how they add to the stress of coral reefs.

There is clearly a correlation between the two situations. in 1980 NOAA recorded an average ocean surface temperature of 0.25 degrees celsius. In 2022 the recorded an average of around 0.7 degrees celsius. Below is an image comparing images from the Great Barrier Reef from 1980 to 2020.
[img]file:///C:/Users/Findley/Downloads/338_2021_2144_Fig1_HTML.pdf[/img]

Degradarea mediului înconjurător este un proces lent, dar sigur. În prezent, poluarea și epuizarea resurselor naturale reprezintă probleme ce afectează o mare parte din populația planetei.
A venit vremea să conștientizăm faptul că resursele naturale NU sunt interminabile și că orice mică acțiune pe care o exercităm asupra mediului înconjurător, cum ar fi simpla aruncare a unui ambalaj pe stradă, va avea consecințe negative.
Iată cum puteți contribui la protejarea mediului înconjurător:
1. Nu mai aruncați gunoaie pe jos!
Pentru început, adoptați un comportament ecologic prin a evita să mai aruncați gunoaiele direct pe stradă. Există recipiente speciale pentru colectarea deșeurilor, amplasate în fiecare oraș. Fiți cetățeni responsabili și încurajați reciclarea materialelor din sticlă, hârtie și plastic, plasând deșeurile în pubelele corespunzătoare.
2. Dacă dețineți o fabrică sau o firmă care poluează mediul prin arderea materiei brute, asigurați-vă că apelați la serviciile companiilor care se ocupă de colectarea și reciclarea deșeurilor industriale, cum ar fi GREENGlobal, pentru a reduce gradul de poluare.
3. Conduceți mai rar!
Mașinile poluează EXTREM de mult prin arderea combustibilului și evacuarea acelui fum negru și toxic, care este atât de nociv pentru mediul înconjurător.

Although you may think that public transit can give off more carbon due to things like trains and subways being much bigger than the average car, that is actually not the case. Especially with big family cars like S.U.V.s, the standards car companies have to meet is much lower than the criteria that average public transit has to follow. Public Transit is made to have their vehicles emit less and less carbon every year, something that most companies do not follow. According to newyorker.com, car companies are able to classify S.U.V.s as trucks, making it so the window of carbon they are allow to emit is much larger than the average car. To conclude, yes more public transit is a solution to help stop climate change of carbon emissions.

If I had my own home, something I would do to make it more energy efficient would be remembering to turn the lights off every time I leave the house and I won't be back for a significant amount of time.  I would get my electricity from solar panels that I would put up myself attached to the roof, and make sure to put up just enough so that I would solely need the energy produced by the solar panels to survive successfully in my home.
My house would be located somewhere near a city, so it would take less carbon emission to go places every time I had to go somewhere. I would also live somewhere by public transit so that it would be more eco-friendly to take the bus or the bart train once in a while. I would grow my own food in a garden in my backyard, so I wouldn't be wasting food or money.

There is a big difference between the wants and needs. Stuff like water, shelter, food, clothes, etc. Needs are flashy shoes, high end computer, the newest phone or devices. Buying excess wants can lead to waste of resources and cause pollution because of the creation of our wants. Needs are the things we need to survive in our life. Wants can cause extra things that we don't need which becomes a waste. Having a lot of waste can cause unnecessary pollution to our Earth.

Pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death. Pollution causes more than 9 million premature deaths, the majority of them due to air pollution. That’s several times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Air pollution is the leading environmental risk to health, causing 7 million premature deaths each year. This is equivalent to the number of people that have died from COVID-19 since March 2020. Pollution of all types hinder development outcomes. Air pollution, exposure to lead and other chemicals, and hazardous waste including exposure to improper e-waste disposal, cause debilitating and fatal illnesses, create harmful living conditions, and destroy ecosystems. Pollution stunts economic growth, exacerbates poverty and inequality in both urban and rural areas, and significantly contributes to climate change. Poor people, who cannot afford to protect themselves from the negative impacts of pollution, end up suffering the most. More than 95 percent of deaths caused by air pollution occur in low- and middle- income countries. In individual countries, the economic burden of pollution associated with premature mortality and morbidity is also significant, equivalent to 5 to 14 percent of countries' GDPs. Recent evidence points to the similar devastation caused by exposure to harmful chemicals, such as lead. In 2019, more than 5.5 million adults died from cardiovascular disease arising from lead exposure. 90% of these deaths occurred in lower- and middle-income countries. In the same year, children younger than 5 years of age lost 765 million IQ points. Lead exposure costs countries $6 trillion, equivalent to 6.9% of global GDP. It is critical to address pollution because of its unacceptable toll on health and human capital, as well as associated GDP losses. Pollution management can also make substantial contributions to climate change mitigation through actions such as reduction of black carbon and methane emissions, which contribute to both air pollution and climate change. In addition, pollution management can enhance competitiveness, for example, through job creation, better energy efficiency, improved transport, and sustainable urban and rural development.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poll … 20combined.

It really depends on what the want is.  For example, electric cars (Teslas) are made to lower the amount of carbon emission out of cars.  But the trade off is that when the lithium for the batteries is mined, then it emits 15 tons of carbon as well.  Sometimes it is alright to pollute if it will help the earth in another way but most of the time we should not pollute our planet for our material wants.

Needs are something that every person has, and as time goes on these needs will be completely different from 100 years ago. Everyone needs water, shelter, and food, but as time goes on it becomes more necessary for adults to have things such as smart phones and cars in order to keep their other basic needs. While these things do cause extra waste they still are necessary for people to have in a modern society. So to combat this it's important that people make use of these things for long periods of time making sure they use their phones for multiple years and possibly utilize electric cars in order to reduce their carbon output.

Clothing and fashion are two of my biggest interests, yet what is happening behind the scenes? According to NRDC anywhere from 4-8.6% of carbon emissions are from clothing production. I love to go thrift shopping and try to reuse clothes as much as possible, due to the fact that the fast fashion industry is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, responsible for as much as 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions; and waste nearly 97 million tons of clothing. Are these trends so important that you should value them more than mother earth? NO! Next time you walk into a store to purchase a clothing item, think of how much carbon has been emitted to create it. Is it really worth it?

Over the past couple of weeks I have been learning about carbon and the atmosphere, but this calculator really put the amount of CO2 into perspective for me. Our lifestyles, especially in America, are so damaging to the atmosphere and most of the things we do to contribute in this way are not worth the effects. Things such as buying unnecessary clothes, eating at fast food chains such as mcdonalds and starbucks. I, like most people my age, enjoy these things however, when I calculated my carbon footprint a big portion of it was due to shopping or driving an unnecessary amount. When everyone has as big of a carbon footprint as me, and I am sure most do, we cause tremendous damage to our atmosphere and everything on this Earth. So I ask again, is it worth it?

The problem of food scarcity for many people has persisted for at least 50 years, if not longer. There are areas on Earth where people literally die of hunger and receive aid only from humanitarian organizations, which, of course, cannot solve this huge problem on their own. Additionally, in recent years, even in the wealthiest countries, there has been an increase in poverty, which, of course, leads to difficulties in accessing food.

To solve this problem, both internal and external, there should be a massive economic commitment from the wealthier countries. While they work to address the internal issue of poverty and food shortages, they seem to completely ignore those countries where people are dying of hunger. Only the wealthy part of the world could currently make a difference by providing real economic aids and educational support to help these countries make the most of their limited resources.

In some of these countries, it is also unfortunate to note that the political situation plays a role, with extremist governments refusing foreign aids.

I totally agree with these statements and believe that these government officials should be doing something about the amount of food waste, and amount of hunger that is contributing to the overall human carbon footprint. According to a recent study done by CarbonBrief.org, it says that about ⅓ of the world’s carbon emissions come from food production through to consumption. Also, about half of one-third comes directly from food waste. It is absolutely crazy to me that so many people in the world are starving, while others throw away so much food. Also the ISCFC website under the food waste and hunger category, it says that about 1 in 7 people in the entire world are affected by malnutrition and do not have enough food or access to food. Many large countries such as the United States contribute a lot to food waste as it says, on average, the US wastes 60 million tons of food each year. That is simply not okay. In contrast, many countries in Africa are affected by starvation and malnutrition. People need to stop ignoring these facts and help out so that we can make a difference. If we stop wasting food altogether, others who truly need the food can have it, which would lessen the carbon footprint of food waste.

I agree with your statement, world hunger is a real problem and it is scary knowing that people don't acknowledge the plight. Food waste contributes to major problems like world hunger and carbon footprints contributing to Global warming. The ideal carbon footprint is 6000-16000 pounds of greenhouse gases per person per year, due to global warming this isn't a realistic number for us but with food waste the production of gases is the same as 32.6 million cars worth of harmful greenhouse gases. I feel like people should be more aware of this problem because one of the many steps that will lead us to try to end world hunger/food waste is to freeze our leftover food if we don't eat it completely. Once we learn how to save our leftovers and not discard them right away, we will not only be able to stop food waste but also take advantage of the precious resources that sometimes we take for granted and help stop emitting greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Bringing awareness to this topic is major because a large population with fewer resources are not able to get food which can lead them to hunger.

I agree that food scarcity is a growing issue that we need to combat. According to worldvision.org 45 million children are dangerously malnourished. This issue is especially prevalent in Asia and Africa. Wealthier countries should be focused on helping these less fortunate countries in providing food to people because together we can solve this issue. According to usda.org production, transportation, and handling of food contributes a significant amount to Carbon emissions. Living in a more fortunate country, we often waste food or take it for granted.

I agree that food scarcity is expanding in places of the world and it is effecting a lot of people leaving them in jeopardy. For example in Sudan 20.3 million people are starving and it has doubled since last year. Along with that, since 2019, the number of people facing acute food insecurity has tripled from 5.8 million to almost 18 million. But some of the saddest reasons is how the International aid is arriving in Sudan but it's being blocked by the military from reaching areas where starvation is severe.

-Christian Sanchez BOD27

I completely agree! World hunger is such a layered topic, especially since it seems there is not much we can do to stop it. I think people have this idea that big issues cannot be affected by one singular person, and while I totally agree with this, I also think that if everybody chooses to ignore this and instead work towards creating a better, more sustainable world, then we can reverse the effects of climate change. World hunger is a big issue because it is one that negatively impacts both people and the planet. According to the World Health Organization (or WHO), in 2021 alone, 828 million people faced world hunger. That's almost 10% of the world's population. To deal with this issue, many people think that we should produce more food because not enough food is being produced to feed everyone. This, however, is false. The World Counts stated that roughly 30% of the food that is produced is wasted. Thats 1.3 billion tons. In other words, if we redirected the food that was previously going to be wasted to hungry individuals, we would be able to feed everyone who is hungry around the world and still have some left over. In order to get to the root of this issue, we must change the way so many of us live. This means committing to purchasing only what you are sure will be consumed. Lowering the demand for food results in lower prices, which would allow for more accessible food globally. Additionally, grocery stores should be accessible to everyone, not just individuals who live in a certain area. By allowing access to healthy, budget-friendly, environmentally safe foods, people who previously relied on fast food industries will cut down on their carbon emissions both because they wouldn't have to drive as far to access clean food, but also because they would be purchasing organic foods rather than fast food, which is worse for the environment. This is extremely important because according to Our World in Data, around 25-30% of the world's carbon emissions come from the food industry. Has this number come up before? Yes, the % of food that is wasted. As food decays, it releases previously stored carbon, so by reducing the amount of food waste, we will actually reduce the carbon footprint of the food industry. In summation, it is imperative that we work towards directing unpurchased or (what would have been) wasted food to places in a state of insecurity to not only better the lives of those individuals, but also minimize the impact of the food industry's carbon footprint on global warming.

Major company’s such as Zara, Starbucks, Coca Cola etc. claim to be more environmentally friendly than they in fact are. In order to avoid facing repercussions for their negligence. This creates a false narrative that they are not causing as much damage to the environment as originally thought. Even in my community we see green washing within what our schools invest in for scholarship money. So a small group of students including myself have started a discussion about divestment, and making sure the company’s we invest in are environmentally friendly. In order to enact true change we need to know what we are dealing with first, and Green washing is preventing that.

Greenwashing is a huge issue, especially for big companies who want to flaunt being environmentally friendly so people will be more willing to buy from them. The Federal Trade Commision website has a great guide for criteria for consumers who are looking to buy from a genuinely green company. It also makes it easy for companies to understand what practices they need to change in order to be more friendly to the planet. If anyone is interested in this info, it can be found at: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/ … een-guides

I totally agree with this. I think its so sad how companies such as the ones you mentioned above are lying to people. It also sucks that people think they are doing good by supporting those brands that are claiming to be green but instead of helping make the CO2 levels better, its just getting worse. I am glad that there has been something created that lets people know what companies really are green. Even though websites like this exist, so many people still do not realize that they are being lied to and may go on forever buying from these brands. I hope that your websites as well as others can continue to have awareness being spread about them so that as many people as possible can help limit their CO2 levels.

In my science and environment class, we have been learning about climate change and how we contribute to it. Based on the calculator my most above-average category was transportation. Because me and my family travel a lot by car, plane, and other ways we have gone above average. One thing we have done correctly is having an electric car. This helps to put less carbon in the air. Now that I know I have contributed to this problem more than others, I have to find better ways to bring it down. Things I have found that could help is traveling by things you need to move physically. Another category that was above average was food. During class, we found out that certain foods release more carbon than others, and those foods seem to be the ones I consume more. One of the strategies that was offered in class was to take a day out of the week to not eat those types of food to help contribute as much. Now that I am aware of how I harm and ways I can undo the harm and help, I will try to do better with the choices I choose in my daily life.

Clothing is one thing I truly enjoy, but at what cost? I love shopping but after my class took the carbon footprint calculator I realized clothing is such a huge contribution to carbon emissions. According to NRDC anywhere from 4-8.6% of carbon emissions are from clothing production. I talk about how I love to buy second-hand or used clothes however as much as I would like to think I mostly thrift, I have many new clothes from stores that contribute to fast fashion. Are these new clothes really something I need to be getting? Finding clothes from thrift stores is much more friendly to the environment because you are actually taking out of the 92 million tons of clothing thrown away each year. When I'm out shopping I often think "buying just one top won't hurt the environment" but in actuality the amount of people that have the exact same thought as me is what causes extreme rates of carbon in the atmosphere. Next time I'm at a store and I want to buy a shirt, I really need to think about carbon emissions that have gone into our atmosphere due to the production of this clothing item and how many clothing items have been produced along with it.

Clothing is one thing I truly enjoy, but at what cost? I love shopping but after my class took the carbon footprint calculator I realized clothing is such a huge contribution to carbon emissions. According to NRDC anywhere from 4-8.6% of carbon emissions are from clothing production. I talk about how I love to buy second-hand or used clothes however as much as I would like to think I mostly thrift, I have many new clothes from stores that contribute to fast fashion. Are these new clothes really something I need to be getting? Finding clothes from thrift stores is much more friendly to the environment because you are actually taking out of the 92 million tons of clothing thrown away each year. When I'm out shopping I often think "buying just one top won't hurt the environment" but in actuality the amount of people that have the exact same thought as me is what causes extreme rates of carbon in the atmosphere. Next time I'm at a store and I want to buy a shirt, I really need to think about carbon emissions that have gone into our atmosphere due to the production of this clothing item and how many clothing items have been produced along with it.

Recently my whole grade took this footprint calculator, and the following question was then asked all around the school; "what was your footprint"? While it may be easier to joke about how high or low someones score it is important that we actually think about these numbers and how they affect the world around us. Looking at my score I was struck by how the averages compared to my personal numbers. I will admit that many of my choices are not based on how eco-friendly they are, but more based on how convenient when it comes to transport and how cute when it comes to shopping. Both of my parents work is surrounding climate change, so growing up I was constantly being encouraged to make the choice that was more climate friendly. I often ignored this, if my friends parent offered me a ride home I was going to take it, or if I thought a shirt was cute it was a given I was going to buy it, even if I didn't NEED that ride or shirt. In the future I will strive to base my choices more on how it affects the planet.

What is the difference between wants and needs? In my opinion, wants are things that I can live without, but needs are things I can’t. For example, water, food, clothes are obvious needs. But what about those shoes that you want, do actually need them? If you have no shoes then yes, but what about those shoes sitting at the back of the shoe closet. Buying whatever you want and getting sick of it is just a waste of money and material. Prioritizing needs over wants ensures efficient resource allocation. Indulging in wants without consideration can lead to wasteful consumption. Being mindful of consumption habits not only benefits finances but also reduces environmental impact and promotes sustainability. Therefore, before indulging in a want, assess its alignment with needs and values.

I agree. Things that are essential to life, such as food, water, and shelter, are called needs. Conversely, desires are items we would want to have, including toys, new technology, and more. Most of the items we purchase, including pricey clothing and other items, wind up in a landfill. Anything that we use and eventually breaks or grows too tiny ends up in a landfill. Over 92 million tons of apparel end up in landfills, according to the report. This is due to fast fashion. Fast fashion is very common these days and shops like ZARA, H&M, and TOPSHOP are the biggest producers of it. This is why we have to consider when we buy clothes. Be reasonable. Don't buy clothes every single day.

Wants and needs vary, a simple definition is needs being things you must have to survive most which fit under the criteria of food, rent/mortgage things that are necessities. While wants are simply things you want to have could be a game console, a new tv or some snacks. The separation between wants and needs is that the more necessities or needs that you have the more money or time/effort you have to put into it which in some cases causes more pollution which isn't good. Aswell as adding to that with your wants, the more wants the worse it can be. So ultimately your wants and needs can affect your pollution and your carbon footprint. They can affect it with things such as lights.Also anything that affects energy can add to your footprint. As well leaving a tv on and running adds to your footprint which in some cases are wants like when you want to watch tv and then your done and leave it on it constantly adds up more and more and other things like food the more snacks and stuff you buy just because you want it also adds to your footprint. As well as your purchases this adds as well and driving around. All these things add to your footprints and can be affected by how you use them for your car. Maybe you have to drive to work but after you want to go to McDonalds, that's a want that affects the pollution. Maybe you're at the grocery store and you see some clothes that you want that affect your carbon footprint.

I 100% agree. Wants and needs are completely separate things. While food, water, oxygen, and shelter from the elements are things that we could not live without, there are so many things that we use that are unnecessary. In California, USA, the average person uses 1,191 kgs of CO2 on purchases alone. I use 119 kgs of CO2 alongside my purchases. I know that a lot of those purchases are unnecessary and I also know that it will be higher when I have to pay for everything myself, however, this is just to show the high level of wants vs needs in the world, specifically the USA and my own state.

I think that there is a part of me that wants to fuel my want, and another part that tells me to not be wasteful. I 100% agree that needs are what should be prioritized and that we should be mindful of every purchase we make, but there are some times where being frivolous is good if regulated. I think even if purchase causes waste, we can still balance the slightly unnecessary buying habits and the waste that we produce, maybe just to twice a year or something like that. Knowing that a balance between these two is the ultimate want, It begs the question- Which should/can we choose first, the fulfillment of human want, or the necessity of global cleanliness? I think that this is what the world is struggling to work past. the general public, governments, people in power, i feel, have been taking the easy route. they have been focusing on themselves and what directly affects them or their group in this moment, which is not always what we should be thinking about. they have only scraped the surface of what it means to have a balance of the two in the last couple years, and even through all the protesting and attention that this movement is getting, it just isn't enough. I know that once the necessity of global cleanliness has caught up to the people in power who chose to step aside, who chose to deal with other matters first, will be then facing a problem that they cannot handle. this is what scares me.

I agree as well. Nowadays, with social media constantly advertising new products and steadily generating new trends everyday, our consumption numbers have gone up significantly. This has caused our carbon footprint to increase. Content creators are constantly displaying a plethora of new clothes and “trendy” items they purchase consistently and influencing their thousands of followers to do the same. In my own personal experience, I see influencers on social media buy frivolous pieces of clothing that are an example of fast fashion. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, fast fashion is, “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.” In other words it is cheap, poor-quality clothing, made quickly to keep up with the trends being perpetuated by social media. This clothing is not sustainable because of its poor quality and because it is a part of a trend that will most likely “go out of style” within the next few months. Once one trend fades, another is created and the cycle continues. People will continue participating in fast fashion to keep up with the trends, just to throw away those clothes in the subsequent months. All this clothing is being quickly produced and just as quickly thrown away takes a humongous toll on our carbon footprint. Giving into these trends and purchasing unneeded clothing is leading to wasteful consumption.

I agree with everything that has been said on this thread but I would like to add the aspect of how influencers can cause us to make "impulse purchases". When we see someone we really like to watch advertise a product on social media it causes us to have a more biased take on the product, as if one of our own friends had recommended it, we feel like because this "internet famous" person owns and loves this product, and since they are recommending it then it must really be a good product. But their praise may cause us to cloud our view of if the product is actually worth it or not. Many influencers just advertise products for the money even if they don't like the product and see it as a useless item. I would recommend everyone having their own unique checklist as to what is worthy to buy and what is not, and just because an influencer praises something doesn't mean it should meet your checklist. By making these impulse buys just because we saw it online and it is easy to order through amazon, we waste our time, the workers time, our money and precious resources which are limited to this world. Every time we make an unnecessary purchase we have a bigger impact on the earth because of the carbon footprint from that item being made, transported, and then dumped into a landfill. We need to cut these purchases out of our lives.

I concur. The things we need to survive, like food, water, and shelter, are known as needs. On the other hand, the things we desire, such as toys, new gadgets, and more, fall under the category of wants. Unfortunately, most of the items we purchase, including expensive clothing, end up in landfills. Anything we use that eventually breaks or becomes too small is also discarded.

I definitely agree. Purchasing things you don't need, such as clothes and other products, to merely stay "on trend" is wasteful and has a bigger impact than you think. The transportation and shipment involved in each purchase contribute to these carbon emissions. From the resources used in the production to the emissions generated during transportation, each step contributes to its overall environmental footprint. According to BBC.com, "The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions." Most of this impact comes from raw materials such as cotton, synthetic materials, oil, and chemicals from dyes. These wants are nonessential, while our needs are crucial to human survival in today’s society. These needs include food, water, shelter, and healthcare. Prioritizing these necessities is vital for people to live fulfilling and dignified lives.

Reflecting on my family's footprint, I did not realize that the contributors to carbon were either extreme or did not make much of a difference. Throughout the test I would take note on how much that certain category would contribute, and most times it would be shocking. Most of the time, I had previous knowledge from others such as teachers and my dad, but I never knew it would be that much. For example, I never thought water usage in showers would count for so much. I always had knowledge that the amount of water one uses wastes clean water, but I never thought it would be so huge in regards to carbon. Another question I was shocked at was my diet, not being vegetarian. I never knew that what you eat contributed to over a fifth of my footprint. I would like to know why/what causes it to be so high.

Over the past few classes, my class and I have learned about climate change and how our lifestyles contribute to the problem. As an assignment we took it upon ourselves to take a carbon footprint quiz. My carbon footprint was 6,269, which is under average of the region I live in. I learned that the average carbon input is 9,727kgs in California. Though my carbon input is low, I can easily change my eating habits to make it even lower. The amount of carbon it takes to process red meat is 36x the amount it takes to process poultry. If I make the switch from eating red meat to poultry, my carbon input will lower significantly. My family is very energy conservative, so I have gotten used to turning off the lights and stop the faucet when not in use. Another way I can reduce my input is by stop purchasing from fast fashion companies and start shopping at thrift stores. If everyone in the world could make a few changes in their life, the state of our climate could improve so much. I watched this video by Amanda Gorman who is a poet and activist, it really motivated me to make a difference in the world.

In a world up to 783 million people, 1 in 10 of the world’s population, faces food hunger.
1. Food insecurity is increasing at an alarming rate: In 2022, nearly 258 million people across 58 countries experienced and faced starvation or worse.
2. Major drivers of hunger: COVID-19, weather conditions, and conflicts around the world. Conflicts/Wars was the main cause. For example, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Syria.
3. The WAR IN UKRAINE: As Ukraine is a major exporter of cereal grains and sunflower oil, it disrupted global food supplies. Rising food prices, energy price, and growing financial crisis all increased hunger risks.

YOU CAN HELP END WORLD HUNGER BY DONATING!!

I agree with this. Sadly, so many people around the world don't have enough food. There are lots of reasons for this, like fights, bad weather, and now, the problems caused by the war in Ukraine. We all need to pitch in to help. Giving money or other help can make a big difference. If we all work together to fix the main problems and help right away, we can make sure everyone has enough to eat and make the world safer for food for everyone. In my old school, we would have canned food drives. We would make it a competition so everyone can participate.

I agree that the current problems in this war like war contribute to world hunger. People in these countries are suffering from no housing and destruction of farms and livestock. People like me can help by donating food to the people in need. Students can participate in food drives at there school or participating in gardening and donating that food to the people who need it.

I agree with this. World hunger is a complex issue, it is worsened by the world conflict like the war in Ukraine, the Genocides across the world. Displaced people, farms being destroyed and supply chains being disrupted leaving people struggling to find food. People all around the world can participate by donating to food drives and providing food and money could help this sad issue.

Over the past couple of days, I have learned about climate change and carbon emissions
in my science class. Using the Carbon Footprint calculator, I realized how much carbon
I emitted through travel. Travel has a lot of importance to my family, and I am very
blessed to be able to explore places around the world. But I realized how much my
carbon footprint increased after I inputted in my flights. The amount of carbon that
flights create made me reflect on how many people fly unconsciously, without knowing
how much carbon they emit. Though there isn't a more reduced way of travel for some
people, I hope we humans find a way to make travel more effective and sustainable. I
also realized that the home section of my calculated carbon footprint was high. This
is because my house is older and has older appliances that weren't considered harmful
when the house was built. With this knowledge, I thought about how many houses are as
old or older than mine in the U.S.. I then wondered what the difference in carbon
footprint is between older homes and newer homes. overall, I wonder how we will
approach this problem, and what solutions humans will create in the future.

Climate change is real and humans are the cause. Things that we use everyday like vehicles emit carbon into the air which is a green house gas. Greenhouse gasses trap some heat in the earth's atmosphere and too many greenhouse gasses make the planet overheat leading to climate change. In my research, carbon has been more prominent in areas with machines, and less prominent in areas with trees because trees take in carbon and produce oxygen. If we start relying less on machines, we can reduce our carbon output and help prevent climate change.

Compared to the carbon footprint that the world needs in order to maintain a stable climate (1,000kgs per year) my own footprint is approximately 12 times as much. However, my total is only 1.3 times as much as the average Californian. My food was the highest of my carbon emissions with a total of 4,900kgs followed by transportation at 4,600kgs. There are many ways that I can reduce my food emissions. An example would be limiting or substituting my red meet consumption from my diet. I could also buy food locally from a farmers market to reduce the processing and shipping costs that use a lot of energy. As for transportation, I might need to take fewer long distance trips to cut down on my transportation emissions. Regarding home energy use, my family uses solar panels. However, there are a few things we can do to reduce our energy use. Improve insulation and keep the thermostat at a lower temperature in the winter, and a high temperature in the summer to save on energy. There are many excellent sources on global warming and the steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprint. Two that I found especially useful are from "Sustainability at Georgetown University" and "AustinTexas.gov".

I can definitely relate to this for several reasons. First, my carbon footprint(13,034kgs) is about 34 percent higher than the average Californian(9,727kgs). I think this is mostly due to my high totals of transportation and food. Even though I take the bus to school regularly, I had many flights, which accounted for most of my transportation footprint. I could limit this by going on more road trips when I have the opportunity to. The reason for my food value is that I eat red meat in many of my meals and don't have many vegetarian meals. I could change this by keeping a close eye on the amount of red meat I can eat. Since my family has solar panels our house footprint is around the average amount but we can limit our use of the central AC and heating. We can limit this by utilizing our windows more often throughout the years.

While calculating my family footprint I noticed how small my carbon emissions for my house are compared to the average. This led me to believe my total carbon emissions would be low. But when I got to the transportation section I realized that when my family travels we admit much more carbon than the average family even with having an electric car. For my calculation, I was way over the normal transportation average because of how many plane flights I have been on this year. When you add that total for each one of my family members, that is a lot of carbon emissions. It is interesting to see in other posts in this discussion how other families have most of their carbon emissions coming from either their food or their home. This just shows how different lifestyles cause different types of emissions. The most effective thing to reduce my household carbon emissions it to either not travel as much or find alternatives to planes when traveling. However, for transportation, my family will often try and carpool to reduce our emissions.

I definitely relate to this. I thought that my family's carbon emissions would be a lot lower than other people. When I got my results back, I noticed that most of my carbon emissions came from my home and transportation. My family travels a lot, which I love, but the amount of carbon used when we fly is a little concerning. We went on a lot of plane trips this past year, which really added up. I also noticed that my home carbon use was higher than average. I hate that these two categories are completely out of my control, because although my carbon use for food and purchases was below average, home and transportation, which are typically not controlled by me, were way above normal. I also agree that it is very interesting to see just how different people’s lifestyles translate to carbon use. I have noticed that everyone is very different when it comes to how much carbon we produce, but what is the most devastating is that we are all to blame for excess carbon emissions. I have noticed around my home town that people in poverty are more likely to produce more carbon from food and home than an upper middle class person, and a rich person is more likely to produce more carbon from purchases and transportation than someone in poverty. I hope to be able to limit the amount of carbon I use from transportation when I live alone in the future, but I also hope we find a way to make airplanes and cars more eco-friendly and create less carbon emissions (because I hate the idea of never being able to travel to see different countries or to see my family).
- Mason B

I agree because especially in the US families have very large contributions  to carbons effects on global warming and climate change. This happens because of greenhouse gas emissions that traps heat in the atmosphere. The world is warming faster and families especially in the US contribute to large carbon footprints. Families cause large carbon emissions and a lot of energy consumptions. According to statistics household consumption accounts for 30–80% of the national carbon emissions. The average US household produces 7.5 tons of CO2 equivalents per year.

I think that there are many things that we need to survive, but we have many things that are not absolutely necessary. For example, many things that almost everybody has in their home could be removed in order to help the environment. A gas stove is a perfect example. People have these because it is much too inconvenient to light a fire and put a pan on top every time, but stoves are a large carbon contributor. I think that people have a natural desire to make things more convenient and quicker but do not realize the impact that it has.

Climate change happens naturally in multiple ways, like the release of Methane from cows, but we humans excel the rate for global temperature rise by multitudes. We use machinery and factories that release hundreds of tons of CO2 and other green house gasses. The gasses are great at trapping temperature because they're magnetically of balance with their charges. When heat hits them the jiggle and trap the energy in heat form. Ultimately this causes the globe to rise in temperature slowly. To conclude, yes  climate change is real, and when it comes to thee question of if we're to blame, majority answer is yes.

Carbon footprint of students can vary greatly depending on their lifestyle and habits. However, it's crucial for students to be mindful of their environmental impact and strive to reduce their carbon footprint. Simple changes like using public transportation, reducing energy consumption, and adopting sustainable practices can make a significant difference. Moreover, educational institutions should also promote eco-friendly initiatives and provide resources to help students make more environmentally conscious choices. By collectively working towards reducing carbon emissions, students can contribute to a healthier planet for future generations.

i agree with your opinion, but the students are not careful to the Carbon Footprint.

I agree that students should try to reduce their carbon footprint and should be more mindful of their environmental impact. While I agree with that, I disagree that students should use public transportation more. I take a bus 2 miles to the train station then take the train 45 minutes to my house every day after school, this increases my carbon footprint a massive amount. My overall foot print is 25,784 kgs and my transportation carbon footprint was 18,311 kgs, which is about 70% of my overall carbon footprint. So instead of public transportation i propose to use electric cars and carpool with a friend. This will really make a difference in your carbon footprint and help overall sustain a healthy environment.

Of course I agree that reducing carbon footprint is important and I agree that changing your lifestyle can help with that. It is very frustrating for me though because when I took the test, my carbon footprint for transportation was way above average, however I don't know how to reduce it! I live far away from school but I take the bus and I have to go to sports practice everyday. I feel like I can't really reduce my transportation footprint even though I want to because most of where I go is necessary to my daily life. Overall, I want to find a way to dramatically change my carbon footprint but still get where I need to go.

I also agree that students need to be more aware of their impact in order to reduce their carbon footprint. However, I don’t believe that a small lifestyle change is necessary for all students. From my experience, the biggest carbon sink that I had was airplanes/flights as they took up half of my footprint at about 9,300 kgs. So for me, if I wanted to bring my carbon footprint down the best solution would be to fly less and not to switch to public transportation. Also in my case, I already take public transportation so I wouldn’t need to switch to using it. But, It doesn’t mean that people who don’t take public transit shouldn’t stop, only that not everyone needs to make that change as they already might be taking public transit. Depending on the person their carbon footprint may be heavily increased by different influences, therefore I agree that people can change their carbon footprint by changing something, but not everyone can change a small thing and have the same impact.

Some things might not be able to be off of the table for some people, such as driving less, which is oftentimes beyond their control. Someone can’t always choose to drive less because of places that are essential, but might not be close enough to them to be reasonable to make a trip to as often as necessary. An example of somewhere that a person might need to travel to is their place of work. It’s necessary for some jobs to be far away from other things, such as an airport or military base. Also, there can sometimes not be reasonably priced living accommodations nearby, or none at all, which would cause them to have to have a longer commute to work everyday. Another thing that might cause a greater commute distance would be needing to go to a certain store, whether it be for prices, preference, or dietary needs.
An additional thing that might be uncompromisable to some people is limiting their electronic usage. In the modern world, electronic usage is oftentimes essential to most people’s day to day lives. They might be used for  entertainment, communication, work, education,  but oftentimes there is a lot of usage of electronics for the latter two which cannot be adjusted.
Overall, there would need to be a greater change than just people changing their habits, such as the availability of certain resources in shorter distances to all people, in order to decrease emissions caused by commute time. There would also need to be a change in the way that some people have work, education, communication, or entertainment, which isn’t always possible. An alternative solution to these problems might not be to restrict the amount of them that people do, but rather make driving and using electronics less harmful to the environment.

I completely agree. I live a thirty-minute drive away from school, which means I drive five hours total to get to and from school every week. And I can't exactly just not go to school to reduce my carbon emissions. However, I do carpool with two other students to reduce my carbon footprint, but that does not take away from the fact that I must drive to school every day. The electronic thing is additionally a valid point! In this day and age, I use my computer and phone every day. My electronics are how I communicate with others and get my schoolwork done. I can admit that I should probably spend less time on my phone for entertainment, but I do use it for school and to communicate every day. In addition, I think that computers are a much better alternative to paper. With the current rate of deforestation, I do not believe that using my computer is more detrimental than chopping down trees so I can do my Spanish homework.

I believe that large corporations need to put more of an effort towards saving and conserving the natural world. Big producers of plastic and other wast polluting our oceans and the environment around us need to slow and even stop the production of many harmful products and switch to more renewable recyclable and efficient alternatives. We need to put more of an effort towards supporting corporations that use and produce these efficient alternative products. We also need to put forward more of an effort to start supporting organizations that clean up and fix the messes made by these large and wasteful businesses.

I agree with this. Big company's produce a lot of carbon with their factories, and then have non degradable packaging. Both are bad for the environment, but since it is out of our control, we should do our best to control what we buy/support and dispose of our waste properly. If one wants to even support further, they can volunteer to pick up trash, or to help support company's trying to be eco friendly. It shouldn't be other organizations duties to pick up after these other polluting companies, but it should be whoever caused the problem. Usually the more eco friendly option is going to be more expensive at the end of the day, as being more eco friendly is more expensive.

Fireworks are very frequently used and in heavy, unhealthy amounts. Disneyland itself spends over $50 million on hundreds of thousands of fireworks every single year. Even if they stopped doing that, all over the world on Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, birthdays, weddings, ceremonies, and many more special occasions, fireworks are being used every single year. Have you noticed that gigantic cloud of smoke after the fireworks at an event? That's all the toxic smoke that pollutes the air we breathe. And that's just after a single event you attended. Fireworks contribute to combustion and release greenhouse gasses at the same time. Apart from that, much of the debris from used fireworks is not biodegradable and ends up being left on the ground as litter. A much safer and eco-friendly alternative to fireworks would be using paper confetti poppers or even cannons and blasters for celebrations.

Wow, I never realized fireworks could be so harmful to the environment. Still, to conserve the fun and joy spent watching fireworks, we should instead focus on creating more easily accessible eco-friendly fireworks. Disney developed a soot-free firework that is much better for the environment than most. But, these are sure to be expensive and hard to come by, so if we can make these fireworks accessible and less expensive, then maybe we can enjoy a good fireworks experience. In the meantime, we don’t need to have fireworks on every occasion, big and small. Lastly, we can use alternatives such as laser shows, confetti poppers, and bubble machines.

I completely agree, fireworks are often associated with celebration and joy but we often don't think about the environmental repercussions of them. On one hand, I have seen fireworks bring people together and inspire creativity, but I am also aware that they negatively affect the environment and our air quality. I often see people set off their own fireworks on big events such as the Fourth of July, when others nearby are doing the same thing. Along with finding more eco friendly firework alternatives, I think it would be beneficial to come together with large groups of people when setting off fireworks compared to small groups if there isn't an eco friendly alternative available. This way, the amount of fireworks being used is smaller and the times when we do see fireworks is more magical.

Food waste is a huge part of the carbon that is emitted into our atmosphere. When food is thrown away and put into land fills, or burned, all the carbon that is stored in it contributes to the greenhouse effect. This is why it is so important to compost. Composting has many benefits: it helps store the carbon from the food that stores lots of carbon in soil and stops it from being emitted into the atmosphere, it provides fresh soil that you can use to plant and grow your own food, it attracts beneficial animals that will help break the food down such as worms, and it stops landfills from being filled with food waste and trash. Composting is something that is so easy to do, and even if you do not have a backyard to do it in, you can have a composting bucket inside. It involves just a few extra steps in your daily routine and it is one of the most powerful actions we as individuals can take to stop climate change from reaching its full potential.

I totally agree, another solution to reduce the waste of food in the restaurant could be the use of "doggy bags", cardboard boxes that allow customers to take home food they have not eaten.

I totaly agree with you, another thing that could be done would be to, at the end of the day, perhaps give away to non-profit organizations or sell at a reduced price everything that you were unable to sell during the day, in this way it would avoid the phenomenon of homeless people rummaging in the trash looking for food or even animals that, attracted by the smell of food, sneak into bins, creating a nuisance. this would also help many people.

I completely agree. Composting is a simple yet powerful way for individuals to make a significant impact in reducing carbon emissions and stopping climate change. By diverting organic waste from landfills and instead allowing it to decompose naturally, we can not only prevent the release of greenhouse gases like methane, but also keep up soil health and promote biodiversity. Also, composting isn't limited to those with outdoor space; indoor composting options like composting buckets or composting using worms let people living in apartments and those without yards to participate the act of composting. It's a win-win situation: reducing waste, enriching soil, and contributing to a healthier planet.

Hi i am Cody Hsu i think people shouldn't waste food because some people are hungry.

Absolutely, not wasting food is essential for several reasons. Firstly, it helps to reduce environmental impact by saving resources like water and energy used in food production. Secondly, it is economically prudent as it saves money spent on purchasing and preparing food. Thirdly, it aligns with ethical considerations by acknowledging the global issue of hunger and food insecurity. Finally, minimizing food waste promotes a more sustainable and responsible approach to consumption, benefiting both people and the planet.

After taking the carbon footprint test I was able to further analyze the negative impacts us humans including myself hold on the environment. Though my total carbon footprint number was only about 400 kgs more than my regions average, my carbon kgs for transportation were more than double my regions average. This made me realize truly the drastic emissions of carbon my transportation methods bring yearly to our atmosphere. Some ways I could minimize my transportation carbon emissions is walking or biking when I can, take public transportation more frequently, and carpooling. My food and purchases averages were reflected as more normal for my region, however, my Home carbon, surprisingly, was well below my region's average. I think this is the case since we use solar panels as our main energy source, which is highly renewable. Additionally, when we can we make sure to turn off all powered things, such as appliances, lights, and air conditioning/heating when we leave the house or are asleep. Overall, us humans are the most significant cause of these harsh climate change affects and are small habits that may seem insignificant are increasingly destroying our globe. A video that encompasses this idea thoroughly and accurately is one that we watched in my science class, "His Epic Message Will Make You Want to Save the World" by National Geographic on Youtube.

Protecting the ocean is essential for life on Earth.Oceans are vital sources of oxygen,food and resources,and their conservation is crucial to our health and the health of global ecosystems.

Yes, I agree but how do we protect our ocean from acidification? First, we must understand what causes acidification. Ocean acidification is caused because more carbon dioxide is dissolving into the Ocean than ever before. It is natural for CO2 to dissolve into the ocean because the Ocean is a carbon sink. However, because of the industrial revolution and deforestation a surplus amount is being absorbed by the ocean which lowers the ocean's pH levels. The lower the pH levels are the more harmful it is to certain organisms who depend on the Ocean to survive. We must find ways to lower our carbon emissions as a whole to prevent any further extra acidification.

read this article to learn more on this topic:
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/quick-qu … uses-ocean-
acidification.html#:~:text=Ocean%20acidification%20is%20mainly%20caused,being%20absorbed%20by%20the%20ocean.

I agree, and even little things you can do at home can help protect ocean life. Things such as properly disposing of waste and conserving water are great ways to help even just a small amount. Another great way is to use less energy around the house, ways to do this are using energy efficient appliances and lightbulbs, keeping lights off when your not using them, and trying to limit large appliance usage. Even if these make a small difference if everyone pitches in we can help the bigger picture greatly. Many corporations also help contribute to restoring and conserving ocean life, they do this through many techniques such as rebuilding reefs and salt marshes that guard against storms and flooding, and protecting "Super Reefs" which are reefs which can survive hot temperatures and are used to help grow new generations of coral. We can make a difference by supporting and donating to these corporations which often rely on donations to operate.

https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do … our-ocean/

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/help-our-ocean.html

I completely agree; oceans are one of the most important contributors to human life. However, humans have caused great damage to the ocean. So how can we protect the ocean, and keep it healthy? Well, according to National Geographic, there are over 5.25 trillion of plastic in the ocean. This plastic kills sea life and is incredibly damaging to the ocean. To fix this, we can try to limit the plastic we use and correctly sort our trash. For example, instead of buying Ziploc bags, you can buy glass containers, which are reusable and don't cause damage to the environment after you dispose of them. Limiting your use of plastic leads to less plastic being put in the ocean. Similarly, we can also protect our ocean from acidification. Ocean acidification is the decrease in the pH of the ocean caused by too much carbon dioxide. The ocean naturally absorbs CO2, but abounding too much can lead to acidificaction, which harms sea plants and animals. To stop this crisis, we can try to limit our carbon footprint. According to I2SEA, the average human produces 3 791 kgs of CO2 per year, and even more in the United States. To reduce this number, we can drive to avoid driving and can use public transportation, biking, or walking instead. We can also try to invest in renewable energy sources, like solar panels, which use energy from the sun for electricity. This not only reduces your carbon footprint but saves you money. You can also try to eat less meat. Animals produce a lot of greenhouse gases, and not eating meat means not giving money to these companies that exploit and harvest animals.

https://education.nationalgeographic.or … ns-remain/

The balance between the human race and the well-being of our planet is quite difficult to balance. People need more and more things that are not exactly friendly to the environment and the planet. what can we do to balance the balance? I think we should reduce as much as possible the objects that we don't really need or replace them with others that are better for the environment. I admit that I also buy some things (clothes for example) that are not really useful to me, taking into account that I have so many good things that I could continue to wear. therefore, I will try as much as possible not to spend so much money on things I don't need, but to invest them in things that will also help the planet.

To add on to you’re point I think people should use more recyclable materials that are biodegradable, as well as organize more events for recycling, cleaning and informational ones too because it is very important to learn about how much one piece of plastic can damage the environment, and the ways that our pollution can affect animals and plants. We need to be aware that we are the cause of pollution and that only we can fix pollution and save our planet.

I completely agree! I often buy new items without considering what I already have and how my purchases will affect the planet. I feel it is important to pay attention to the packaging of items and minimize our purchases of plastic or other packaging materials that are harmful to our planet. It would also be great for communities to continue to transition from plastic products to more paper products. In addition, it is essential to enforce recycling and composting policies to limit the amount of waste dumped on land, making its way to our ocean, polluting the water, and hurting marine animals. We definitely need to be more conscious of our daily actions and their effects. Has your community taken any effective steps to further protect and heal our planet? Do you have any other ideas on how to do so?

global warming is something that we caused by not caring about the environment or planet earth itself

Yes, global warming is human-caused and has contributed to climate change. A main factor is greenhouse gas emissions being emitted into the atmosphere and trapping the sun's heat, resulting in the greenhouse effect keeping heat near the earth's surface. A prime example is human's excessive usage of plastic and nonbiodegradable trash that when burned releases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen into the atmosphere. Gas waste containing nitrogen accounts for water pollution and acidic rains. According to the United Nations Climate Action, today the earth's temperature regulations are warming at a faster rate than ever seen before in history with increased temperatures altering weather patterns across various regions and disrupting the balance of ecosystems. Other defining factors that lead to climate change include burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas has amounted to over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions. Cutting down forests also prompts climate change because trees both absorb and store large amounts of carbon dioxide. Deforestation is the cause for about 10% of climate change because when trees are chopped down the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere. I think that climate change is very real and is a result of humans disrupting the earth's natural balance of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Though climate change is irreversible, I think its rate can be slowed and we can reduce the amount of human-caused emissions of carbon. Instead as a society, we can look to use renewable and sustainable practices to cut back on waste and pollution.

Sources:
*United Nations-Climate Action-Causes and Effects of Climate Change
*European Parliament-Climate Change: the greenhouse gases causing global warming
*EPA-Climate Change Indicators: Greenhouse Gases

Climate change is definitely real and human caused. In the short time humans have been around compared to the existence of earth, humans have managed to alter the atmosphere and impose irreversible damage to our climate. There are huge trash piles floating in the ocean, dumps of trash not able to be composted or recycled, and most importantly, the things that sustain life on earth are wasting away. Land ice is melting causing sea levels to rise, as well as the pollution that has been emitted into the atmosphere, contributing to the build up of greenhouse gasses that are heating up our planet to unhealthy levels.

Compared to the carbon footprint that the average person makes being around 3,500kgs a year, my own footprint is about 9 times more than the marker, and my total carbon footprint number is about 3 times more of the average California citizen. My transportation amount was the highest of my carbon with a total of 16,033 kgs (which is a lot) and is then followed by home carbon at 5,786 kgs. I'm not totally sure if I entered the right information for transportation because I don't drive myself. My lowest carbon total was Purchases with 1,337 kgs. Third on the list was  food being  5,412 kgs. I can fix the number of food by buying food locally at a farmers market to reduce the transportation that is required when buying food from a grocery store. RFOr my home energy, we use solar panels for our house, covering a significant amount of energy we use in the house. However, there are things we can do to reduce our energy use, like turning of the TV when leaving the house and turning off lights even if its we are leaving the house for a short trip. There are lots of good and reliable sources on global warming and the steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprint. Two that I found useful are from "Sustainability at Northwestern University" on stopping climate change and "AustinTexas.gov" on reducing your carbon footprint.

For my home energy**

After seeing my calculator results, I noticed that though my footprint overall was about average, my transportation and home footprints were a lot larger than I thought they would be. I think this was because I don't usually think about how the everyday things I do can affect the environment. Things like driving most places, leaving my devices on chargers, and even leaving the lights on in a room are things I just got used to doing. After seeing these results, I am a lot more aware of how the things I do affect my carbon footprint. All in all, we should be all be aware of the small things we do that could hurt the environment.

Recently I read an article by Georgetown University about things we can do to save energy. In the article I found out that even when turned off, our devices continue to use power; which is why unplugging electronics when fully charged is an easy way to lower your carbon footprint.

Over the past few days I have learned about how important it is to hold yourself accountable for the amount of carbon that you emit into the atmosphere. After taking the carbon footprint calculator, I was surprised to see how low my carbon footprint was. This was mainly due to how my family and I rarely take any flights and instead normally travel to places that are closer to where we live so we usually are able to drive. I think that it is very important for everyone to be conscious of their carbon footprint but I think it is also important for people to be held accountable for the amount of carbon that they emit. I recently watched a video with my class of Amanda Gorman’s poem “Earthrise”. In the poem Amanda Gorman talks about how it is the people who emit less carbon that are affected by the massive amounts of carbon, the most. This is something that I think is so true and that it’s really unfair how many celebrities are able to avoid the effects of the massive amounts of carbon that they emit from all of their private jet flights and that instead it is people of middle and lower classes that have to experience the effects on a daily bases.

After taking the carbon footprint quiz and looking at the results, I noticed how the average carbon footprint for Californians is higher than the average worldwide. This puts things into perspective on how much bigger we are than other countries. For example, most countries in Europe won't have a higher carbon footprint due to the fact that they can walk place to place, where as we can only access most places by car or bus. When looking back at my results, I noticed that my "home" category was above average. Before taking the quiz, I didn't realize how so many day to day things I do contribute to my carbon footprint. For example, having my fan on or having my devices plugged into the outlet, even if it is charged, is contributing to the amount of carbon put out into our atmosphere. Even though most of us can't change our transportation system place to place, we can work on the minuscule factors that contribute to the carbon in our atmosphere, like how long our fan is on or how long our showers are. By being more aware of the things most of us overlook, we too can make an impact on the amount of carbon that is being released into our atmosphere.

Global warming is a really big issue that is vital to learn about and we can stop it from getting worse for our planet. I did a carbon footprint form and my carbon and was surprised that my food and transportation was pretty high. I then thought that what makes my transportation so high was that I go on a decent amount of vacations that require planes to get there. Another thing was that my food was high because of red meat. We can help the earth be a better place by eating vegetarian on some days and not use planes as often.

Water conservation is a very important part of lowering our carbon footprint in our daily lives. The water we use every day takes energy to filter, heat up, and run. This is something we can limit as much as possible in very simple ways. First, we can take shorter showers. Showers are a privilege for us, and not everyone has access to hot and clean showers in their homes. Many places also suffer from drought because water is wasted. This is why taking short showers is very important to lower our carbon footprint as a whole. Another thing that is very easy to do is to turn the sink on only when necessary. Turn it off when you are brushing your teeth to save energy and water. Don’t keep the sink running the whole time that you are washing the dishes. These simple things that we can do to save water are ultimately what is going to save the world from enduring the full effects of climate change.

Yes, i agree, water conservation in a significant part of lowering our daily carbon footprint. water takes a lot of energy to heat up and move around. there are a lot of ways to lower your water usage but the best ones are, taking short showers with water-saving showerheads, not leaving your water fauset running when you don't need it to be, and if you have a garden or plants don't spray your hose on it every day, install a drip system that  gives a healthy amount of water, but only in the right spots.
https://portal.ct.gov/deep/water/water- … ving-water
https://www.volusia.org/services/growth … water.stml

Global warming is an important issue that is important to learn about and ways we can prevent it from further harming our planet. I recently calculated my carbon footprint and was shocked by the results. My food and transportation were extremely high compared to people in my region. I realized what caused my transportation to be so high was the fact that I travel a lot and go on lots of trips and vacations. Also the food was high because I ate a lot of meat. Some ways to fix these problems are to have a more vegetarian diet and not go on trips as often. Limiting the amount of time I fly on an airplane because that is the main reason my carbon footprint is so high. Luckily my home and purchases are lower than the average which is good. Overall I think it is important for me to understand the effects I have on the world and how I can change it to better the world.

Why are sustainable cities important?
I think that sustainable cities have a great impact on enviroment.
In particular in the reduction of the emissions coming from factories and vehicles, and mostly about the emission caused by energy prodution from fossil fuels.

What do we mean with sustainable cities?
A sustainable city is a kind of city that focuses on reducing waste and emissions by using renewable energy and electric vehicles.

In conclusion i think that the future needs sustainable cities not only for our wellbeing but also for the future generations.

I would agree. Sustainable cities, along with the points you already mentioned, would raise awareness about climate change. Something I find particularly concerning is the variation in the CO2 levels. Just at my own school, CO2 concertation ranges between 450ppm and 850ppm, a different of almost 2 fold. When designing a city, I think it is important to ensure that a different area of the city doesn't suffer from one area "green" (eg. having factories all in one place, pollutes one area, but keep the rest clean)

I completely agree! Cities are one of the main contributors to carbon emissions (70%), and making them more sustainable would reduce CO2 substantively. In terms of transportation, I think that we could go even further than electric vehicles and have the main form of transportation be walking/biking. Since cities are pretty compact and everything is relatively close together, the majority of places could be accessed without even having to use a vehicle. Current cities can be pretty dangerous for bikers or pedestrians, so to encourage it in a sustainable city there could be certain streets or areas that don’t allow cars. I went to Portugal last Spring and there were barely any cars, many of the streets were just for walking, and you had to park your car outside of them and walk in. Not only would this be better for the environment, but getting more cardio would also improve people’s physical and mental health. (I do realize that walking would be an issue for people with disabilities, that would be a separate problem to figure out).
https://www.nrdc.org/issues/sustainable-cities#overview

#Don't pollute the environment to regret later

I wholeheartedly concur, but I also think it's critical that everyone understands what pollution is and how they personally contribute to it. In my experience, though, I was not made aware of the ways in which the things I did on a regular basis contributed to pollution. Therefore, I think that younger generations need to think more carefully about how pollution starts and what they can do to prevent it from happening. Continuously to be able to induce curiosity in them about this topic we should normalize it, due to that this is a very urgent problem that must be solved for a better future. Don't you think?

I completely agree and think that many people need to be educated about pollution. I think this because I see many people just littering and overusing things that are harmful to the environment. They must think it is just okay to do but in reality it is harmful to the environment. It may not be harmful in that moment but in the long run it could do some damage. According to a national litter study there are about 50 billion pieces of litter along roadways waterways since 2020. This number continues to go up as does mass production of single use plastics. These plastics are thrown away after one use and emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere creating the greenhouse effect. Becoming educated will help with the worlds awareness that we are killing the planet day by day.

I agree, especially by the fact that there is so much pollution that is flooding up our oceans. A fact that really comes up to my attention is that Americans used about 50 billion plastic bottles of water last year. And not even 1 fourth of those water bottles were recycled. In addition, plastics in the environment never fully decompose and only break into smaller pieces.

After looking at My carbon calculator results I saw that they were higher than the average for my area. Because of this, I started to think and discuss ways to lower my score with my family. We thought of ways to reuse items more times than we already do before eventually throwing them away. For clothes, we thought of finding places to give old clothes away so they have another life. For example, donating to thrift stores or giving clothes to younger family members. When it comes to purchasing new items we as a family decided to actively try and get clothes second-hand. When it comes to waste we will do better to reuse containers and jars. For example, we could reuse jelly jars as makeup brush holders or use them to hold leftovers. These were just some of the ideas we came up with that would help lower our carbon footprint by reusing and repurposing the items we already have in our house. I hope that this can help someone else to think of new ways to reuse and repurpose things they have in their house.

To make the city more eco-sustainable, we should all use means of transport that do not pollute like bicycles as much as possible. These are excellent if you have short trips to make, but if the trips are longer it is better to avoid the car and take some public transport to reduce pollution.

I agree with this completely. I think that it would be amazing if more cities could incorporate opportunities for more eco-friendly transportation like biking and walking. In addition to eco-friendly transportation cities could even take it a step further and make buildings more sustainable to help conserve energy and water. Solar panels are a great addition to homes and buildings. My house has solar panels and 70% of our electricity/energy is generated from the sun. Not only is this eco-friendly, but it helps lower our electric bill each month. If more buildings used solar panels it would help the environment and be more cost efficient. Another thing that I think would be a great addition to buildings would be a water conservation system, complete with things like rain catching technologies (ex. rain basin). These technologies would be cost efficient and help to conserve water. The water caught by these technologies could be used for things like pluming. To sum it up, I think that eco-friendly transportation and also sustainable water and energy systems would help to lower a cities overall carbon footprint, and I think that more cities should start implementing these things to be more climate conscious.

Food waste is a serious problem both in Italy and in the world. Every year, about a third of the food produced globally is wasted, resulting in an economic loss of about 700 billion dollars. In Italy, this translates into a loss of about 9 billion euros per year. The main sources of waste are households , restaurants , supermarkets and production. The main reason for household waste includes forgotten food in the refrigerator. Even though Italy is not among the countries with the highest waste rate, it still represents a significant challenge. The UN has included reducing food waste in its 2030 Agenda, with the goal of halving it within the next 7 years. This will require a global effort to change consumption habits and reduce food waste at all levels of the supply chain.

While the money lost due to food waste is a lot, the worst thing is how it affects people who don't have enough to eat. Think about it: there are millions of people in the world starving every day, even though there's more than enough food to feed everyone.
When we waste food, it's not just throwing away money; it's throwing away good food that could have helped feed someone who's hungry. This isn't fair and it's not right.
Reducing food waste isn't just about saving money or being eco-friendly; it's about making sure everyone has enough to eat. It's something we all need to work on together, so that we can create a world where nobody has to go hungry.

Sorry i missclicked while creating my account i am actually from Italy.

While the money lost due to food waste is a lot, the worst thing is how it affects people who don't have enough to eat. Think about it: there are millions of people in the world starving every day, even though there's more than enough food to feed everyone.
When we waste food, it's not just throwing away money; it's throwing away good food that could have helped feed someone who's hungry. This isn't fair and it's not right.
Reducing food waste isn't just about saving money or being eco-friendly; it's about making sure everyone has enough to eat. It's something we all need to work on together, so that we can create a world where nobody has to go hungry.

I'm not sure about in Italy, but in the US people try to promote composting our food scraps to try and be more sustainable about our waste. If our organic waste is properly composted it can actually really benefit our environment. According to the UN Environment Program it can help recover soils fertility, reduce the dependance on chemical fertilizers, improve water retention, and more.  We could use this composted fertilizer to grow more food so the amount of unnecessary waste is reduced. Food waste and loss contribute a good number to global greenhouse gasses as well(about 8-10%) so by composting this waste instead of just throwing it away we could help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. I agree that wasting food is unfair and sometimes it's an honest mistake like food forgotten in the fridge, but even that forgotten food (even if it's gone bad) can still be used to help our environment.

Promoting composting is a vital step towards global sustainability, as it diverts organic waste from landfills and transforms it into nutrient-rich compost. As emphasized by the UN Environment Program, this process not only enhances soil fertility and reduces reliance on chemical fertilizers but also improves water retention in soils, crucial for agricultural productivity. Also, composting mitigates greenhouse gas emissions by preventing organic waste from decomposing anaerobically in landfills, thereby addressing a significant source of methane emissions. Even unintentional food waste can be repurposed through composting, highlighting the value of this practice in turning what might have been perceived as a loss into a valuable resource for the environment. https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/res … composting

I recently came across a very inspiring video in my science class. It is called, "His Epic Message Will Make You Want to Save the World". It states that if you condensed the Earths life span in 24 hours, humans have only been on Earth for 3 seconds. The man in the video, (Prince Ea) then goes on to explain how we must protect the planet by making a sustainable future. I thought it was very a powerful call to action and it really opened up my eyes to the reality of what is to come if we don't change. Human activity has impacted the environment tremendously and research has shown that three-quarters of Earth's land surface is endangered. As I continue to learn about Climate change and Global warming in my science classes I will not forget that humans are responsible for keeping our planet alive. 

I was shocked that my transportation (mainly air travel )took up more than HALF of my carbon footprint. I feel like the normalization of air travel undermines how harmful airplanes are to our atmosphere. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 70% of airplane exhaust is CO2, and after being emitted, 30% of that gas is naturally removed from the atmosphere over 30 years, 50% disappears within a few centuries, and 20% stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years. As air travel increases, I can't imagine how much unnecessary carbon would end up just because of planes. I think that we should stop normalizing unnecessary air travel and educate others about its detrimental impact on our atmosphere. Additionally, I think we should also stop normalizing the frequent use of private jets, and how we should stop turning a blind eye to celebrities like Taylor Swift's carbon footprint. The idea of using private jets to travel from place to place is unbelievable because how can you not start thinking about how much carbon you, a single person, contribute to damaging our atmosphere?

There’s so many people dying from hunger, we should appreciate our food more. Around 9 million people a year die from hunger. You should at least finish or food or give it to the people in need so that you don’t waste the good that others really need.

I agree with you, we all need to be more aware of what is happening and we need to eat and buy food with more responsibility to avoid wasting food given that in many countries there are many people dying of hunger.

I agree, people across the world need to be more mindful of what they eat. People throw away over 92 billion pounds of poof per year. This concerning amount of waste can be cut down by making sure to only eat as much as you need, making sure not to buy more food that you can eat.

I agree with all the comments here. Food is definitely something we shouldn't take for granted and we are so caught up with our modern-day lives that we fail to recognize the sanctity of food and its importance to humans. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO of the United Nations, people waste one-third of all food produced. If we didn't waste that much food, world hunger would cease to be an issue and national food security would be ubiquitous.

I agree. I think that it is really easy to take such a basic necessity for granted and that it is important to recognize the amount of resources we are exerting to create food that is going to waste. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in the United States alone, 42 coal-fired power plants, enough water and energy to supply more than 50 million homes, and an area of agricultural land equal to California and New York go into the production of a year of food waste. The amount of resources we are putting into cultivating food that does not even get eaten is unacceptable, and I think it is so disappointing considering how big of a problem world hunger is. America solely discards over $473 billion worth of food annually, equating to 38% of all the food in the country. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley says that it would take an estimated $40 billion each year to end world hunger by 2030, showing that it would cost less to solve world hunger than to stop food waste. With this information and having seen the data from my own carbon footprint, I think that it's important to take accountability for your own contribution to the problem and be mindful when dealing with food.

Links for statistics used:
https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/how-muc … ld-hunger/
https://www.epa.gov/land-research/farm- … food-waste
https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work … %20America.

I agree with this, but there are still other factors that relate to food that shouldn't totally be excused. I believe giving your unfinished food to others, for an example, your family members, is a great way in making sure that your food isn't wasted. However, I also believe that not finishing your food shouldn't be looked down upon (at least completely). Let's say you and your family are at dinner, and everyone has finished their food but you. You are full, and so is your family. Your family doesn't want to eat your leftovers. The solution to this would be saving your food for later, but if someone is teasing you for not having the ability to finish your food, I would consider that to be a little bit unfair. What if you had an eating disorder? Everyone has a different relationship with food. People with specific eating disorders may not be able to finish their foods. For example, people with ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder), experience not feeling hungry, forgetting to eat because food is not a priority for them. Now put a person with this eating disorder into the situation--would you blame them for not finishing their food? They might feel guilty for not being able to eat what's left, and I think that shouldn't be looked down on. It may not excuse them from the fact there is 9 million people a year dying from hunger, but it does put in perspective how one might feel with an ED. Food shouldn't be wasted, but let's not blame others for not having the ability to eat a lot.

succeeding the test of carbon dioxide in my school and in my everyday life I now have opened my eyes to realize how much carbon is actually around me. passing the below average human usage of carbon. Even though that's not above the average person. It still is quite a lot and has shocked me on how much one family or a let alone person can create so much carbon. Although of all of this I do see ways how so much carbon is produced in the world like getting a ride to school every single day which creates harmful toxins like carbon dioxide to get trapped in the air. I also didn't know that dairy products have such a high effect on carbon levels because of the constant production of greenhouse gas emissions. For my food consumption I usually would eat white rice everyday with some sort of meat and vegetable. I also eat lots of fish or anything that my mom cooks usually depending on what we have and what the occasion is. I've learned that fish has a lower amount of carbon than meat like ground beef. For my purchases I usually will buy new clothes and sometimes go out to buy used clothing from either vintage or thrift stores. In my household we were a little below the average consumption of carbon. Although I think it's possible that we could be above average because all of my measurements for how much electricity or gas mileage wasnt exact.

The weather is changing a lot because of Global warming. The climate is changing and it is getting hotter. This is mostly caused by the greenhouse effect. It is scientifically molecules that are uneven are getting heat and holding the heat and they move around like particles. The atmosphere keeps these molecules in which means they cant leave and because of that the heat never leaves. If this continues to happen many animals can die and lose their habitat like polar bears. We need to find a way to fix this.

From Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions I learned that the biggest contributor to carbon emissions for an individual is at home. At 1.1 tonnes of CO2 annually. This is significantly more than the second highest contributor, which is transportation, at 0.8 tonnes. I found this interesting because while I understand why home life is the highest contribution to carbon emissions, I also think this is an easy area to cut down on. For example, turning off lights or fans before leaving a room, not leaving water running, and other more energy efficient methods.

The average of my footprint is brought up based on transportation.

Unfortunately, I think that the conflict between wanting to help the environment while still wanting to visit your loved ones is a complicated matter that isn't discussed very often. For some context, I have a pretty tight-knit extended family that I have visited quite often recently, especially as my older relatives have been dealing with medical issues. Although I was aware that I have been traveling by air more than usual recently, I was pretty surprised to see that transportation was by far my largest area of carbon emissions (I emitted approximately 4,000 kgs while the average person in my area emits 2,557 kgs) . I already expected my transportation score to be relatively high from the 2-3 days a week when I drive to school instead of taking the bus or need to drive to after school activities but my emissions from airplanes were by far the highest of the entire survey. This made me question what side to take when deciding whether to spend time with my family as I still care about the environment and don’t want to be responsible for emitting such a large amount of carbon dioxide for what some might consider a “want” instead of a “necessity”.

I also started to wonder whether the carbon I emit through transportation could be balanced out if my home, food and purchases emissions could remain relatively low. According to the survey, my food (744 kgs) and purchase (309 kgs) emissions were substantially lower than the average citizen in my region. I think that this is because I have a mostly vegetarian diet and no longer make as many clothes purchases due to my school uniform.

In your opinion, do you think that missing out on family memories is a price we need to pay in order to combat climate change or do you think that there are alternative methods to balance out/limit our carbon emissions?

After the test I realized how much carbon really is in my life, passing the average human usage of carbon, and thats still surprising for me. But I do see signs of how it happens like how I go to school every single day so that could also be a cause of that. I also found out how much dairy projects have an effect on carbon levels aswell which is something I did not know especially since I would have a glass of milk usually every other day. For my edibles I usually eat white rice and if there is nothing else that is available my mom make eggs which I also found out in one of the questions had something to do with carbon (I think I dont remember) and for the things like meat I usually eat fish or ground beef just depends on what we have, but something interesting is that fish has lower levels of carbon than something like ground meat. For my purchases I dont buy much or get new clothes often so thats very minimal. As well as my home its quite near the average but I think its a little above the average since I put I dont know for majority of the questions because I really dont know. And because of that I think thats the reason I got a lower score than I think I wouldve gotten if I knew more about the electricity that I used.

after doing this calculator I see how much carbon cars and plains put into the atmosphere. and I worry about how much carbon is put into the air each day just from commuting to work. I am also curious how much carbon is put into the atmosphere by cars alone

Taking the carbon footprint calculator quiz was a real eye-opener for me. It made me realize how much I take for granted and how many everyday things contribute to my carbon footprint. For example, I never thought about how much my transportation and energy habits like taking the bus, impact the environment. When I saw that I use 8622 kgs of CO2 per year and that almost half of it comes from food. It inspired me to make changes in my life, like using less energy and reducing food waste. I also started thinking about how I can help my friends and family reduce their carbon footprints. By making small changes, like using public transportation and reducing food waste, we can all make a big difference.

As an entire population, our world is still learning about the negative effects combustion engines and transportation have on the addition of fossil fuels to our atmosphere. All transportation run by combustion engines emits mass amounts of fossil fuels into our atmosphere, leading to climate change due to greenhouse gasses. Planes especially contribute immense amounts of fossil fuels since they are very big and require a lot of power to take off and maintain speed while flying. Additionally, with the tens of millions of cars on the streets daily, fossil fuels are being emitted at an absurd rate. Even electric vehicles require a lot of energy to produce which causes the emission of tons of fossil fuels. How can we fix this problem? There are a few possibilities... First, carpooling and taking public transportation is one of the best ways to begin minimizing your carbon footprint. For every person who contributes, we will emit less every day. Secondly, buying electric vehicles is a big step up from combustion engines, which will drastically minimize your carbon footprint. Although they require a lot of energy to produce, if used long enough, they are more efficient than combustion engines. Finally, developing commercial electric planes will immensely help reduce the carbon footprint of many travelers. Let's continue to minimize our carbon footprint and make our planet a healthier place.

I want to bring up planes. I think planes are very important for life because they allow you to travel all around the world in just a few hours. I think planes are great but I think we should change something about them. We need to change the fact that planes are major polluters. Planes remain among the most polluting means of transport and something needs to be done. I propose electric planes. I have no idea how one would go about doing this, but this is just a suggestion. I want to bring this up because personally I travel and go on airplanes a lot and in return, I pollute a lot. This year, I calculated my carbon footprint and it said that it was 25,784 kgs of CO2 per year, compared to the average in California; 9,727 kgs of CO2 per year. You might be wondering why my carbon footprint is so high. It is because I travel so much. 18,311 of the 25,784 kgs of CO2 was from transportation. So overall, I think something needs to change about airplanes because I want to keep traveling but I dont want to be a major polluter.

People who say that climate change isn't real state that we are not in an ice age at the moment. I would disagree with that statement since there is ice on our poles which constitutes an ice age. We are actually in an interglacial period were the ice pulls back to around the poles. That means it is concerning to have our planet's ice sheets melt as we are still technically in an ice age.
https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey … ce%20age!)

Over the past semester, I have learned a lot about what contributes to global warming. I learned what greenhouse gases actually are and what the greenhouse effect is. Most importantly I learned how this all connects back to me. During this assignment, I saw how each individual decision I make even if it is only choosing between a plastic or glass bottle makes an impact on our environment.

Petpass: plataforma líder en la gestión del acceso de mascotas, verificando datos de mascotas, propietarios y seguros de responsabilidad civil para cumplir con la nueva legislación de bienestar animal.

Over the past few days, I have learned a lot about how what my daily life consists of  affects my carbon footprint and the world around me. When I took the carbon footprint calculator questionnaire, I realized that my carbon footprint is extraordinarily high compared to the average person globally. Transportation and food contributes substantially to my carbon footprint compared to the other categories. From traveling by air almost 3-4 times per year in the past few years of my life, and taking a 20+ minute car ride to school almost 6 days a week, transportation plays a large role in the the fact that my carbon footprint is definitively above average. Some ways that I learned in class to fix this is to take public transportation to school, whether it be a bus or a BART train Next, food. The food I mostly eat everyday consists of red meat, poultry, eggs, and fruits and vegetables. While fruits and vegetables have a considerably low carbon footprint, red meat, poultry, and eggs have the highest carbon footprint among most foods. I also consume more food than the average American daily,(3500 kcal) so my carbon footprint is considerably higher. Red meat is terribly bad for the environment because the livestock industry destroys forests to create open space for cows, as well as cows' high emission of methane, which is a greenhouse gas. What I found interesting in my total footprint chart is that my "Purchases" category is incredibly lower than the average Californian. I contribute 119kgs per year, while the average Californian contributes 1,191kgs, ten times more than my total. Most of my clothes are hand-me-downs, and most of clothing is thrifted In class, I learned that thrifitng is a great way to be environmetally friendly. The clothing that I do buy is for school, which is not too much. When I watched a portion of the Netflix documentary Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion, I learned that the clothing industry is actually responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, in my home category, it was slightly above the average Californian, (which still is not good), but it is very fixable in order to lower that total. In the end, as greenhouse gases trap heat on the Earth's atmosphere, global warming ensues, leading to climate change. (The Earth's temperature getting hotter) My carbon footprint is detrimental to the efforts to prevent climate. One simple step that I can take, and that we can all take is to conserve water, eat less meat, (especially red meat) recycle, thrift clothing, turn off your lights, etc. After seeing my total footprint, I am motivated to take action and take this test again in the future to see how much progress I have made.

After I learned about how much carbon I produce, I started to worry about how much BOD students produce a year. The average amount of CO2 for a human is 3628.74 kilograms and my results were around 12,000 kilograms. I know my friends do similar things in their routine as I do mine, so I knew my results couldn't be that bad. Is there any way we can prevent from emitting a significant amount of CO2 easily and efficiently? I think we can start making houses that use carbon reducing materials and low electricity, so that families don't have to worry about installing it themselves. The average household produces about 10,970 kilograms a year, which is nearly 2.5 times more than a human produces a year, so I think this will reduce it by a lot. We can also cut food waste, which can be easy if families or individuals cook the right amount of food they can eat each meal. It stops food going into the trash and rotten food if it is stored. These are just a few ideas, but if I see myself using a significant amount, I will immediately think about how I can reduce it!

Taking the carbon footprint calculator quiz really made me aware of my negative impact and how much I take for granted. I didn’t fully grasp how many things I use on the daily contribute so heavily to my carbon footprint. For example, I never factored in how my transportation and energy use habits (taking the bus, using my fan for more than 6 hours occasionally) can harm the environment. I also found it interesting how an average Californian’s footprint is 9,727 kgs per year, in relation to the average citizen worldwide who emits 3,791 kgs per year. At first I was proud that my footprint was smaller than the average Californian’s, before I looked at the world average and realized I have a lot farther to go. In the end, this information inspired me to look at my own life and make important changes. In the past few days, I’ve stopped using my fan and instead began opening my windows. I make sure to turn off all lights when leaving a room, and got a few more potted plants for my room.

For some people, it’s easy to live your life with only the bare essentials, but for others, it’s hard to discern between if they need something or if they really want something. Now, if you really want to get argumentative, practically everything can be written off as a “want”, including clothes in the summer, blankets in the winter, and umbrellas in rainy days. This is why it’s so easy to berate someone for wanting material possessions, while at the same time you can just as easily wave the blame off of yourself for getting a new muffler for your bike. It’s when you think about how we have been living for centuries without a dire need for anything, and that we’ve been living in excess for so long, that you realize that the question changes from “Do you really need it?”, to “Is my purchase of this item really what’s causing all of this?”. We’ve known that CO2 emissions have been rising ever since the Industrial Revolution, and the main driver of global warming is most likely not the customers that buy the products, but the manufacturers that pump out incredible amounts of waste in a landfill they call products, and don’t even stop for a second to think about their impact on the environment. The environment isn’t solely in the hands of you and whether you decide to buy that Hydroflask or not, but it’s up to the companies that dump tons of oil into the ocean, the same companies that use the energy that just so happens to be the most damaging to the environment. Now, I’m not saying to be mindful of your impact on the environment, in fact, I support those who “reduce, reuse, recycle” and don’t buy tons of environmentally-damaging plastics. What I’m saying is: Be mindful of your waste, but please don’t beat yourself or others up about it. Buy more organic options at the store, support your local farmers and business owners and avoid the companies that emit the larger percentage of the world’s carbon, but please, don’t force yourself or anybody to live a life that you/they don’t want when the real problem is out of your hands.

I agree. Everyone can go on in life without all the excessive things we often buy but many of us can't bring ourselves to agree with this. I know of people who frequently go shopping on a daily basis for things that and very nice to have, but not necessary. Things like celebrity fans rushing to purchase the most recent merch, people immediately buying the latest design that their favourite brand just dropped, and those who are shopping for their 9th pair of shoes are all common examples of how we buy what we want, not need. We have the luxury of getting to choose what we want to buy. Those people in under-developed countries and places don't have this choice. They can only make use of what they find and what they are given. Yet you still see them making the best out of it unlike us who want more and more even if our current item is still in usable condition. All these small little things add up bit by bit as we continue to contribute to global warming.

I agree a lot with this. Currently, I feel like average, everyday people are blamed and made to feel bad for problems that are really out of their hands. Sure, the accretion of normal people's carbon emissions is part of it, but when celebrities are emitting the same amount of CO2 in one 15 minute private jet flight than the average household emits in a year, who is really the problem? The average person doesn't have even a fraction of the influence and power a politician or celebrity has. Telling people the climate crisis is their fault is a hugely mistaken perspective to take. Most families have no option but to buy clothes that are not sustainably made or to buy cheap, non-organic, non-local produce and food. Shaming other people for the choices they make surrounding sustainability is in no way going to help. Change doesn't come from a few people being "perfect", it comes from a lot of people making small, everyday improvements.

In the past three days I have learned about climate change, greenhouse gasses, and my carbon footprint. First I want to talk about climate change, and how we read an article and went over it in class. Secondly we discussed non-greenhouse gasses and greenhouse gasses, the differences and similarities between the two, and the specific things that they are used for. The last thing that I have learned in the past three days of class was about the world's and more specifically my carbon footprint. When learning about this we took 50 question quiz going over the certain purchases, traveling, and eating that lead to having a bad carbon footprint. Overall I have learned about how these three things effect out world in todays society.

From my experience, a large contributor to most family’s carbon footprint is food. In a time when we have every food imaginable at our fingertips, we tend to stop considering the environmental impacts of different foods. One thing to think about is if the fruits or vegetables you are buying are in season. If they aren’t, the food can have an exponentially larger carbon footprint than if you had bought it when it was in season as now the food has to be shipped in from somewhere else in the world. Because of the long journey the food has to take, it is also usually covered in pesticides which contribute immensely to greenhouse gas emissions.

Over the past 3 days, I've learned about your carbon footprint, greenhouse gases and climate change. From this, I'be gathered that transportation such as plains and car rides contributes highly to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, I've learned that eating tropical fruits or other foods can equally contribute to rising emissions because of the high transport rate it takes to get the food across the country in order to eat. Lastly, I figured out that having house heating and cooling constantly on can add to greenhouse gasses. This all relates to each other because the three actions all take up a huge amount of energy and/or electricity.

To add on, I gathered from a green house gases information website that temperatures have gradually been rising over the years due to the trapped heat created from radiative gasses like carbon dioxide(Center for Climate and Energy Solutions).

Over the past couple of days I have learned about my own carbon footprint, what contributes to it, what more greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere actually means for the enviornment, how to reduce carbon my own carbon foot print and how green house gases trap heat along with what a green house actually is. Using the carbon footprint calculator I was able to find out that most of my carbon footprint came from transportation, Which was mildy surprising because the majority of my transportation footprint came from flights which I did not know contributed so much. Compared to other Californians my carbon footprint not counting transportation was extremely low, As I do not seem to eat at quite the quantities that most Americans do along with the fact that I do not buy much and whenever I do it is usually thrifted and used for a genuinely long time. According to the More Stuff=More Climate Change article, most of large and "first world" countries' carbon emissions come from transportation and purchases which explains why the transportation section of a Californian's carbon footprint on average contributed so much. I also learned how greenhouse gas compounds in our atmosphere use their polarity, which means that most of the positive-based atoms are on one side, and negative on the other to bounce back UV rays of heat back down to earth a couple times before it escapes into the atmosphere. This brings to mind the problem of having too many greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, because the more green house gases that there are, the more likely that the UV rays will continue to bounce in between the Earth and Green House Gases in the atmposphere, more than a couple times. All of these things are connected as carbon footprints no matter how big or small contribute greatly to the amount of carbon in our atmosphere which bounce back more uv rays and thus raise temperature in our atmosphere, so in order to prevent the further rise in global warming we first have to lower our carbon emmsions by: Buying less things, using greener transportation, trying to invest in longer lasting and more sustainably crafted clothing and trying to eat foods grown locally while they are in season.

There are many things that contribute to global warming and our atmosphere. For example, there are greenhouse gasses that keep the heat in the atmosphere (CH4, CO2, H2O), and there are non greenhouse gasses that keep the heat out of our atmosphere (N2, O2, H2). Many things in our day to day lives contribute to our atmosphere. Like driving, what food we eat, buying things, and even the way we use our energy in our houses. It is important that we maintain a low carbon footprint so that greenhouse gasses are not released into the air. Some ways we can do that is not eating fast food, taking the bus or riding a bike, not buying things from fast fashion brands, or reducing your flights. Cows release methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Because of fast food our demand for cows has skyrocketed, forcing more methane into the atmosphere. Our way of getting around also affects the atmosphere because cars and planes emmit lots of CO2, taking the bus or riding your bike can save energy. It is very important that we stop the flow of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere because the global temperature is rising, affecting animals and natural habitats are being destroyed by high heats.

Over the past three days, I have learned about my carbon footprint, how I indirectly and directly produce greenhouse gasses, and how I contribute to climate change. Using the carbon footprint calculator, I discovered that most of the carbon I produce comes from transportation. I travel a lot during the winter, to get to my ski team, and while my traveling across the state may seem harmless, it produces a lot of greenhouse gasses, which contribute to climate change. One of the most common greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide or CO2. Co2 is a naturally occurring gas in the Earth's atmosphere. It helps keep the planet habitable, by trapping heat in the atmosphere. According to the article "How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?" Co2 soaks up infrared energy or heat. The molecules vibrate and re-emit the energy in every direction. About half the heat that Co2 absorbs ends up back in the atmosphere, but half of it is still on Earth. Unfortunately, human development has created much more Co2, and this gas is still being produced. This means that as more CO2 is being produced, the temperature of the Earth is rising, causing irreversible damage.

Over the last three classes, I have learned a lot about climate change, greenhouse gasses, and my carbon footprint. Using prior knowledge and information I have learned from articles we have read, I believe that the one thing they each have in common is their detrimental effect on our earth. To back up, we have answered a 50-question survey to understand our carbon footprint in terms of statistics, learned about non-greenhouse gasses and greenhouse gasses and how they affect our planet, and read articles that help us understand our carbon footprint and find solutions to better help our planet. In class, we learned about non-greenhouse gasses and greenhouses and the impacts they have on our earth. Non-greenhouse gasses work because, due to their imbalance, they are able to spring off new heat and instead release it back into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses are the opposite, as they keep radiation in our atmosphere. Finally, in the article More stuff = more climate e change, we learned about how carbon emissions are produced and some of the main producers, which include transportation, housing, and food. One thing I found interesting is how big of an impact transportation has on our carbon footprint, as it takes up 25%. This is because when we drive our vehicles, we release nitrogen dioxide and other harmful gasses into our atmosphere, further spreading global warming.

Over the past 3 days, I have learned a lot about my carbon footprint and how it is affecting climate change. To begin I learned that a carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide you are putting into the atmosphere. Based on taking the carbon footprint quiz on i2sea I learned that things I do like taking flights to travel, charging my phone overnight, or even just leaving a light on in my room are contributing negatively to the earth. In addition, you may think that it's not that big of a deal I'm just one person, but if more and more people think that way it will have a detrimentally negative effect on our planet. To add on the article "More stuff = more climate change?" describes how every item that we purchase or consume releases greenhouse gas emissions during its production and transport. Similarly in class when we took notes on greenhouse gasses it described how they can move with infrared energy, which is heat. All things considered, buying less stuff and educating yourself on the simple things that are adding to your carbon footprint can help reduce global warming.

Over that last 3 days I have learned how much I have been contributing to the Earth's global warming issue. I have learned that by traveling as much as I do, on busses and planes, I am producing mass amount of carbon. I learned this information when doing the assignment "Calculating Carbon Footprint". I have learned that when producing CO2 it fluctuates to obsorb infrared heat keeping heat inside the atmosphere and heating up the planet.

Over the past three days, I have learned that my carbon footprint of around 6,904 is below the average footprint in my state, but higher than the world average. This made me realize that it is easier for people in some parts of the world to use up more carbon, especially because of easier access to cars and other transportation rather than walking. I also realized that an airplane flight is equivalent to numerous car rides, which is why flying sparingly is beneficial to the environment. I learned that the heat that is reradiated from the earth can not pass through the greenhouse gas carbon, causing it to be trapped. This is slowly warming up the planet, leading to climate change. As a result, the greater a person’s carbon footprint, the more they contribute to climate change, which is why it is crucial that we reduce our footprints. Additionally, I learned that in the far future there will be billions of people suffering from climate change if we don't do anything about it. I learned from Colombia Climate School's article that a way to prevent this is by decarbonizing the energy supply, pulling carbon from the atmosphere, and also promoting more sustainable ways of living. Some smaller actions can include walking more often, thrifting, leaving lights on less, and using reusable containers/bags.

What I have learned about the Carbon Footprint over these past three days is that my Footprint affects the earth much more than I expected. These past three days have helped me notice things I would usually not. Like being aware of what fast fashion is, how recycling can save lives, and how my carbon footprint is a valuable tool for measuring the offering of climate change by an individual, organizations, products, and services. For example, by computing the industrial carbon footprint, an industry can better understand its major sources of emissions and find ways to minimize them. This has helped me understand what I can also do to minimize the amount of CO2 i release into the atmosphere.

Science and The Environment

assignment

Over the past 3 classes I have learned about my carbon footprint, what contributes to it, what more greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere mean, how to reduce carbon my carbon foot print and how ghg's trap heat. Using the carbon footprint calculator I was able to find out that most of my carbon footprint came from transportation, which I expected as I have to drive to and from sports, but compared to other Californians my carbon footprint not counting transportation was quite low, as I do not buy very much clothing and use it until it is too small/ beyond repair and will donate it if possible. According to the More Stuff=More Climate Change article, most of large and "first world" countries' carbon emissions come from transportation and purchases which explains why the transportation section of a Californian's carbon footprint was from transportation. I also learned how greenhouse gas compounds in our atmosphere use their polarity, which means that most of the positive-based atoms are on one side, and negative on the other to bounce back UV rays of heat back down to earth 1-2 times before it escapes into the atmosphere. This brings to mind the problem of having too many greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, as it will trap the UV heat rays for longer thus increasing global warming. All of these things are connected as carbon footprints no matter how big or small contribute greatly to the amount of carbon(which is a ghg) in our atmosphere which bounce back more uv rays and thus raise temperature in our atmosphere, so in order to prevent the further rise in global warming we first have to lower our carbon emmsions by: Buying less things, using greener transportation, trying to invest in longer lasting and more sustainably crafted clothing and trying to eat foods grown locally while they are in season.

In the past 3 days what i have learned is that my carbon footprint is mostly coming from food. I am not surprised that that is my most because yes i do eat a lot and my family buys a lot of food for us too eat. Greenhouse gases are unsymmetrical so that means they are able to trap infrared energy. what i have also learned about climate change is that these carbon footprints really do have an affection to our world and a cause. For an example more heat could be trapped in our atmosphere leading to global warming and climate change.

What have you learned over the past 3 days about your carbon footprint, greenhouse gases and climate change? How do they all relate to each other?

Over the past several days we have discussed how greenhouse gases affect climate change, and how our own carbon footprint contributes to these gases. Though some actions may seem harmless, such as taking a flight, there are serious results, such as significant emission of harmful gases, such as CO2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas everywhere, caused from trees getting cut down, burning fossil fuels, and more. According to the article "How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?'' it states, "as CO2 soaks up this infrared energy, it vibrates and re-emits the infrared energy back in all directions. About half of that energy goes out into space, and about half of it returns to Earth as heat, contributing to the ‘greenhouse effect.’" This means that as more CO2 is released, the more heat that is pushed back to earth, therefore heating up the earth due to the surplus of carbon being released.

Over the past 3 days, I have learned a lot about my carbon footprint, greenhouse gases and climate change. I have learned that my carbon footprint is larger than I thought it would have been and most of that is due to transportation. Carbon footprint is related to greenhouse gases because someone's carbon footprint is the creation of excess greenhouse gases, and how much greenhouse gas a person amits. Climate change relates to this because of all of the extra greenhouse gases and how that creates too much trapped heat in our atmosphere. My carbon footprint is a bit larger than the average, and I can minimize this by trying to take more eco-friendly forms of transportation when possible. This means I can create fewer greenhouse gasses, and combined with others who are doing this there will overall be fewer greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, making it easier for the appropriate amount of heat to escape.

In the past three days, I have learned that my carbon footprint is less than the average footprint in my area but more than the average in the world. I have learned about all of the direct and indirect carbon emissions I can cause. I have learned that people with higher incomes generally have higher carbon footprints because the biggest culprit to carbon footprints is buying stuff. Some ways to reduce your carbon footprint are to walk or take public transportation instead of driving, eat less meat (especially red meat), borrow instead of buying, and shop second-hand when needed. Carbon is a greenhouse gas. Its polar covalent bond of CO2 and geometrical composition allows it to absorb the infrared rays from the sun. Carbon vibrates, releasing half of the infrared rays back to the Earths surface in the form of heat. With the increase in CO2 emissions, more heat is getting trapped in our atmosphere, leading to global warming and climate change. This effect is why it is so important that we are conscious of our carbon footprint and do everything we can to lower our carbon usage on an individual and community level.

In our company, Tintasytonercompatibles, we are using only recycled plastics, in addition to reusing all the boxes and packaging we receive to minimize our carbon footprint. We have changed the labels to just a QR to minimize plastic waste. We can all help!

Over the past three days, I have learned a lot about carbon footprints, greenhouse gasses, and climate change. To start, I learned that people with higher incomes typically have a higher carbon footprint than those who live more modestly. This is because people with higher incomes generally travel more in cars and planes and they buy more stuff. Some ways to reduce your carbon footprint and prevent releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is to walk or bike more instead of driving, shop locally, borrow instead of buying, and go thrifting. Additionally, I learned that greenhouse gasses, like Carbon Dioxide, are electrically lopsided which allows them to absorb infrared heat. As CO2 takes in this energy, it vibrates and re-emits half of the infrared energy in to space and half of it back as heat to Earth. Because we are releasing so many CO2 emissions, more and more heat is getting trapped within our atmosphere, causing Earth to heat up too much. This is why it's important to lower our carbon footprints and monitor our carbon dioxide usage.

I have learned a lot in these past 3 classes about greenhouse gasses. One thing that I have learned from the lab today is that all greenhouse gases are compounds and all non-greenhouse gases are molecules. This is important because since their electric balance is lopsided, they are very good absorbers of heat which keeps the temperature of our planet balanced. Also, I learned that transportation is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions from the homework article. This is important because it gives us an idea of the main problem and how we can help stop it and cut back our individual carbon emissions.

I learned that my carbon footprint is slightly below the average for the United States, and that the largest contributor to it is transportation. Your carbon footprint is influenced by not only transport and travel, but also by small things such as food and heating. A large contributor to co2 emissions come from taking flights, so we should all travel less and with more people to reduce our individual carbon footprints. We can also reduce our carbon footprints by thrifting for clothes, and buying fewer things.
Greenhouse gasses are unsymmetrical, which makes them able to trap infrared energy, then send it back to Earth, essentially trapping heat on Earth. global warming is important to learn about because it affects many parts of our lives, from temperatures rising and natural disasters, to food production and sea level rise.

In the past 3 days, I've learned a lot about my carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change. I've learned that the most contributing thing to my carbon footprint is the home section. I've also learned about how to cut down on my carbon footprint by: cutting down on heating, not to eat so much beef and/or pork, and to carpool more. From one of the articles we read, I learned that people with higher incomes have much higher carbon footprints because they can afford many more things. Some things I've learned about greenhouse gasses are: that they are compounds, there are a lot of greenhouse gases, but there are more greenhouse gases than in the past. That is why it is getting hotter every year. I've learned that greenhouse gases and people's carbon footprint all contribute to climate change.

During this project, I learned a lot about my carbon footprint and what causes it. After doing this project I will try to live a more sustainable life in many different ways.

Over the past three days, I have learned in class and from articles, that buying more things can dramatically increase your carbon footprint and add greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Fast fashion, eating beef, and burning gas for heat are all contributors to your carbon footprint. Colder places and busy cities have a bigger carbon footprint than walkable cities with warmer climates. This is because in cold places, people need to burn more gas and wood to keep warm, these places also have more people driving, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere. The places in Europe with the biggest carbon footprint include the United Kingdom and Luxembourg. Whereas the most climate friendly are Spain and France (Ivanova et al., 2017). Greenhouse gasses trap heat in the atmosphere, keeping the Earth warm. Non-greenhouse gasses release heat from the atmosphere and are non-polar covalent molecules. When greenhouse gasses trap heat on Earth, it makes the climate hotter. Carbon Dioxide, a greenhouse gas, acts like a cap, trapping most of the heat that Earth would have put into space. According to my classmate's carbon footprint calculations, traveling by airplane can make a huge negative impact to your footprint. I've learned that making decisions like getting an electric car and including LED lights in your home are all sustainable things that will help the atmosphere.

What have you learned over the past 3 days about your carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change? How do they all relate to each other?

In the past week, I have learned a lot of new things about not only myself but about how things are affected by the things I do daily. Whether it's how I get to school or what I eat daily, the world is always affected. My carbon footprint was shallow before I filled out the transportation aspect of it. Before the transportation part, I was sitting around 3,000 kgs. After the transportation aspect of it, it shot up to 11,000. This made me realize not only how much I drive every day, but how much planes affect the atmosphere. With an average of 9,000 kgs per person, our earth is becoming filled with toxicity more and more. The greenhouse gases capture these CO2 emissions from going into space. This is causing our planet to become hotter and hotter filled with these gasses. This has a clear effect on our climate and how it is changing. An article by Environmental Science Journal for Teens says that the Carbon that we put into our atmosphere each day, is being caught by greenhouse gasses, the carbon is trapped inside our atmosphere ultimately heating the atmosphere of our earth and causing climate change. We are already seeing the effects of this and we need change to happen soon before it's to late

Over the past 3 days, I have learned that my carbon footprint is mostly coming from transportation, specifically my travel in planes. I have learned about what makes a greenhouse gas and an example of how to identify a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gasses relate to climate change because the gasses float up into our atmosphere. Once in our atmosphere they are trapped and act like a blanket around the Earth, which makes it a lot hotter. My Carbon Footprint relates to greenhouse gasses and Carbon is a Greenhouse gas which goes into the atmosphere.

Over the past 3 days I've learned about how my everyday choices affect my carbon footprint, the difference between green house and non-greenhouse gases, and about the causes and effects of climate change.
After taking the Carbon Footprint calculator test I learned about how eating lots of meat, traveling a lot, especially by plane, always buying new clothes/fast fashion, and excessively using your home heater/AC are all major contributors to Carbon Dioxide emissions. The solution to all of this is simple: Buy less stuff. Buy less animal products and more fruits and vegetables, wear second hand clothes, and walk or ride your bike instead of driving when possible.
Greenhouse gases and non greenhouse gases have many differences. The activity we did in class where we made many different molecular models showed a visual representation that greenhouse gases are compounds, and non greenhouse gases are molecules because greenhouse gases are made up of more than one element and non greenhouse gases only have one element. Greenhouse gases are also 3D/triangle shapes whereas non greenhouse gases are flat shapes. Additionally polar covalent bonds come from Greenhouse gases, and they are lopsided so they can absorb infrared rays and then move back and forth before emitting them out. Non greenhouse gases however make non polar covalent bonds that don't move around and therefore let heat out.
From reading the article "How Exactly does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?"(Fetch, 2021) I learned that after infrared energy is released back into the Earth, it gets trapped in the atmosphere and becomes part of the greenhouse effect. These greenhouse gases then start to heat up to atmosphere after being trapped in it for so long eventually causing climate change. Climate change means changes in the climate over a long period of time.

These are all related because they all are related to climate change. My carbon footprint is the amount of carbon that I personally release into the atmosphere, and this carbon leads to climate change. Greenhouse gases are another major contributing factor to climate change, and from both of these factors, plus many others, our planet is slowly heating up resulting in climate change.

Over the past few days, I have learned a lot about my carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change. When calculating my carbon footprint I learned that the biggest contributor to my carbon footprint is transportation because it causes direct emissions. In the article, "More stuff = more climate change?" (Ivanova, et. al., 2017) direct emissions are explained as emissions directly released when the product is used, like from the tailpipe of a car. This puts greenhouse gases directly into the atmosphere and activities such as driving and flying in planes a lot have a big impact on your carbon footprint. The production of these heat-trapping gases causes climate change, which is changes in climate over long periods of time. Greenhouse gases make polar covalent bonds, which make the compounds lopsided and able to move around. This allows them to absorb a wider range of infrared energy waves, overall causing more heat to be trapped in the atmosphere. Non-greenhouse gases have the opposite effect, they are more of a flat shape and do not change form so they let heat out of the atmosphere. However, although CO2 makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere, according to the article "How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?" (Fecht, 2021) even low levels of these greenhouse gases can make a large difference in Earth's climate. There are many things we can do to reduce our carbon footprints, such as buying second-hand clothing, eating more locally grown fruits and vegetables and less beef, using public transportation more often as well as walking or riding your bike places, and not using electricity when not necessary. All of these topics are related because greenhouse gases contribute to climate change and it is important for people to be aware of their carbon footprints because we are all contributing to climate change and it is affecting all of us.

What have you learned over the past 3 days about your carbon footprint, greenhouse gases and climate change? How do they all relate to each other?

In the past few days I have learned that my carbon footprint is slightly lower than average, and that transportation is by far the biggest contributor to it. I have learned that greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere by absorbing infrared energy then re-emitting some of it back onto Earth, which we feel as heat. I have also learned that carbon is a greenhouse gas, and although it is necessary to regulate Earth's climate, too much of it can make the climate too hot; this causes climate change. Not only does the environment get too hot, it also changes in other ways from the excess amount of greenhouse gases, for example: tropical storms, droughts, and sea level rise. Carbon is produced by many things human do, including cutting down trees and burning oil, which are some of the biggest contributors. All three of these concepts are related because every individual has a carbon footprint, which means that we are all contributing to climate change through the over-production of greenhouse gases.

What have you learned over the past 3 days about your carbon footprint, greenhouse gases and climate change? How do they all relate to each other?

Over the past three days, we have learned a great deal regarding our carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change. We learned the true definitions of terms such as Weather, Climate, Climate Change, and Global Warming. We got to see our carbon emissions through a detailed 50-question survey which gave us an idea of how much carbon we are responsible for creating. Finally, we learned about greenhouse and non-greenhouse gasses and the ins and outs of how they work and what they do, non-greenhouse gasses can let heat out of the atmosphere because they are slightly imbalanced, this enables them to bounce off incoming heat and release it back into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases however are unable to do this therefore holding in more heat and causing global warming.  In the article we read titled "More stuff = more climate change" I learned a lot more about what are the main producers of carbon emissions. Something I never thought about was how the more people there are in a given house, the fewer carbon emissions are produced per person, this is because the number of home appliances being used between the people is greatly lessened when under the same roof.

I learned that my carbon footprint is higher than I had expected because of my high emissions from my home and transportation. I also learned that all greenhouse gasses are polar covalent compounds that redirect half of the infrared energy trying to leave Earth back towards it. Climate Change is the changing of climate patterns that then show themselves in the weather. They are all connected because climate change is being caused by the very high levels of greenhouse gasses trapping in to much heat. My carbon footprint is contributing to putting even more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere making climate change worse.

When I first saw my carbon footprint, I did not expect my transportation to be as high as it was. I thought that driving an electric car, biking to go grocery shopping, and biking to where I hang out with friends was enough to keep my transportation emissions below the average citizen. That was until I saw how much each flight I took was. Even if I took 1-2 flights, my carbon emissions would blow through the roof. I learned that some countries have less transportation emissions because their cities are walkable. I believe this is something every country should strive towards to lower emissions of transport. I also learned that greenhouse gases keep 90% of infrared light and heat inside our atmosphere, while only making up about .04% of it.

I learned that my carbon footprint is heavily influenced because of my transportation strategies, I take a car everywhere I got, and I've traveled a lot in the past few years. Because I live in the United States, my carbon footprint is way higher than if I were to live in France or Luxembourg because they all have walking cities, and huge transportation isn't needed as much. The United States is the world's second largest emitter to greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are all compounds and can stand on their own. This allows them to absorb heat because of their moving and keep heat in the atmosphere. They have a lopsided shape because they are all polar covalent bonds. Climate change is a change in climate pattern, the difference between climate change and global warming is that global warming just has to do with temperatures, while climate change also has to do with the side effects of the rising temperatures in the atmosphere. They are all related because greenhouse gases are why climate change is a thing, and your carbon footprint creates more greenhouse gases.

Many different parts of everyday life have an impact on carbon footprints. Acts like taking a flight can add massively to them, as the power needed to make an airplane fly is much greater than the power of a bus or car. Greenhouse gasses on their own are not bad for the environment, it is the sudden influx in many greenhouse gasses that is harmful. These gasses chemical compounds are lopsided, leading to them trapping heat. On a grand level this heats up the globe very quickly. If so much heat is being trapped then almost none of it is able to exit our atmosphere. This idea is expressed in Sarah Fecht's article "How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?". Ways to reduce carbon footprints are taking less flights and reusing materials like clothes or food containers. Another way to decrease general carbon footprints is to campaign for laws restricting oil companies or other industries that have a large involvement with greenhouse gasses.

During the past few days, I have learned much about my carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change. Using the ISCFC website, I calculated my carbon footprint to be around 25,000. This surprised me because the average was around 9,000. A lot of my carbon footprint was from transportation, so I learned to hopefully take fewer flights and walk whenever possible. Additionally, I learned the difference between greenhouse and non-greenhouse gases, and how to identify them. I learned from the columbia.edu article that energy is absorbed and half of that energy is put back into the Earth, causing heat. Finally, I learned the difference between climate change and global warming. Climate change refers to the change in climate over a long period of time, whereas global warming refers to a rise in average global temperatures. All three of these things relate to each other because my carbon footprint leads to more CO2, a greenhouse gas, which ultimately changes the climate.

Many different parts of everyday life have an impact on carbon footprints. Acts like taking a flight can add massively to them, as the power needed to make an airplane fly is much greater than the power of a bus or car. Greenhouse gasses on their own are not bad for the environment, it is the sudden influx in many greenhouse gasses that is harmful. These gasses chemical compounds are lopsided, leading to them trapping heat. On a grand level this heats up the globe very quickly. If so much heat is being trapped then almost none of it is able to exit our atmosphere. This idea is expressed in Sarah Fecht's article "How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?". Ways to reduce carbon footprints are taking less flights and reusing materials like clothes or food containers. Another way to decrease general carbon footprints is to campaign for laws restricting oil companies or other industries that have a large involvement with greenhouse gasses.

Over the past few days, we learned about our carbon footprints and what causes them, mine was a little above average because of traveling. We learned how to lower our footprints and the main thing I could do is take more public transportation and fly less.

We also learned how global warming takes place with the charges of atoms, enabling things like heat to escape the earth. Places like the moon have much more volatile temperatures since they don't have an ozone layer, places humans couldn't live without protection.

Overall our carbon footprint is very important to track, without tracking it we wouldn't have any idea the impact we are having on the earth, animals and humans.

Over the last couple of classes I have leaned about my carbon footprint and how it effects climate change. My main impact on climate change is transportation. When driving a car, it releases many greenhouse gases that trap heat in our atmosphere. How this happens you might ask? According to state of the planet, "As CO2 soaks up this infrared energy, it vibrates and re-emits the infrared energy back in all directions. About half of that energy goes into space, and half returns to earth as heat, contributing to the greenhouse effect." This is how the greenhouse gases that cars drive contribute to heating up our earth.

Cold Fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) is basically a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that should occur at room temperature. There is currently no widely accepted theoretical model that would allow cold fusion to occur.

Theoretically, it should provide virtually LIMITLESS energy and minimal nuclear waste, and pretty much no environmental impact compared to, say, fossil fuels.

See, current nuclear power plants use nuclear fission (not fusion), which, as the name suggests, consists of splitting heavy atoms (such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239) into smaller fragments, which releases a large amount of energy. The problem is, along with energy, fission also produces additional neutrons and radioactive fission products.

These radioactive fission products are typically unstable isotopes of elements such as cesium strontium, iodine, and plutonium. These isotopes decay and emit radiation in the form of alpha, beta, and gamma particles. Some of these isotopes can remain for thousands to millions of years.

Cold fusion, on the other hand, is a nuclear reaction which is quite frankly the opposite of fission. It involves two like atomic nuclei (often involving hydrogen isotopes such as deuterium and tritium) merging together to form a heavier nucleus (helium nuclei), releasing a significant amount of energy in the process. he energy released is due to the conservation of mass into energy, described in Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc^2, because if you look at the mass of the reactants and compare it to the mass of the product, you’ll find that its not equal, which means some of the mass has been transferred into energy.

The reason this occurs is because the speed of light (c) is a very large number, even the smallest of mass could theoretically be converted into a large amount of energy. This process occurs at near room temperature. This low energy requirement reduces harmful nuclear byproducts. Hydrogen isotopes are also relatively lighter than nuclear fission reactants, and therefore should generate more stable elements.

If we can somehow harness this release of energy, it could be a potential source of clean and abundant form of energy, proving to be superior to the fossil fuel and nuclear fission energy we use today…

(if ya read all of that congrats u officially don't have the attention span of a 6 year old yayyy)

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This is true, I agree.

I completely agree because E=MC2 is one of the most famous equations developed by albert einstein and this is completly true. The speed of light squared is actualy about 9 times 10 to the 16 power m per second which just shows how much limitless energy we can get.

When you hear the words wants and needs, they seem very different. But in reality, things between them typically get mixed together when thinking about it. From Difference Between Needs and Wants (with Comparison Chart) - Key Differences, “needs point out something you must have for survival. On the other hand, wants refer to something that is good to have, but not essential for survival.” For example, everyone needs to eat and drink but choosing to eat healthy or to eat junk is a want. People typically mix eating junk food to be a need because they “need to eat food”. But they don’t need to eat junk that is bad for them. They can choose to eat organic and healthier foods that are better for them and the environment around them. Besides just the basic want of not eating healthy, people may choose to eat certain foods over others due to price. A lot of foods that are organic are more expensive than foods that aren’t.
    There are many more examples that fit both wants and needs. But there are simple steps people can take to do things that are healthier and better for the environment. For food, you can eat low on the food chains, choose organic and local foods that are in season, and buy foodstuffs in bulk when possible using your own reusable container. You can also reduce your food waste by planning meals ahead of time, freezing the excess and reusing leftovers, and compost your food waste if possible. For clothing, don't buy fast fashion, buy vintage or recycled clothing at consignment shops, and wash your clothing in cold water. For shopping, buy less stuff, bring your own reusable bag when you shop, opt for a laptop instead of desktop, and look for energy star products. For home, do an energy audit of your home, change incandescent light bulbs, and switch lights off when leaving the room and unplug electronics that are not being used. Also turn your water heater down, install a low-flow showerhead, and sign up to get your electricity from clean energy. For transportation, drive less, avoid unnecessary braking and acceleration, take care of your car, and consider purchasing a hybrid or electric vehicle. For air travel, avoid flying if possible, fly nonstop since landing and takeoffs use more fuel, go economy class, and offset the carbon emissions of your travel. All these steps in the paragraph are from The 35 Easiest Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – State of the Planet (columbia.edu). All these steps are things you may want to do that go with your needs but there are better ways to fulfill the needs you are needing.

Use more public transportation so less individual pollution

I agree with your idea and I think it would help a lot to reduce the pollution, but in my opinion the vehicles in a lot of cities need to be "updated" to guarantee to all of us the possibility of being more eco friendly.

Renewable energies are not just an option, they are our lifeline, they are not just a choice, they are our destiny.
Let us think big, invest wisely, and pioneer the technologies that will power a cleaner, greener future. We must develop new technologies to:
enhance efficiency, address intermittency, Integrate into existing grids and explore emerging Sources.

I wholeheartedly agree. Renewable energies are essential for addressing environmental and energy challenges. Investing wisely in them means not only ensuring a clean and safe source of energy but also fostering innovation and creating job opportunities. It is crucial to develop advanced technologies to improve efficiency, overcome intermittency challenges, and integrate these sources into existing networks. We must be leaders in creating a cleaner and more sustainable future by investing in research, sustainable energy policies, and awareness.

Industries are among the main sources of environmental pollution, releasing gases and toxic substances into the air, water, and soil. To reduce this impact, companies can adopt clean technologies, such as renewable energies and efficient production processes, to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, improving waste management through recycling and waste reduction, and promoting a sustainability-oriented corporate culture can help mitigate industrial pollution and protect the environment.

It is preferable to recycle all plastic bottles to store detergents or soaps

Instead of tossing out old items, why not give them a new lease on life? Reusing and repurposing can breathe new life into old belongings, reducing waste and our environmental impact. That shirt at the back of your closet? It could become a trendy tote bag. Those empty jars? Perfect for storing pantry staples or organizing crafts.
By embracing "Reuse & Repurpose," we cut down on the need for new products, conserving resources and energy. Plus, it's a chance to get creative and have fun! So, before you toss something, consider its potential for a new purpose.

We all have something that we want and some things that we really need. Some examples of needs are shelter, food, clothings and a lot more. However, there are lots of things that aren't necessary but we still buy it. Yes, we need shoes but we don't need to buy twenty pairs of them. We might need phones but we don't need to buy a new phone every time a new phone got released. There are a lot more things that are just wants and not really necessary. We are causing a lot of pollution on things that we don't really need. We can reduce a lot of carbon footprint by buying less wants. Wants and needs aren't just for buying stuff. Do we really need to go to everyplace by car? We can also reduce a lot of carbon footprint if we take transportations like buses, MRT, or we can reduce even more by just walking. By doing these things, we can produce a lot less pollution.

I agree with you. It's important to understand the difference between what we really need and what we just want. If we cut down on non-essential purchases and choose ways of getting around like walking or using public transport instead of driving, we can help reduce pollution and protect the environment for the future. Even small actions can make a big difference.

I agree that we shouldn't throw food away because of how many people have to go through hunger. Even food places have to throw all the extra food aways. When they can just give it to hunger. As of 2023 44 million people go through hunger each year. It should be when people have some waste they should give it to the hungry and the homeless. There are multiple reasons why people should look more into hunger. For example, there were 13 million children in the United States that went through hunger in 2022. And in 2023 there were 17.6 million children that are going through hunger. I think that people should try to find a solution for hunger because it's a serious problem.
https://moveforhunger.org/hunger-facts# … 20children.
https://www.nokidhungry.org/who-we-are/ … 22%20homes.

i agree with you and we must collaborate to combat hunger by redistributing surplus food, prioritizing children’s nutrition, advocating for policy changes, and embracing innovative solutions. Let’s think big and ensure that no one goes to bed hungry.

I agree that we need concrete solutions to tackle hunger. We must work together to reduce food waste, create better distribution networks, and ensure that anyone in need has access to food. Hunger is a serious problem, and every step we can take to fight it is crucial.

I've just completed the questionnaire and i discovered my carbon footprint is 5152 kgs.
More specifically, i got: 2869 kgs in "Home", 1462 kgs in "Food", 261 kgs in "Purchases" and 560 kgs in "Transports".
i think that's a good score, considering that avarage, in my region, is about 8000 kgs.

However, I'd like to reduce it in some way.
Respect for nature is something that my parents have taught me since I was younger, and now I'm used to pay attention to everything related to the environment.

Most kgs of my footprint comes form the "Home" section, i wanted to ask you some tips, advise and green alternatives to reduce my carbon footprint.

After calculating my carbon footprint, my family's carbon emission is roughly 10+ kg. Over half of that is from transportation, since my high school is 6 miles away from me. My parent's car model is a decade or two old and may emit more carbon dioxide than most other vehicles, and it'll be passed down to me. It is very possible I could save the environment by purchasing an electric vehicle as soon as I can, or deciding to bike the 6 miles to go to school and then another 6 to get home, but I would be saving myself time and money (and even my own energy if I don't bike 12 miles a day) by continuing what I do. What do you guys think are some ways I could somehow reduce my carbon emission from transportation?

I think some ways to reduce your carbon emissions from transportation is use public transportation like the bus or to carpool whenever you can with friends to school. Another way is since you said the car would be pass down to you is to keep you tires filled becauseY ou can reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by about 275 pounds per year by making sure your tires are filled to the recommended pressure. You will also save up to 5 percent on your gasoline expenses and your car will ride smoother.

I think that in order to reduce your footprint you could consider to use public means of transports such as buses or even trains, which produce almost 0 pollution. Another way could be to save some money and contribute with your parents to buy an electric vehicle.

Do you know why birds are showing up in the most unlikely places? That's because of climate change messing with their migration patterns, in fact warmer temperatures mess up their internal GPS, so they end up flying to different places for food and shelter. These bird migrations might not seem like a big deal, but they mess with ecosystems and can even make some species struggle to survive. So, let's keep an eye on life below our heads and work to protect their habitats.

Everyone should have a small vegetable garden to avoid constantly buying fruit and vegetables from large producers who use products that pollute the environment to make them grow and last longer.

Eating locally-produced food can significantly contribute to find a solution to the climate crisis and has various  environmental and social benefits. Firstly, consuming seasonal, local  products reduces the carbon footprint associated with transportation and storage. When food doesn't have to travel long distances to reach consumers, it decreases  gas emissions which helps mitigate climate change.

Secondly, individuals who have the means, such as those who live in rural areas, can cultivate their own vegetables. Growing your own food  not only allows you to reduce the amount of processed and industrial products, but also  reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which can cause issues to the ecosystems and contribute to pollution.

Having a food garden can offer a deeply rewarding experience, my grandfather for example has a garden and he is constantly cultivating vegetables not only for himself but also for me. When I eat the vegetables he grows, I immediately notice the difference in taste and freshness compared to the ones i buy at the supermarket.

In conclusion,preferring locally-produced, seasonal food  can have a huge impact on the environment and on  personal well-being. By growing a personal garden or supporting local farmers, each of us can play a role in promoting a more sustainable food system.

We need to prioritize clean development by reducing our reliance on non-renewable sources of energy. Instead of burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, which release harmful emissions into the atmosphere, we should focus on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power.
By transitioning to renewable energy, we can not only reduce pollution and combat climate change but also create new job opportunities and stimulate economic growth in the clean energy industry. Investing in renewable energy technologies and infrastructure is key to achieving a sustainable future for our planet and future generations.

There are approximately 13 million children facing hunger. According to the USDA one in five children are not sure if they’ll get their next meal. There are many reasons children may not have food on their plate such as low family income, lack of housing, and discrimination. Child hunger can result in a poor academic performance, an increase in health issues, and can greatly affect cognitive function. As well as there are results of this there are also ways to prevent these results. We can prevent this by hosting child food programs, SNAP applications assistance, and advocating for food programs in general. Getting enough food is an important first step to ensuring kids can achieve their goals. If we continue to ignore these problems we are hurting our future.
There are many factors that put the attack on the world hunger crisis. The main locations that suffer the most from this conflict are mainly the areas that have the most 
wars. One of the biggest examples of this problem would be the war that is very recent, the Ukraine war that has caused them to lose money, property, and of course, food. Another reason would be climate shock. The problem with climate shock is that it destroys the soil and ruins the crops. Climate shock isa weather pattern that is unpredictable and can ruin land as time passes. If climate shock doesn't have a solution, the world will continue to be at stake. The prices on global fertilizer have gone up tremendously, and that just puts more pressure on the citizens who are forced to pay more the inflated price. The effects of the current war with Ukraine has made the gas prices go up and also affected the golden fertilizer export routes, which is important to those countries. Golden fertilizer route is a fertilizer that guarantees the growth of crops all around the world, and is transported from country to country. With the increased operational cost, the WFP (world food program) was facing a huge drop in funding in 2023 compared to 2022. This leads the people into great hunger and are forced to fend harder for food. This issue also caused the nutrition assistance to increase up to 50%.
Luckily, many people are now starting to realize and become more aware of the heavy population of starving people and are starting to protest, speak up on social media, etc.
When people start to not waste, be helpful to the unfortunate, and help the third world countries that are in need of food.

The hunger crisis around the world is made worse by things like wars and weather. When there's fighting in a place like Ukraine, it makes it hard for people to get food and other things they need. Climate changes can also ruin crops, making it even harder for people to find food. The cost of products are going all up, wich makes it difficult for people to buy some food.
But there's hope. More people are realizing how serious the hunger problem is and are speaking up about it. By being less wasteful, helping those who are struggling, and supporting countries in need, we can make a big difference in fighting hunger.

Food hunger is a significant issue affecting communities all over the world. There are a lot of people who don't have access to food every day. It's a problem that needs our attention and action. We can make a difference by supporting organizations that gives food to those who are in need and by working together to create solutions that can fix the main causes of hunger, such as poverty and unequal access to resources. Together we can guarantee that everyone has enough food to lead a healthy and satisfying life.

I completely agree with you, unfortunately it is full of people without principles and highly indifferent to these issues. I find it disrespectful to waste food instead of making sure it reaches those who dream of a plate of food. There's a lot of people who have the economic possibilities to act but who prefer to keep everything for themselves, I think that as long as there are selfish and indifferent people, world hunger will remain a problem to defeat.

Transportation Emissions: By growing your own plants, you can eliminate greatly reduce the need for transportation emissions associated with bringing food from far-away farms to your table. This means less fuel burned, and fewer greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.

Localized Production: When you grow your own plants, you're essentially creating localized food production system. This reduces the reliance on long-distance transportation networks, which contribute to carbon emissions.

Sustainable Practices: Many home gardeners prioritize sustainable gardening practices, such as composting organic waste and using natural fertilizers. These ways not only improve soil health but also help sequester carbon in the soil, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Promotion of Biodiversity: Home gardens often feature a wide range of plant species, which can support local ecosystems and contribute to biodiversity conservation. Healthy ecosystems play an important role in Trapping carbon and making climate change not as bad.

I agree! ?

I also agree because growing our own vegetable garden reduces food miles, minimizing carbon emissions. It also cuts down on packaging waste, promoting a cleaner environment. By cultivating diverse crops, we support biodiversity and ecosystem health. Organic gardening practices decrease chemical usage, preserving soil and water quality. Healthy soils act as carbon sinks, mitigating climate change. Taking care of a garden fosters a deeper connection with nature, promoting environmental management. Overall, home gardening contributes to a healthier planet and a more sustainable future.

you are right! also Growing your own plants at home is good for the environment:

When you grow your own food, it doesn't need to be transported long distances, which means fewer cars or trucks burning fuel and putting pollution into the air.

People who grow plants at home often they do it in a way that's good for the Earth like using natural ways to make plants grow instead of chemicals. This helps to reduce the pollution and the emission of bad stuff into the air.

Having different plants in your garden can help animals and bugs too. This makes the whole area more lively and healthy.

Hi, I'm a 19 years old student who attends a high school in Italy.
We all know how dear our environment is to us, we know the importance of being green and how pollution is a huge problem, but what is actually being done to reduce this problem? I'm talking about concrete things, not activities and some lessons on recycling. Unfortunately my school has done nothing else then placing bins for recycling and introducing civic education lessons to raise student awareness. I remember that I proposed to introduce water dispensers in order to reduce the plastic bottles around, reusing them or indeed using water bottles instead of buying bottles of water every time, but nobody listened to me. Let's also think about the people in my school who sell sandwiches, placing them in plastic bags. Hundreds of students buy them every day, do you have any idea about how much plastic? Why doesn't the institute insist on using more sustainable materials and avoiding further pollution? The truth is that talking is easier instead of acting.

Companies have a crucial responsibility in addressing global warming. They must prioritize sustainable practices, reduce emissions, and invest in renewable energy sources.
By taking proactive measures, companies can mitigate their carbon footprint and contribute to a healthier planet for future generations.
However, as long as companies prioritize short-term profit over the well-being of the planet, change remains an illusion. It is essential for companies to realign their financial priorities towards sustainable investments and eco-friendly practices. Only then can we hope to reverse the trend of global warming and protect our environment for future generations

Have you ever wondered how many people are left hungry across America and the world? Studies show that “Approximately 45 million young children across the globe suffer from severe malnutrition each year; that's nearly one out of every three children under 5 years of age.” The World Food Program estimates that 345 million people will be food insecure in 2025 more than twice as many as in 2020. So how can we solve this problem? Well to start we can start to do organic farming rather than relying on fast food and major corporations for the majority of our food. We can also make food more accessible to others by creating food drives with food that we may not eat all of. Do you ever wonder just how much food you throw away? Well in the United states we throw away nearly 120 BILLION pounds of food per YEAR in the US alone! Imagine if we could just start small donation centers where we could donate the food that we didn't finish or didn't use. Some may even say, “Well who is going to pay for these centers for food?” Well the answer to that is pretty simple, 10.5 percent of homes in america are vacant, that accounts to 15.1 million homes around america alone that we could use to house items for the hungry and needy! Together we can make a change but it will take every one of us.

I completely agree with the issues you addressed. The statistics provided are alarming and highlight the urgent need for action to address food insecurity globally.

In Italy as well, food waste is a significant problem. According to data from the Ministry of the Environment, every year Italians waste around 5.6 million tonnes of food, which is equivalent to 76 kilograms per person. This  highlights the need to reduce waste and ensure better distribution of food resources.

One practical solution people can adopt is meal planning. By preparing a weekly meal plan and shopping list, people can buy only what they need. This will result in a reduction of the amount of food that will probably be wasted. This not only helps to minimize waste, but also promotes more conscious consumption habits.

Student printing often leads to a significant amount of paper waste on college campuses. Implementing double-sided printing defaults and encouraging digital submission of assignments can reduce paper consumption. Providing incentives for using recycled paper and offering paper-saving tips can also promote eco-conscious printing habits among students, ultimately lowering their environmental footprint.

Wants are things that make the experience of human life better, they are not necessities. Whereas needs are necessities to live. An example of a want is going on vacation, you do not need to go spend a week somewhere but people want to. This type of want increases peoples carbon footprint by a lot. Needs can also constitute as want, for example we need food, but we don’t necessarily need fast food multiple times. According to Budgeting Needs vs Wants: A How-to Guide your needs should always come before your wants, but that is not how it always goes. People would rather have fun and spend more money than stay home and only buy the essentials. Human beings typically have a tendency to confuse wants and needs. While we need a pair of shoes, we don’t need 12. Another example could be technology; technology nowadays is essential to schoolwork. However, we do not need to replace technology everytime something new comes out. A lot of people have privileges that they do not even realize, so some of their “needs' ' are really just wants but they have never had to live without them, so it has become part of their way of life. To improve our carbon footprint we need to learn how to differentiate wants and needs. We also need to learn to place limits on certain needs and not go overboard. We could do this by making Wants vs. Needs an issue and places it into the mainstream media. We should prioritize this all around the world, not just in our community. Ways we could do this is by putting it on billboards, getting the government to talk about it. Along with getting to younger audiences by making this a more prominent thing in schools that gets talked about frequently. While we teach about reducing our carbon footprints, we must also learn to do it ourselves. In the future we must strive to make our impact on planet Earth better!

Being able to reuse and repurpose as well as recycle is a very important topic. It has many benefits, mainly preventing pollution by reducing the need to harvest raw materials. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to climate change. If you take the time to look around there are things used everyday in your home that can be repurposed. If you're a wine drinker or have a parent/guardian who is, they can be used as a non toxic fire starter. This is just one example where you could really get crafty. There is also a way to make a difference with substituting. Substituting things you use on a everyday basis can be hard but if you start little by little you will eventually make big changes. An easy way you can start with substituting is with grocery bags. Start with when you take a trip to the grocery store, don't immediately go for the plastic bags. Come prepared with your own reusable bags. Not everyone may own their own personal grocery bags but there are many stores that offer them for sale. Another thing I do in my home is saving our plastic bags. Although we're still using them we are reusing them instead of just throwing them out. This is a great example of repurposing. Another example we see everyday with people is having a personal water bottle. All this plastic is piling up fast, especially when the items we use everyday are plastic. A reusable water bottle is a great way to limit this problem. Now environment friendly options aren't always the most reasonable. We go to the store with the idea of wanting to do better. Then aren't a;ways able to when we see the prices. The glorification of wanting to do better for the environment is a problem. This makes it unrealistic for many people as well as out of reach. This is why reusing, repurposing, and recycling should be a more educated topic. It is always nice when you know you can make a change without having to do the most difficult thing.

Around 10% of CO2 emissions worldwide come from textile production. Much of fast fashion is just thrown away when it goes out of style. Most clothes are designed to last longer and, when not disposed of properly, can take hundreds of years to decompose. Not only does throwing away clothes contribute to pollution, but the creation of the clothes adds to pollution.  The pollution that the textile industry produces comes from three main areas: Dyeing, yarn preparation, and fiber production. Dyeing and finishing makes up 36%, yarn preparation makes up 28%, and fiber production makes up 15% of the pollution produced. These all also contribute to the fossil fuel problem, as they are very “energy-intensive”. Instead of throwing away clothes when you no longer want them, why not donate them to thrift stores? Thrift stores are a great place to get clothes on a budget and buying used clothes helps to cut down on the CO2 emissions produced by throwing them away. Thrifting clothes not only serves a practical use, but an aesthetic one as well. Thrifting can provide a larger range of styles of clothes than just what is in fashion. Some thrift stores are non-profit organizations, like Goodwill or Salvation Army, and provide jobs for many people. To help combat the pollution produced by the textile industry, we can shop at non-profit thrift stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, and ReStore.
Another way the textile industry contributes to pollution is by washing clothes. Every year, about 500,000 tons of microfibers are sent out into the ocean by washing clothes. Washing machines do not have small enough filters to catch the microfibers, so when the clothes are washed and the tiny plastics are released they are not caught. They often go through sewage treatment plants and are not caught. They are found everywhere throughout the world, from the peaks of high mountains to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They can also cause serious health issues such as genetic disruption and poisoning. Not only does washing clothes contribute to pollution, so does the washing machine itself. In addition to using excessive amounts of water to clean clothes, it also “emits an estimated 62 million tonnes of CO2-eq greenhouse gases each year”.

https://goodwillsouthtexas.com/the-trut … ft-stores/
https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2023/1 … ach%20year.
https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrime … ach%20year.
https://planetcare.org/en-int/pages/washing-clothes-pollutes-oceans-with-microplastics#:~:text=Because%20washing%20machines%20don't,and%20travel%20down%20the%20drain.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/envi … nt%20years.

We should do more to implement safer ways to walk and bike everywhere. Ex: a school next to a busy road should have a more dominant bike/walking lane.

Absolutely, promoting safer and more accessible walking and biking options is a crucial aspect of fostering a greener and more sustainable society. I also totally agree that we need to generally "make it easier to be green." I feel many people are aware of climate change and its impacts but don't exactly know what they can do it about it or choose not to act on it because there aren't easy things for them to do that can help the environment. I saw this article: https://centerforfamilyinvolvementblog. … -be-green/
which really opened my eyes to many easy ways to be green for parents with young children. Many of the products that people use for young children are disposable but this highlighted a few simple alternatives that could make a massive difference if people decided to change what they bought. So through simple things like the implementation of better walking infrastructure and bike lanes and also simple substitutes of disposable items I feel we could make a large change.

I totally agree! Having accessible walking and biking paths have so many benefits. They can reduce the amount of parking lots needed as people will be able to walk to places nearby safely without need for a car. This will leave more space for nature and can help reduce the amount of space needed for cities and towns. It will also help people maintain a healthy lifestyle and support small local businesses. Many towns will have sidewalks in the neighborhoods and mainstreet areas but it would be majorly beneficial to have safe biking and walking trails on main roads. I would certainly walk into town and to school instead of driving if I had a safe way to do so. It may seem like it won’t do much to occasionally walk to school but if everyone was capable of this our overall carbon footprint could be greatly reduced. I found this website, https://sacbike.org/50-reasons-why-ever … e-streets/ to be really informative of all the ways accessible walking/biking trails can benefit us. I especially think it will benefit students. If students have a safe way to walk to school it could reduce our need to have as many school buses and drop zones for those that live close enough to their school. Overall I think this would be a great idea to implement. I also agree with the idea that it is hard to be green when the opportunity evades you. I certainly think that if we give people the opportunity to walk and bike that they will take it.

Hunger is still a big worldwide problem today. In 2022 nearly 258 million people across 58 countries faced extreme hunger and severity. It’s clear that this is and will continue to be a major problem across the world. Although it is a big problem, there are ways to help the problem be less severe. One way to help the problem is to increase accessibility of food. If the United Nations worked together, they could make food more accessible for poverty stricken countries that don’t have easy access to food. Another way to help decrease hunger in the world is for countries to put an emphasis on decreasing food waste. If people didn’t waste so much food, there would be less hunger in the world. This may seem obvious but, many people waste a lot of food alone, not to mention the whole world. According to Recycle Track Systems, In the U.S. alone nearly 120 billion pounds of food are wasted every year. This is just the United States. If the whole world is taken into account there is no doubt it would be much more. Although countries are making efforts to help solve hunger, it’s safe to say it isn’t helping much. For example, the USDA has programs that support child nutrition and provide technical assistance to farmers. A lot of countries are doing small things to help with the problem of world hunger, but it is still not enough. There are millions of people all over the world facing hunger. If we all do our part it will help decrease the problem but it won’t eliminate it. Hunger is just one major economic problem. There are many other things that affect our planet.

https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/end- … f%20hunger.

https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/#:~:text=Here's%20some%20%E2%80%9Cfood%E2%80%9D%20for%20thought,120%20billion%20pounds%20%E2%80%94%20every%20year.

While wants and needs are very different things, the line between them can sometimes get blurred. For example, we need to eat, but we may want to eat some foods over others, foods that might be more expensive or harder to come by. There is also the distinction of what we feel the need to do rather than what we actually need to do. For example, we may feel the need to drive ourselves to school, work, or extracurricular activities, when there are so many other, more sustainable transportation options to use if we even really need to get there at all.
When it comes down to it, the only things we, as humans, really need are food, water, shelter, rest, and breathable air. Everything else, from modern conveniences and appliances to fast fashion to social media, is all an add-on. Because of our society today, however, we have greatly heightened the importance of these “add-ons”, shifting our perspective of these wants into needs. To truly only have what we need, we would have to alter our society as a whole.
However, once we recognize this, there are several steps we can take to slightly tone down our wants, and incorporate them more into our needs. For example, buying organic and locally sourced food, especially food that is in season, can show support for farmers using a smaller carbon footprint. Walking and/or biking instead of driving, and using public transportation as much as possible helps reduce your carbon emissions greatly. While social media can obviously be fun, reducing time spent on electronics impacts your carbon energy footprint a great deal. And even though fast fashion can come with social pressure and it may feel necessary to buy all new clothes, thrifting and making do with what you already have is a very beneficial choice for the environment. Even small things, such as buying larger tubes of toothpaste instead of a ton of travel-sized tubes to reduce plastic waste, buying deodorant in a non-plastic container instead of using your favorite brand that comes in plastic, and saving snacks such as chips in a one-serving-sized plastic bag for special occasions, and instead eating less heavily packaged, healthier food that will do a better job filling you up and reduce the packaging waste.
It’s never easy to sacrifice wants, and it can be hard at times to distinguish them from needs in the moment, but if we all tried doing just one thing to cut down on our unnecessary indulgences, our world, and our society, would be wanting and needing less from us.

Hi my name is Henry today i would like to discuss why oil is bad for our environment. Oil was first discover around the 600BC by the Chinese at first it was mainly use to transport bamboo as time changed the first car invented around the second world war that was when oil was start being use for automobile. Till today oil is one of the main fuel use for cars, but even though its a great fuel for cars but did you know that oil can actually damage the environment based on a article written by the World Wildlife Fund organization they state that Oil and gas operations could release many tons of harmful pollutants into the air and discharge dangerous chemicals into the water, thereby degrading the clean air and water. Not only that it will damage the environment but the toxic effects of inhaling vapors and ingesting oil when grooming or feeding can cause animals sick therefore i believe that using oil is damaging our environment.

By Henry
Heres a video from youtube about this discussing i will post down here

Hi Henry, I hope that companies could stop using oil but unfortunately for this time, it is like a fantasy story being told to small children. Big companies would die not to stop oil production since you would get lots and lots of money. But what happens if there is no Earth to earn that money? Do companies think that far into the future? Adults now only think about their life now, not about our life as Gen Z or Gen Alpha. They will life a life with luxury and air to breathe but for us, dirt and air hard to breathe. Adults only created Covid, not us as children. They are the reason why the only home we have is at risk. But, adults are hard to control, especially since the “Golden Rule” says respect your “eLdErS”.

I completely agree with this statement. Companies using oil is causing tons of pollution to our Earth. Companies nowadays are thinking about saving money, making profit, and thinking about current times. Thankfully many companies are starting to turn from gas cars to electric cars. Many companies are thinking making their cost cheaper and making high profit, using gas now are more efficient and cost saving for many tools. But it is pretty hard to get companies to start going to electric

I agree that oil is bad for the environment.

Hi Henry, I agree what you said. Although oil is a conventional source, it still caused a lot of damage to our world. People should start taking this seriously and take actions too. Like, understand how it impacts out world and know what you can help.

Youth and adolescents are reaching adulthood against a backdrop of unequal and unsustainable food systems. These systems are failing to deliver food and nutrition security and are highly vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation. Despite this, the number of young people participating in the decisions that will affect their futures is limited. The pursuit of food sovereignty, the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods is an opportunity for the younger generations to transform failing food systems into systems that are more sustainable, and able to meet the needs of the world. It’s critical to invest in young people’s capacities to become leaders in food systems transformation. This means investing in their education and skills development, as well as their health and nutrition. Current food systems policies and investments are failing to address the intergenerational cycle of hunger in many parts of the world. Solutions must embrace a long-term perspective beyond 2030 and reflect young people’s livelihoods, options, and choices.The right to food must be central to food systems policies, programs, and governance processes, and people must be able to realize their right to food in ways that are socially, culturally, and ecologically appropriate for their own local context. 30% of children under the age of 5 are suffering acute malnutrition. The world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet 828 million people go hungry every day. Of those 828 million, the World Food Program estimates that over 40% are facing acute levels of hunger. The amount of people is insane. The races that are hurt by this the most are Black (22.4 percent) and Latinx (20.8 percent) households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, with food insecurity rates more than double the rate of White non-Latinx households (9.3 percent). Children 1 in 8 lived in poverty in 2022.Wasting food is a huge problem in the United states. Millions of people waste food each day. It is hard to realize when you actually do have food to eat everyday that some people don't. According to the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition World report, between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. Hunger has been increasing by millions each year. Want to know something absolutely crazy? World hunger may never end. Given the current pace of progress, reaching Zero Hunger by 2030 is a likely impossibility. In fact, 58 countries won’t even reach Low hunger levels by then

What is ocean acidification? Well, for starters, it is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. This is caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This topic is important to the carbon footprint because it’s caused by all the carbon dioxide. When taking the survey, it gave us numbers that show how much carbon dioxide we produce throughout the things that we do. These things include any type of transportation, what kind of food you eat, how often you use energy in your house depending on if it’s gas or electric, and the things you buy. Bad things could happen to our waters if we don’t make an attempt to prevent ocean acidification. For example, the first thing that affects us is that we won’t be able to swim in the ocean. The second example is that these changes can affect seafood supplies and the ocean's ability to store pollutants, including future carbon emissions. You may ask, “what are some ways that we could prevent this though?” Well, even living in the midwest away from oceans, reducing  the amount of carbon dioxide emissions at home, at the office, and on the road can still help with the problem. The carbon dioxide that we as humans release comes from burning fossil fuels. When we do that, it increases the acidity in the ocean allowing carbon dioxide to dissolve. The best things to do in a home that helps decrease the amount fossil fuels being burned include, swapping your furnace for a heat pump (many people in Canada rely on fossil fuels to heat homes), replacing your gas water heater with a heat pump water heater, trading your gas stove for an induction stove, and replacing your gas fireplace with an electric one. You can also use LED lights in the house that helps with the amount of energy being used. More things that people can do include turning off lights, computers, televisions, video games and other electrical equipment when you're not using them, limiting the use of air conditioning, and trying to use more things that take electricity instead of gas, like cars or stoves. These are all easy ways that humans can prevent ocean acidification. The hard thing is trying to get multiple people to go to beaches and pick up all the litter and trash people are throwing and letting dissolve into the ocean and atmosphere. For many years, people have been trying to get others to quit littering, lawmakers have even tried to make it illegal, but that doesn’t stop everyone. Although, the less people emitting fossil fuels, the better. Overall, if more people make an effort to do these things, then the ocean will be thriving again and coral reefs will stop fading in color.

I think we should reuse or repurpose things. It is extremely important to reuse because then we wouldn't be producing too many waste, which can help save earth. Even though somethings may not be reused or repurposed, it is best to reuse things that can be. From now on I will try and bring reusable bags instead of using plastic bags, and also try to recycle things.

I agree with this method and it is probably the easiest way to reduce carbon footprint.

I agree. We might not be able to eliminate carbon footprint completely, but we can start with what we CAN do to help. Remember, small things build up to great things.

I agree with the fact that reusing items, especially bags as they are a huge cause for issues in different environments. However, you can also find ways to reuse plastic bags instead of completely discarding and disregarding them. Plastic bags from the grocery store can be used as a substitute for garbage bags for smaller garbage cans. An example would be personal garbage in rooms of homes. There are other ways you can repurpose plastic baggies. They can be used for cleaning up the waste of pets. Many people, including myself, use plastic bags to clean up after our litterbox for the cats. This ends up benefiting everyone involved. By repurposing the bags, we lessen the amount of materials used to make more products; which in turn saves energy on the company side. Repurposing other materials like cardboard boxes, glasses, and other types of plastic also produces the same result. It reduces the amount of waste produced and in return, gives environments better rates of survival and the animals in it.

https://www.ibanet.org/article/76F8D2A9 … 0blockages

https://natran.com/how-to-repurpose-eve … -doing-so/

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Recycli … 0in%20bulk

Today I had to do an assignment in class and it was about reducing carbon footprint. All day I have been thinking what to do, that's when I thought of it. Do you know how much plastic is being used and thrown away each and every day due to school lunch trays. For this fact I think we should start using reusable lunch trays. The reusable lunch trays will basically just be a materials we can use over and over again for lunch hints the name reusable lunch tray.

Today I had to do an assignment in class and it was about reducing carbon footprint. All day I have been thinking what to do, that's when I thought of it. Do you know how much plastic is being used and thrown away each and every day due to school lunch trays. For this fact I think we should start using reusable lunch trays. The reusable lunch trays will basically just be a material we can use over and over again for lunch hints the name reusable lunch tray. According to cafeteriaculture.org which did an estimation of New York's schools. They found out that NYC public schools throw away 850,000 styrofoam trays a day. All together about 80 trays per foot adding up to a whomping 2 miles high, if stacked on top of each other. They found out that this is 8.5 times the height of the empire state building. It is important to know that this is all just in one day in just one city. Now just imagine how much more this problem would be weekly. Around 4,250,000 styrofoam trays a school week. Now if you take this and use 80 trays per foot, you get 10 miles of styrofoam trays a week that get thrown away. If your worried people won't be interested in helping, a lot of people will be willing to partake in using reusable lunch trays. “We created giant NO-STYRO data PUPPETS, each made of 500 used and washed lunch trays. We took the puppets all over NYC and to City Hall. People laughed first, then heard our story of toxic and polluting styrene foam and were inspired to take action!” STYROFOAM OUT OF SCHOOLS. By reducing the amount of styrofoam thrown away it can help bring justice for the environment by eliminating the amount of trash around the world. Styrofoam also when broken down can be easily mistaken as food for smaller marine animals. This will help the environment in the long term along with other ideas that the new younger generation has, which can help keep the earth going for a long time. https://www.cafeteriaculture.org/foam-t … hools.html

To say that food affects the carbon footprint we leave on the planet is an understatement. The majority of greenhouse gas emissions produced by farming are mainly caused by methane from the cattle that is used for various meat and dairy products. Even some things you’d never expect, like fertilizer, cause emissions of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. Deforestation is also a thing used on farmlands to expand the farm further. There are also things indirectly related to the farm environment that cause greenhouse gas emissions (GGE). The first of those being maintenance of the farm. This includes things like the burning of crop waste and the management of manure. Another indirect source of emissions is the usage of fuel powered vehicles and tools, which release massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Food storage and waste coincide with each other in this instance; having poor food storage leads to more waste, which means there is a surplus of GGE, and the cycle continues.
So how do we reduce our GGE via food? The solution is honestly easier than most people are willing to admit: being mindful of our food consumption and making sure we don’t waste as much food as we do right now. By only taking what we need, I.e, planning and portioning foods, there’s less chance of excess wastes being produced. Switching out your red meats for more fruits and vegetables can not only give you vital nutrients, they make you feel more full because of the sheer amount of dietary fiber. By reducing our food wastes to only the inedible parts, you can also start a home compost pile, allowing the food waste to break down naturally to become a fertilizer for your yard/garden.
Doing this will, hopefully, prevent rising GGE by creating a more sustainable way to produce and consume food products. Being mindful about what factors in the food production produces the most GGE and the alternatives to red meat and dairy products. Another thing, by reducing the amount of red meat consumed, we can also hope to gain back the forest-land that’s being cleared out to make room for more pastures. Not only combatting the amount of GGE from the cattle, but also allowing the natural ecosystem to help replenish the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
If all of humanity is willing to put in the effort, I have no doubt in my brain that this is a logical step towards the future. We just need to be willing to do better. Not just for us, but for our future.
(United Nations).

To say that food affects the carbon footprint we leave on the planet is an understatement. The majority of greenhouse gas emissions produced by farming are mainly caused by methane from the cattle that is used for various meat and dairy products. Even some things you’d never expect, like fertilizer, cause emissions of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. Deforestation is also a thing used on farmlands to expand the farm further. There are also things indirectly related to the farm environment that cause greenhouse gas emissions (GGE). The first of those being maintenance of the farm. This includes things like the burning of crop waste and the management of manure. Another indirect source of emissions is the usage of fuel powered vehicles and tools, which release massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Food storage and waste coincide with each other in this instance; having poor food storage leads to more waste, which means there is a surplus of GGE, and the cycle continues.
So how do we reduce our GGE via food? The solution is honestly easier than most people are willing to admit: being mindful of our food consumption and making sure we don’t waste as much food as we do right now. By only taking what we need, I.e, planning and portioning foods, there’s less chance of excess wastes being produced. Switching out your red meats for more fruits and vegetables can not only give you vital nutrients, they make you feel more full because of the sheer amount of dietary fiber. By reducing our food wastes to only the inedible parts, you can also start a home compost pile, allowing the food waste to break down naturally to become a fertilizer for your yard/garden.
Doing this will, hopefully, prevent rising GGE by creating a more sustainable way to produce and consume food products. Being mindful about what factors in the food production produces the most GGE and the alternatives to red meat and dairy products. Another thing, by reducing the amount of red meat consumed, we can also hope to gain back the forest-land that’s being cleared out to make room for more pastures. Not only combatting the amount of GGE from the cattle, but also allowing the natural ecosystem to help replenish the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
If all of humanity is willing to put in the effort, I have no doubt in my brain that this is a logical step towards the future. We just need to be willing to do better. Not just for us, but for our future.

According to Feeding America, 44 million people in the United States are food insecure. This is a constant problem that continues to grow especially with the waste of good and usable food. Food insecurity is a problem that occurs in every community, it's not exclusive to only certain communities. According to Feeding America, people in rural communities and the South are often more likely to lack access to enough food. This is because of many factors including poverty, unemployment and the cost of living. Poverty is also a big issue in America. According to Hunger and Poverty in America, the official poverty rate, 37.9 million people (11.5 percent) lived in poverty in 2022. Every 1 in 8 children are living in poverty. Inequality is also a big root cause to food insecurity. Poverty is also much higher for people of color because of racism and discrimination. According to, Food Waste in America, In American alone, 92 billion pounds of food is wasted annually. This equals to 145 billion meals of food. In a lot of  cases, families turn to food assistance in order to be able to feed their families. In 2022, 49 million people turned to food assistance for extra help. Food waste is also a huge contributor to climate change. Food waste is responsible for 8% of all global emissions. This wasted food is also what makes up most of the food in our landfills. If we prevent food waste, we can lessen our environmental impact and ensure that our resources are used to help nourish the community. A few ways to help people in your community includes donating foods to food drives or food services if able to. We as a community can help to make food insecurity better for everyone. Whether we give our neighbors food we won’t use or find a way to help others before throwing it away.

Climate change was started by the industrial revolution and affects our world more and more everyday. It was started by human activities that would release greenhouse gasses and large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Some of these activities include burning fossil fuels, farming livestock, and cutting down trees. While I understand that by doing these, it makes our lives easier, it is also very harmful to our planet. We can have more food options and produce more heat. Not to include that by cutting down trees we are able to make paper, make it easier to build, farm, use wood for fuel, etc. The average temperature on the earth is increasing which may be great because it feels like summer instead of being cold out. But that is not the case. By doing all of these things, we are doing more harm to the environment than good. Glaciers are melting and animals are losing their habitats and are going extinct. There are also more droughts which is bad for everyone because we need water to survive. The ocean is getting warmer and rising which will cause more hurricanes and severe storms. This is harming marine life and making it unsafe for those who live near large bodies of water. There are also more health risks, not enough food, and poverty. These are all horrible things that are happening to our planet because of climate change. You may be asking yourself, how can this be stopped? There’s many different ways that our planet can be saved. We could stop using fossil fuels, invest in renewable energy, stop cutting down forests and trees, etc.

https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change#:~:text=Since%20the%20Industrial%20Revolution%2C%20human,also%20affect%20the%20earth's%20climate.
https://climate.ec.europa.eu/climate-ch … %20warming.
https://education.nationalgeographic.or … restation/
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/sci … ate-change

With carbon levels increasing a substantial way to decrease these levels is to reuse and repurpose the materials you use. Research shows that recycling and reusing materials reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reusing and repurposing materials helps sustain the environment for future generations and also reduces the amount of waste that will need to be recycled or sent to landfills and incinerators. Items that can be reused and repurposed include, old clothing, cloth grocery bags, and containers. Buy used items to reduce waste as well as the emissions created by producing new materials or disposing of them in landfills. When you think of recycling, you probably only think about paper and plastic. What many people don’t realize is that there are many more materials to recycle than just those. Some of these materials include cardboard, glass, aluminum, batteries, electronics, food, and lawn materials. If people don’t start trying to make a difference in the environment, then bad things will happen. For example, when specific waste, such as styrofoam, ends up in a landfill, the harmful chemicals seep into the soil, which can result in cancerous cells forming in the dirt. Neglecting to recycle plastic water bottles can pollute large bodies of water such as lakes, oceans, and rivers. One of the benefits of reusing and recycling is that using recycled materials means that there is less of a demand for new materials, which means there is less deforestation which helps decrease the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. According to Florida Tech, each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy, and 7,000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution. When talking in terms of plastic, Florida Tech states that plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year. In conclusion, you should reuse and repurpose your items to help decrease your carbon footprint, and help save the world from the harms of climate change.

Extreme events are occurrences of unusually severe weather or climate conditions that can cause devastating impacts on communities and agricultural and natural ecosystems. Weather-related extreme events are often short-lived and include heat waves, freezes, heavy downpours, tornadoes, tropical cyclones and floods. Climate-related extreme events either persist longer than weather events or emerge from the accumulation of weather or climate events that persist over a longer period of time. Examples include drought resulting from long periods of below-normal precipitation or wildfire outbreaks when a prolonged dry, warm period follows an abnormally wet and productive growing season.This type of probabilistic approach is applied in extreme event attribution to determine whether global warming is driving changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme events.
The second approach is more widely applied by the climate adaptation community and uses impact-related thresholds to determine if an event is extreme, and to inform adaptive solutions. A common example here is the number of consecutive days over 100˚F, which can be used to quantify heat waves. There has been a substantial increase in most measures of Atlantic hurricane activity since the early 1980s, the period during which high quality satellite data are available. These include measures of intensity, frequency, and duration as well as the number of strongest (Category 4 and 5) storms.
The recent increases in activity are linked, in part, to higher sea surface temperatures in the region that Atlantic hurricanes form in and move through. Numerous factors have been shown to influence these local sea surface temperatures, including natural variability, human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gasses, and particulate pollution. Tornadoes are outgrowths of powerful thunderstorms that appear as rotating, funnel-shaped clouds. They extend from a thunderstorm to the ground with violent winds that average 30 miles per hour. Also, they can vary in speed dramatically from being stationary to 70 miles per hour. With a loud roar that sounds similar to a freight train, tornadoes in the United States typically are 500 feet across and travel on the ground for five miles.
Every state is at some risk from tornadoes and the severe storms that produce them. These same destructive storms also cause strong gusts of wind, lightning strikes, and flash floods. In my life, I haven’t experienced much extreme weather, the only thing that i’ve really experienced is extreme cold. Every year, we tend to have a lot of snow days and really cold school days. We also get a lot of ice on the road which is the reason for the snow days. Blizzards can also lead to power outages. Many people who live in big cities and towns lose power due to these heavy amounts of snow, wind, and freezing air.

From factory emissions from fossil fuels burned by automobiles, there are many ways that our world develops. Without development we will have no technological advancements in our world. In which we constantly need to address the many problems we face in our modern world. There needs to be a form of clean energy, one which may be burned through without causing any form of environmental damage. This is true of Electricity in certain cases depending upon how it is generated. If generated via clean means (Water, Wind, Thermal via the Sun), there is no emission which can be traced back to it, nor can impact the environment. It’s one of many clean sources of energy which have no polluted or harmful emissions. These sources of energy need to be used more efficiently and often. Solar could be the most viable, as it is the most efficient and viable but is expensive and only works on a clear sunny day. In my opinion I feel that we could most definitely use more wind energy as it's free, The only problem is that it won't always be windy. So what else could we use? Short answer, all of the different energy sources.
See in my Opinion we could utilize all of them, chances are most companies don't use all of them but some are returning to a more energy efficient way to reduce emissions and keep cost low while not damaging the environment in any way.

Sources - https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings … -mechanism
https://www.energy.gov/eere/renewable-energy

Climate change is a real thing. Many parts of our environment are changing because of climate change. “Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. The changes could be natural or human caused.” (un.org) Some examples of natural causes of climate change are changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. Some examples of human caused changes include the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, cutting down trees and many more. “It is extremely likely (> 95%) that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming. Human activities have contributed substantially to climate change through: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Reflectivity or Absorption of the Sun's Energy.” (epa.gov) Humans use fossil fuels to power their homes, schools, factories, etc. Fossil fuels will eventually run out and we can’t use it anymore. Fossil fuels are running out and causing climate change. We should use renewable energy, so we can help stop climate change. Some renewable energy sources we can use are solar fields, wind farms and many more. According to eia.gov, renewable energy accounted for 12% of Michigan's total in-state electricity net generation in 2022, most of it from wind. In Michigan, there are 1,658 wind turbines across the state. There are also 66 solar farms across the state of Michigan. To wrap up, climate change is caused by humans and it's real. There are some major effects on the environment from climate change.

https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/wha … ate-change

https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change#:~:text=Human%20Versus%20Natural%20Causes&text=Rather%2C%20it%20is%20extremely%20likely,dominant%20cause%20of%20that%20warming.&text=Human%20activities%20have%20contributed%20substantially,Absorption%20of%20the%20Sun's%20Energy

https://www.gsi.ie/en-ie/education/eart … %20engines.

https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php? … rom%20wind.

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-envir … ast%20year.

Nuclear energy has an almost net zero impact on the environment in a way most other alternatives to natural gas and oil do not. Reactors generate power through fission, which is the name for the process of splitting uranium atoms and using the resulting heat to create steam. The steam spins a turbine that generates electricity. According to the US Nuclear Energy Institute, through nuclear power the United States avoided 471 million metric tons of harmful emissions. Nuclear energy also is a very land-efficient way of producing power; a 1,000 megawatt facility requires less than one square mile of land to operate, opposed to wind farms which reportedly require 360 times more space. This almost insignificant footprint is just another reason why more reactors are being built in higher populated areas, this is just a short list of reasons why I believe further investment in nuclear power can only lead to the benefit and meet humanity’s growing needs for further power sources.

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/fiss … difference
https://www.nei.org/resources/statistic … r-industry
https://www.nei.org/news/2015/land-need … ear-plants

The burning of fossil fuels and car emissions returns carbon back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide according to the understanding Global Change from ugc Berkeley. This is significant because the carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere results in climate change issues which can lead to extreme weather conditions.On the account of Earthjustice.org, “Hurricanes are growing more powerful as global temperatures rise because these storm systems draw their energy from warm ocean water.” If there is no change made to stop the carbon dioxide output into the atmosphere from around the world, the ocean waters will continue to become warmer. This is a big concern, weather wise, for coastal regions all over the globe. Stronger hurricanes can destroy cities and lives, setting people so far back that some may never recover fully. This is not only a research matter but it also affects me personally for I am from Puerto Rico, which is essentially an island surrounded by ocean water; heavily affected by hurricanes and other water related catastrophes. Hurricanes getting stronger due to climate change strike fear into my heart, because once hurricanes happen, especially strong ones, food sources are limited, chances of reaching safety in time are low, and the damages to structures are devastating. With that being said, we can look at helping nations such as Puerto Rico in other ways than we have before. Currently I feel like the main focus for preventing hurricane damages is by putting up guards to protect windows and beams. I am not saying that those strategies are bad in any way. But what about preventing strong hurricanes in the first place? If people around the world individually would pay more attention to their carbon footprint and do little things to reduce it, combined with more laws and innovations to help industrial plants still people able to produce goods. The earth will be less contaminated with carbon dioxide, causing global warming to decrease. Over time this will call for smaller storms and less significant damage.https://ugc.berkeley.edu/    https://earthjustice.org/

Wants and needs are very different from each other because a want is something that you do not need but you desire to have. A need is something that is needed for human survival. When it comes to spending, a need should be 50% of your budget and a want should be 30% of your budget. A want is something that can improve your quality of life. Wants may be helpful or make life easier but unless you die without them they are not considered needs. A need includes food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care. Needs are those items that are required for life and do not change with time. As opposed to, wants are those items that are desired by an individual either right now or in future. Therefore, wants might change over time. Some people choose wants over needs because they have a self centeerd outlook on life. They are self indulgent, pleasure seeking and unrestrained when it comes to satisfying their desires. Needs are secondary and only come into the picture if they provide personal pleasure or satisfaction. Understanding the difference between wants and needs frees us from unnecessary burdens and begins to align our lives with more lasting fulfillment. Before we buy stuff that we want, consider these questions: Do I need it? What do I gain from this? How much does it cost? With these questions, it will help you decide whether or not you should buy the product. Adding limits to what we want, we can make the world a better place. Having the latest technology is typically considered a want rather than a need. While technology can enhance productivity, communication, and entertainment, it's not essential for basic survival or well-being.

https://study.com/
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/
https://www.forritcu.org/
https://www.nerdwallet.com/

Its possible the newkids on the block

https://www.isabellamenorca.com/

I agree that you should have a budget on the amount you spend on the things you want but we all only live once and what's the point of not having what you want. Spending half your money on the necessities also seems a little excessive. You could just lower how much you're buying of everything in general. You said that a want is just meant for personal pleasure and based on that if you don't buy your wants you'll just be bored. Wants and needs don't have to carry burdens unless you make it have one. I would say that asking the questions like if you need it or how much it costs would create more of a burden just live life. I see where you're coming from with the new technologies but the consumers will buy it no matter what because it's “better”. Also with that everything that is a need can be too expensive like certain pieces of clothes. So like I said earlier, limiting how much is spent on needs can help. Also those questions should be the ones we think about because people really make dumb decisions in the heat of the moment. Some other people don't really think about those questions. Also thinking about how these things impact our lives, a want is sometimes needed for human survival. I disagree on how you said modern technology is a need because if you have an older phone or car it could create a lot of problems in your life. Like having to spend more money on your car which would increase spending on the carbon footprint. A need is not always something for human survival because you’ve gone so many years without something that is a need and not having it for a little more doesn’t really matter.
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/ … footprint/
https://www.forritcu.org/needs-vs-wants … ifference/

The topic of Food and Hunger refers to the cost and waste of food as well as the starvation of people due to this.
Why is this a problem? Because every year Nine Million people die from starvation alone. That's around 1,000 people an hour dying from hunger in the entire world. And there are around 800 million people that suffer from starvation and poverty in general. hunger/ starvation alone can cause less productive individuals, who are more prone to disease and not able to earn a higher income and improve their livelihoods.
What can we do to fix this? It will cost $267 billion per year on average to end world hunger by 2030. There will need to be investments in rural and urban areas so that people in poverty have access to food and can improve their livelihoods. You personally can help by changing certain things in your life. Such as only shopping at businesses that support charity for the homeless of the more unfortunate and donating to charities that you have done research on and know are good. Because some actually profit towards unhelpful organizations.

Climate change is real there are multiple sources and pieces of evidence that prove it is real. According to nasa.gov there is scientific evidence that is discovered each day that is affecting the earth’s climate. Many factors affect climate change such as burning fossil fuels, using a lot of plastic and not recycling it, car emissions, etc. All of these things contribute to heating the earth and messing with the earth's atmosphere. The changing in the atmosphere brings along many effects such as warmed ocean basins, melting glaciers, changing extreme temperatures, and a lot more. Other factors that increase carbon emissions are waste such as plastic bottles, non reusable bags, school lunch trays etc. Switching from styrofoam trays to ones that can be reused and washed would get rid of all the waste thrown away everyday. While buying enough plastic trays for each kid would be costly at first, the schools will save money because they are a one time purchase. Reusable water bottles would be a good fix if all or at least a majority of people switched over and didn’t use plastic. We would decrease the amount of plastic being put into landfills. As well as decrease the amount of plastic being burned down and put into our atmosphere. Plastic bags have both their pros and cons. Some of the pros are that people can reuse them to pick up dog poop. People can also put other stuff in them for storage, or use to line trash containers. But they also have many cons because just like plastic bottles a lot of people just throw them away leading to them also ending up in landfills and going back into the atmosphere, creating more climate change. While only 12% of waste is plastic, it is still a good idea to reuse plastic items more often. It is also a good idea to replace one time use products with their reusable counterparts. This way the plastic waste will be cut down. If we can find greener solutions to everyday problems, the world will be a cleaner place in no time.

Climate change is real there are multiple sources and pieces of evidence that prove it is real. According to nasa.gov there is scientific evidence that is discovered each day that is affecting the earth’s climate. Many factors affect climate change such as burning fossil fuels, using a lot of plastic and not recycling it, car emissions, etc. All of these things contribute to heating the earth and messing with the earth's atmosphere. The changing in the atmosphere brings along many effects such as warmed ocean basins, melting glaciers, changing extreme temperatures, and a lot more. Other factors that increase carbon emissions are waste such as plastic bottles, non reusable bags, school lunch trays etc. Switching from styrofoam trays to ones that can be reused and washed would get rid of all the waste thrown away everyday. While buying enough plastic trays for each kid would be costly at first, the schools will save money because they are a one time purchase. Reusable water bottles would be a good fix if all or at least a majority of people switched over and didn’t use plastic. We would decrease the amount of plastic being put into landfills. As well as decrease the amount of plastic being burned down and put into our atmosphere. Plastic bags have both their pros and cons. Some of the pros are that people can reuse them to pick up dog poop. People can also put other stuff in them for storage, or use to line trash containers. But they also have many cons because just like plastic bottles a lot of people just throw them away leading to them also ending up in landfills and going back into the atmosphere, creating more climate change. While only 12% of waste is plastic, it is still a good idea to reuse plastic items more often. It is also a good idea to replace one time use products with their reusable counterparts. This way the plastic waste will be cut down. If we can find greener solutions to everyday problems, the world will be a cleaner place in no time.
Climate change is real there are multiple sources and pieces of evidence that prove it is real. According to nasa.gov there is scientific evidence that is discovered each day that is affecting the earth’s climate. Many factors affect climate change such as burning fossil fuels, using a lot of plastic and not recycling it, car emissions, etc. All of these things contribute to heating the earth and messing with the earth's atmosphere. The changing in the atmosphere brings along many effects such as warmed ocean basins, melting glaciers, changing extreme temperatures, and a lot more. Other factors that increase carbon emissions are waste such as plastic bottles, non reusable bags, school lunch trays etc. Switching from styrofoam trays to ones that can be reused and washed would get rid of all the waste thrown away everyday. While buying enough plastic trays for each kid would be costly at first, the schools will save money because they are a one time purchase. Reusable water bottles would be a good fix if all or at least a majority of people switched over and didn’t use plastic. We would decrease the amount of plastic being put into landfills. As well as decrease the amount of plastic being burned down and put into our atmosphere. Plastic bags have both their pros and cons. Some of the pros are that people can reuse them to pick up dog poop. People can also put other stuff in them for storage, or use to line trash containers. But they also have many cons because just like plastic bottles a lot of people just throw them away leading to them also ending up in landfills and going back into the atmosphere, creating more climate change. While only 12% of waste is plastic, it is still a good idea to reuse plastic items more often. It is also a good idea to replace one time use products with their reusable counterparts. This way the plastic waste will be cut down. If we can find greener solutions to everyday problems, the world will be a cleaner place in no time.
Climate change is real there are multiple sources and pieces of evidence that prove it is real. According to nasa.gov there is scientific evidence that is discovered each day that is affecting the earth’s climate. Many factors affect climate change such as burning fossil fuels, using a lot of plastic and not recycling it, car emissions, etc. All of these things contribute to heating the earth and messing with the earth's atmosphere. The changing in the atmosphere brings along many effects such as warmed ocean basins, melting glaciers, changing extreme temperatures, and a lot more. Other factors that increase carbon emissions are waste such as plastic bottles, non reusable bags, school lunch trays etc. Switching from styrofoam trays to ones that can be reused and washed would get rid of all the waste thrown away everyday. While buying enough plastic trays for each kid would be costly at first, the schools will save money because they are a one time purchase. Reusable water bottles would be a good fix if all or at least a majority of people switched over and didn’t use plastic. We would decrease the amount of plastic being put into landfills. As well as decrease the amount of plastic being burned down and put into our atmosphere. Plastic bags have both their pros and cons. Some of the pros are that people can reuse them to pick up dog poop. People can also put other stuff in them for storage, or use to line trash containers. But they also have many cons because just like plastic bottles a lot of people just throw them away leading to them also ending up in landfills and going back into the atmosphere, creating more climate change. While only 12% of waste is plastic, it is still a good idea to reuse plastic items more often. It is also a good idea to replace one time use products with their reusable counterparts. This way the plastic waste will be cut down. If we can find greener solutions to everyday problems, the world will be a cleaner place in no time.

Sources.
* science.nasa.gov
* Why can’t our school use reusable trays – The Mentor
* Plastic waste in the U.S. - statistics & facts - Statista

Growing food at home can reap many benefits. Both in terms of personal health and environmental health. There is a direct contribution to the carbon emission we produce and how we choose as a nation to grow and distribute our food. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that around 25% of global carbon emissions are caused by industrial productions of food. By producing and growing your own food, your carbon emissions are essentially zero. This is due to the fact that you are growing, washing, and eating all at home. You are also able to reduce the amount of fertilizer and pesticides used when growing your food. Data recently collected from the EPA shows  the cost spent on pesticides and fertilizers. Which annually is over 15 billion dollars for both products. Not only does including these in growing foods harm the produce, but it also harms the soil itself. This not only has a negative effect on the environment but also the harmful effect of eating such produce. This shows another reason why home grown food can be more than just beneficial to humans. By growing your own foods you also connect better with nature and the world around you. You develop a relationship with the Earth which can have a positive effect on the other things you decide to do. When you put care into one aspect of the Earth's health, you may slowly start to care for other aspects as well. Growing your own food at home can also help other organisms in the environment. There are animals and insects all around that are pollinators. These pollinators use sources such as plants to survive. Not only does this benefit the insects around nature. It also benefits your plants themselves. As well as avoiding the situations of pollinators trying to feed off of over fertilized produce with pesticides. Which in turn can be fatal and spread sickness amongst the species. In conclusion, growing food at home can be beneficial for the ones growing, the environment, and other organisms around the Earth. Which is why it is overall recommended to grow your food at home.

Sustainable cities are the notions of the future, cities that are delineated to manage the needs of environmental and lucrative impact for the world. Meaning, that these are urban cities that are managed by creating green areas, green neighborhoods, environmental infrastructure, and eco-friendly substitutes to our original ways. Usually, when sustainable cities are spoken about, we usually speak about public transportation, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, solar panels and farms, green building and architecture, solving our food production processes, easily attainable public resources, the conservation of water, as well as waste management. However, have we ever gotten into the depth of these truly transformative ways to live?
Approximately 1,023 million metric tons of Carbon divide are produced just from U.S gasoline and diesel only. We are speaking about just one single country, one country, the United States. What about the other countries? Combined, this is enough to weaken and allow the carbon dioxide emissions to grow exponentially. 75% of carbon monoxide pollution is created by transportation. Sustainable cities have offered alternatives besides driving individual vehicles, such as metro systems, rail transport, and creating cycling or walkways. Metro systems are rapid transit trains that consist of several cars that are run on the multiple-unit system. Rail transit is one of the fastest forms of ground transportation, using locomotives powered by fuel or electricity. Investments in bike lanes and pedestrian pathways have been encouraged for a number of reasons. Among the most effective modifications that communities can implement to meet their sustainability, economic, and social objectives are walking and bicycling, active transportation, and the lowest carbon forms of transportation.
Green architecture promotes energy efficiency, reuse and security of building materials, the use of renewable energy sources, and their need to lower the negative environmental effects. For instance, buildings such as One Central Park in Sydney, Australia. Once Central Park has 35,000 green wall plants inside it. They prioritize saving and reuse wastewater for irrigation and waste. These smart designs ensure to create structures that benefit the environment and communities of the world. Tao Zhu Yin Yuan in Taiwan has an “Anti-Global Warming and Carbon-Absorbing Ecosystem” according to  Amazing Architecture.
We have time, we still do. So many years have passed and we state that we will do something but we usually don’t. If the world eventually burns out due to everything we have done, who will tell our story? We’re running out of time, we have a limit, so what can we still do? What can we do while we have more time? We may start fixing the globe by fixing the large cities where we reside and the ones that are often traversed by cars. Have we done enough yet? No, we haven't. We have to press forward. We are paving the path to reject waste and significant carbon emissions from the world we live in by creating sustainable cities.

Renewable wind, we get electricity from the wind. Better than solar panels Possible cons to birds would die but if birds learn how to see big moving propellers they move out the way  Other cons are the material needed to build these devices. Pros can be that this gives us constant energy with no negative effects to the environment. Wind power is a clean and renewable energy source. Wind turbines harness energy from the wind using mechanical power to spin a generator and create electricity. Not only is wind an abundant and inexhaustible resource, but it also provides electricity without burning any fuel or polluting the air. Wind energy in the United States helps avoid 336 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually—equivalent to the emissions from 73 million cars . People can also get their own wind energy with smaller fans. We can also build the fans in the ocean so there is more space on land for other things. According to the IEA (World Energy Outlook 2022), the share of wind energy in global electricity generation, which in 2021 was 7%, will quadruple that figure by mid-century, with a share of 28%, when all renewables will produce 80% of the world's electricity, only surpassed by solar photovoltaic at 31% as the main source of electricity generation. Wind power accounts for approximately 80% of the electricity produced annually by the ACCIONA group. In 2022, the company produced a total of 18,876 gigawatt hours (GWh) from wind, equivalent to the consumption of around 5.52 million homes. By geographical area, 60% of wind power production was destined for the Spanish market, with 9,713 GWh, while 40% corresponded to other countries: Mexico (2,887 GWh), USA (2,067 GWh), Australia (1,075 GWh), Chile (817 GWh), Canada (524 GWh), India (354 GWh) and Portugal (276 GWh) as the main markets

Have you ever experienced hunger before? I'm not talking just hunger wanting a snack, I'm talking about real hunger. Hunger can be defined as an uncomfortable painful sensation caused by the lack of consuming food, not getting the right amount of calories, or not getting the right amount of nutrients. Not everyone wants to feel this terrible feeling. Some people don't have the luxury of being able to eat every night or to eat enough to feel full. As people, we should be able to see and notice this problem that's happening all around us. There are many ways you can help whether it be small or big. Any gesture goes a long way. All those cans you don't use in your pantry. You could start by donating to your community. Many food drives go on in every individual community. Just being aware of this problem is also another small gesture that can help. Spreading this topic can change the POV of many and maybe even inspire them. Pay attention to how much you eat and how much you waste. What do you do with your leftovers? How much do you usually have left over? Have you ever thought that all the food you buy you may not need? If you realize that most of your food ends up going to waste it would be best to either donate it or just cut down on the consumption. You can sign up for organizations and donating a little bit can go a long way. There are food and hunger problems everywhere. 100% of counties have food insecurities. Consuming food even after you are full is called gluttony. Be aware of what you are eating, how much, and why.

https://www.fao.org/hunger/en/

https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

No, the short and simple answer is no. Nothing we do is going to fix the Earth right away. The Earth is way too broken and harmed for simple and unnoticeable actions to be taken and for it to actually work at all. Cites contribute to a lot if not most of the pollution and climate change that causes harm to the earth. Sustainable cities can do a few things to help though, such as, using renewable resources, having lots of sidewalks, opting for a mass transportation system, and slowing down energy consumption.
Using renewable resources would really improve any area in the world, but definitely areas with mass amounts of people with energy surges like no other. Cities are notorious for using so much power and this would really improve the carbon footprint of cities if most cities could use renewable energy. While yes it can be very expensive to start and maintain, the benefits much outwardly outweigh the price.
Having lots of sidewalks, or bicycle trails give more opportunities for people to walk or bike places, rather than driving. While, this is not just a problem for cities, it also for people that live further out. If there are more places closer to where people are they wont need to drive, or better for the people who live farther out of town where it is not ideal to walk into town when need be they could opt for mass transportation, such as bus or carpooling. This also would help more if electric or fuel efficient vehicles were used.
Slowing down on energy consumption in cities could really help with their carbon footprints too. Not using as much energy could benefit by not having to make as much, whether that is by renewable resources or carbon resources. Just not using as much puts so much less carbon into the atmosphere, helping our carbon footprints decrease.

https://www.repsol.com/en/energy-and-th … dex.cshtml
https://www.thegef.org/what-we-do/topic … ble-cities

There are multiple different ways that we can keep our environment clean, but one of the biggest ways is simply throwing away or recycling your trash. Many people don’t actually realize how much trash ruins the environment and how much it kills animals. The United States alone produces 268 million tons of waste each year, 140 million of it going into landfills. Each American throws away about 1,200 pounds of organic waste each year, meaning we only recycle about 67.2 million tons of a possible 267.8 million. Animals are also innocent victims affected by litter. Over one million animals die each year just from trash pollution alone. 60% of water pollution is also attributed to litter. At least 100,000 fish and other marine animals die from plastic pollution per year. The American society can set up many clean development systems that the citizens can follow. This will help lower the percentage of the amount of pollution. In having a good system in which the recyclables actually get recycled and disposed of properly, we can save the wildlife and our planet as a whole. Cleaning up the environment is critical, it preserves our biosphere, and helps preserve the earth's natural resources. If you don’t know what we should be recycling; we should always recycle our water bottles, newspapers, mixed paper, magazines, cardboard, plastic drink bottles, plastic product bottles, aluminum cans, and even our clothes. We should also always throw our trash away in the trash bins to keep our planet clean. Using more wind turbines and solar panels to power buildings and using more public transportation and electric trains can also reduce carbon a lot. On this earth we have to take care of eachother and put our own personal wants aside. We all can make an effort to reduce our carbon footprint and make the world a better place.

Climate change has always been a things. It’s an ever changing battle that always been going on. But how has it changed since humans have stepped foot here on our earth? Humans are the main cause of the rise in fossil fuels. We are the ones making mass amounts of products in plastic and metal. The manufacturing of all of these products is creating greenhouse gasses that are going up to our atmosphere. When we burn things and manufacture them and then the gases are being emitted to our world causing the greenhouse effect. So i would say yes climate change is more human caused than what change was happening in our climate before. So yes climate change is real and we are the main cause. So we need to start eliminating these gasses fast before it’s too late.

Do you believe climate change is caused by human activity? Human activity can be a great factor in climate change.“ Activities such as agriculture, road construction, and deforestation can change the reflectivity of the earth's surface, leading to local warming or cooling.” This quote states that human activity can cause harm to the environment.“ When fossil fuels are burned, they release large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the air. Greenhouse gasses trap heat in our atmosphere, causing global warming.” The quote shares how burning of fossil fuels affects the whole world in a bad way. There are multiple ways we can change this. This includes keeping fossil fuels in the ground, reducing plastic, and improving farming and encouraging vegan diets. Fossil fuels have the biggest impact on climate change. Some effective ways to make a difference for our environment would be switching from driving a car every day, to riding a bike or walking. We are willing to take the information about climate change that we now know and apply it to our everyday lives, are you?

https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-scien … ed%20areas.

https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news … %20warming.

When we are buying things, I think we have to consider if the "thing" you want is necessary. For example, air, water, food, or clothes are necessary for you. Things that you want, should not be bought often. I know humans like to buy thing they like, but this is causing the world to collapse.  So, after today consider if the "thing" you are buying is necessary or not. Start caring about our own world and make it to a better one!!!

Sorry, typo. It should be Necessary.

Climate change is caused by extreme conditions when the earth gets too warm, ice starts to melt, and flooding happens. To reduce gas emissions being put into the atmosphere, we can start using clean energy sources such as solar and wind power. improving technology to save energy, and plant more trees to absorb these harmful gasses. Using better methods for transportation like using more electric than gas cars. The governments are able to enforce pollution regulations reducing the amount of gas that's released into our atmosphere. Individuals can contribute to this by conserving energy, resources, recycling, and making environmentally friendly choices. By adopting cleaner transportation like electric vehicles and public transit, the emissions from vehicles are greatly reduced. Sustainable practices like organic farming and reduced fertilizer use can lower greenhouse gas emissions. Government policies and regulations play a big role in controlling these emissions like the pollution standards mentioned earlier. By spreading awareness, it increases and improves the public's understanding of climate change and how harmful it's starting to become for the planet. Investing in research and development for clean energy technologies accelerates the transition to a low carbon economy. Also, encouraging innovation in carbon capture and storage technologies can further reduce emissions from industrial processes. Promoting sustainable land management preserves carbon sinks like forests and wetlands. Transitioning to a circular economy model minimizes waste and reduces emissions associated with production and consumption. Addressing deforestation and promoting reforestation efforts restore ecosystems and help maintain carbon dioxide levels. The governments can incentivize emission reductions through carbon pricing mechanisms and emissions programs. Public infrastructure investments in renewable energy support these goals. By implementing these measures we can very easily reduce these harmful gasses and use the proper resources to control climate change and save our planet.
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/wha … ate-change

One of the reasons our carbon footprint is so big is due to food waste. Usda.gov says “EPA estimated that each year, U.S. food loss and waste embodies 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (million MTCO2e) GHG emissions (excluding landfill emissions) – equal to the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants.” That's a lot and we need to work to make it smaller. Ways that we can make it smaller include, planning ahead and only buying the things that you need to make a meal, even if you make too much you should use the leftovers for other things. For example, if you make too much of a certain food like tacos, you can always reuse and turn it into a different meal like enchiladas. Another major waste of food is restaurants.  “A restaurant can produce up to 25000-75000 pounds of food waste a year.” (fourth.com) Examples of what to do with wasted food in restaurants, they could take the food and either make different food out of it, donate it to the homeless or make it into a compost and sell it to a store to make a profit. Another way that we can make the carbon footprint smaller is by growing our own plants or buying local. “Local shopping means fewer transportation kilometers, which translates to lower greenhouse gas emissions from transport.” (lgcet.com) If we burn less gas, that means our carbon footprint will be smaller. Scientists also mentioned “If you want to reduce your environmental impact, you should consider growing plants from seed. This is a great way to reduce the amount of plastic that’s used in gardening.''(vizcaya.org) This talks about how important growing your own food is, and the bad things that can happen if you always buy from a non-local store. In conclusion, we should find ways to make our carbon footprint smaller by reusing our leftovers, growing our own plants or buying locally. Because growing your own plants will make you drive less, which will lead to decreasing your carbon footprint, it could help you get out of the house, and start spending more time on your plants then being on your phone. Then with your own grown plants or if you “walked” to your local market. You could make a meal with the stuff you produced. If you happen to have any leftovers you could make a different meal with the ingredients you have left over, or do some research on the leftover plant and see what they have an importance of helping the soil nutrients or how it can help the earth. So you're not only getting out of the house, and not being lazy, but you're helping the earth by recycling the plants in different ways. Leftover meals could help people in need, or even help animals. That's only the basics of decreasing your carbon footprint, because there are alot of different ways that you can help the carbon footprint.

are student footprints affecting the world

Yes, student footprints are affecting the world. This is because when parents see their own children use less carbon footprint, they will want to follow. When many more parents find out that making less Carbon footprint can save the world, they will tell this good news to their friends. Making the world clean and wonderful.

Extreme weather like heat waves, droughts, and heavy rainfall, create a long list of effects to the environment. It is affected by the climate, which then affects individuals, and so on. For example, hurricanes tend to occur in warmer climates. This is because evaporation intensifies as the temperatures rise as well as the transfer of heat from the oceans to the air. So, as the storm travels over the oceans, it pulls in more water vapor and heat, which means stronger wind, rain, and flooding. This is important because human-caused global warming makes the storm surges worse, and more damage will be done to these “hurricane prone” areas. As the climate gets warmer, the hurricanes and storms will be worse. It takes months or years to rebuild these communities in the warmer climates after they have been hit by a storm, and citizens can lose their homes or their lives because of it. With that being said, there are many ways to reduce our ways of global warming, like using less electricity, and even eating more vegetables. By eating more vegetables, it can lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and it requires less energy, heat, and water. By doing just this, you can reduce your carbon footprint by almost 500 kilograms of CO2e per year. Another way to slow down global warming would be simply cleaning up your environment. Humans as well as animals and even the land around you are all affected by improper waste disposal. If you have trash, throw it out properly, and try to only use what is necessary. You can also volunteer to help in local clean-ups around your community. Speaking up and being a leader is one of the best ways you can help and slow down human-caused global warming and climate change. It will be very beneficial towards extreme weather and communities that are affected by it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9013542/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1 … 295/ac6e7d
https://www.edf.org/climate/how-climate … estructive
https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate- … g-climate/

Do you want to feel more involved in your community, while also helping the ecosystem? Community gardens are the solution! Community gardens have the possibility to benefit multiple aspects of life. The environment would benefit greatly from a community garden. Having a community garden would help both the soil quality and air quality. It would also attract many helpful insects and wildlife. But not only would a community garden help the environment, it would help the overall well being of our communities physical health. Having a diet full of fruits and vegetables, which would be grown in the garden, can help to prevent or improve health problems. Some of the problems it could help include lowering blood pressure, controlling blood sugar, and reducing the risk of heart disease. Having a community garden could encourage people young and old to want to gain knowledge about how to cook and eat healthily. Did you know that certain fruits and veggies have even been shown to help mental health too? According to News Medical, “the more often people ate fruit, the lower they scored for depression and the higher for mental wellbeing.” (Henderson). Having a community garden could help people to have an escape from their busy life. Sometimes people just want to get away, having a community garden could solve that! Having a diverse ecosystem of plants and veggies could help people be more food conscious. In lower income areas, it could also help them to have a secure and cheap food source. For children, having fruits and vegetables locally grown could help them learn a lesson about where food comes from. Having a locally grown food source could help lower the amount of C02 emissions associated with food transportation. It could help people of all ages share and gain valuable knowledge. By advocating and supporting the idea of building a community garden, individuals can play a vital role in making a vibrant, flourishing community. Help create a more sustainable future and advocate for community gardens!

Okay wait, why do I TOTALLY AGREE!??

The choices made by consumers play a significant role in determining the demands in goods and services. While reusing and repurposing can extend the lifespan of products instead of simply discarding them. Therefore, we should always be conscious of the products we consume and how we dispose them.

Furthermore, We can also repair old furnitures instead of tossing them away. In addition, instead of buying new bags every time when you go shopping, why not just bring reusable ones? When we buy clothes and new gadgets, we all know that it sometimes just ends up being thrown away, and these things can severely pollute our environment.

More importantly, reusing and repurposing items instead of buying new ones constantly not only reduces carbon emissions, but can also conserve valuable natural resources such as, water, energy, and raw materials, as making new products also require a lot of precious resources and energy. These contribute to pollutions and carbon emissions.

Let's all be wise consumers and think twice before consuming a product in order to protect our environment!

I agree with you. Even though my purchases for my carbon footprint were only in the 700s because I do not buy the newest things and I make sure to buy used clothes because I don't want the newest things. I feel that most people do buy things that they think they need or that they have to have that hurt the environment in reality they don't need them at all. I think that reducing your overall carbon footprint is a great thing by lowering the things you buy and only going somewhere when you absolutely have to. I will start to lower my carbon emission levels by lowering my transportation around the country. I also can stop buying so much food that I do not need. I don't throw it out but it sits there on my shelf forever and ever and sometimes it does go bad and I have to throw it out. I think that to get consumers to buy less things that are not reusable or low carbon emission products, we should advertise less things that have a high carbon emission. According to this article https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/ … te-change/ americans produce 25 percent more carbon levels on thanksgiving day and christmas than any other day in the world. This article also states. That when basic needs are met then consumers tend to buy more and more things for social status. They want to reach a higher level of social status depending on what percent of the population they are in. According to this article another fact is that a study done by the United Nations states that the top 1 percent of the world produce more than half of the CO2 levels than the bottom 50 percent of the population because of their purchases and needs in life. I agree with your final point that using renewable materials. Drastically decreases the carbon emission levels. But it also reduces the use of finite resources. And improves the overall quality of things like minerals, oil, and many other materials used in things around the world.

One way to decrease carbon emissions and to help the planet is to grow your own food/have a garden. Growing your own food and produce is very beneficial to the environment. It reduces plastic pollution, food waste, pesticide usage, and carbon admissions. This allows food to trap carbon dioxide. At the beginning the cost of these gardens may be pricey but it will extend over a long period of time but it will be beneficial. Growing your own food will have an increase on your mental health, productivity, home for pollinators and greenhouse gasses. We will see a decrease in food bills because it will just be coming from your yard. You can start growing your own produce by starting with a vegan garden, vegan gardens are an organic method of growing your own produce, without the use of animal products. This is beneficial due to the fact that it promotes plant growth, and keeps our bodies from unnatural fertilizers and powerful pesticides. These plants can provide more nutritious vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to your system. The healthiest plants to grow on your own consist of spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, kale, green peas, tomatoes, and brussel sprouts. Studies show that growing your own garden can help your anxiety and stress levels. Gardens help to provide an escape from normal daily life. Not only does growing your own food help improve your physical and mental health, it helps the environment. Growing your own food means there’s no need for plastic/harmful packaging. Not only do plastics pollute the earth but the microplastics that enter your body can be severely damaging. Microplastics can enter your body though any plastic materials that have touched plastic, and it's not something small that isn't noticeable, scientists have been noticing for more than a decade. “There were around 3,000 [plastic materials] when I started researching microplastics over a decade ago,” Leslie says. “Now there are over 9,600. That's a huge number, each with its own chemical makeup and potential toxicity.” (Pinto- Rodrigues). Home grown food increases soil carbon and it decreases carbon emissions by reducing the plastic usage. Home grown food has many benefits!
https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/il … all%20farm.

https://www.treehugger.com/growing-your … eir%20soil

https://aloha.com/blogs/articles/benefi … 0resources

Humans use lots of plastic each year and it is one of the biggest causes to pollution. According to the United Nations, plastic takes 20 to 500 years to decompose. Imagine there is this piece of plastic, and it take around 250 years to decompose fully. However, during this period of time, there is a enormous amount of plastic still being created and pollution is still being made. "Humans currently produce more than 350 million metric tons of plastic waste per year," said Statista. Also, for plastic bags alone, there are 5 trillion plastic bags are produced yearly. That is not including plastics such as straws and bottles.

In order to reduce the amount of waste there is in land and in the ocean, we could reuse these plastics and repurpose them into something that we could use again. Today, there are already many plastics that were repurposed into something we're using. For example, many clothes in active wear have an amount in them that is made of the plastics. Big companies such as Adidas cooperated with Parley with the Oceans to make shoes out of fishnets thrown in the sea. Another company called Sea2See, which make eyewear, is 100% made of recycled marine and ocean plastic waste. This gives the plastic that we throw in the ocean into something that we could use daily.

The plastic straw could help turn into sun glasses. These companies won't have to produce more plastic, they could just use plastics already existing and turn them into something different. From a single use product into something that we could use numerous times helps to sustain the environment.

Using old plastic to make new things, like clothes and glasses, is a good idea. Companies like Adidas and Sea2See are already doing this. They turn plastic from the ocean into useful items we can wear. This helps stop pollution and makes our planet cleaner. We should do more of this to help our Earth stay healthy.

People should care about their carbon footprint because carbon is one major cause of global warming. We can let more people know about carbon footprint by telling others or making posts on social media. We should start as fast as possible because we already have done a lot of damage to the atmosphere. If we let people know now they will realize how much carbon they are producing and start to be contuse about their use of resources.

Understanding carbon footprints is crucial for protecting our planet. A carbon footprint measures the amount of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, produced by our activities. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to global warming and climate change. By spreading awareness about carbon footprints, we empower individuals and communities to make informed choices that reduce their impact on the environment. Simple actions, like using energy-efficient appliances, walking or biking instead of driving, and recycling, can all help shrink our carbon footprints. When more people know about carbon footprints, they're more likely to take steps to lessen their environmental impact. By collectively reducing our carbon footprints, we can work towards a more sustainable and greener future for generations to come. So, let's spread the word about carbon footprints and inspire positive change for our planet.

One of the biggest causes for carbon emissions and the slow deterioration of the environment is the amount of waste and trash that people don’t properly take care of. There are many ways we can improve this bad habit however. Increasing recycling is a very important thing that everyone should take part in and could greatly benefit the environment, but not everything is recyclable. Only about 5% to 6% of plastic is recycled in the U.S. each year. The reason behind this would be due to the fact there is simply too much plastic and different varieties of it.

Recycling is not the only way to reduce this issue. There are many other methods that more people should use today, and I think it would be a benefit to everyone if it happened. The main way is through the reuse and repurposing of our items. If we can move into a world where the materials we use can last a long time and not just be thrown away after one use it will already be a step in the right direction. Repurposing glass, plastic, and cardboard containers, giving them new life is just one small thing more should do. Instead of using the plastic bags that supermarkets provide to you, bring your own reusable shopping bag that you can bring with you anywhere you go. Instead of purchasing new wrapping paper and packaging for gifts each year, hold on to them and reuse those for the next year.

It goes far beyond just containers and packaging that can be reused or repurposed. If you have old clothes you no longer need or have grown out of, don’t just let it go to waste or discard it. Donate these items to charities or people in need. The same applies for food, only buy what you need and give the rest away that you don’t need. There is not a worse feeling than opening your pantry or fridge and finding out that half the stuff is expired.

Another big factor for pollution is that more people could reduce or limit their use of disposable cutlery and crockery for parties. If you have a party at a house then there is most likely real cutlery and crockery. There is no harm in using these things, it might just take a little extra work once the parties are over. The final thing I want to touch on is batteries; these are often thrown away and not properly disposed of once they are fully used. Luckily for us there is an alternative, as rechargeable batteries are a thing. These are items you only have to buy once and can use over and over again. Sure, the lifespan might not be as long, but it will for sure benefit the environment and greatly help to reduce carbon emissions.

Sources:

https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recyc … duce-waste
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/ … g-america/
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/09 … -pollution

In a city like EcoCity, the focus would be on reducing carbon emissions and promoting a sustainable lifestyle. There would be a good public transportation system, like trains and electric buses, so people can move around easily without needing cars. Buildings would be energy-efficient and use renewable energy sources like solar power. There would be lots of green spaces and areas for recycling and composting. Living in EcoCity would mean having access to modern urban life while also caring for the environment.

Solar energy is a great way to bring down schools carbon footprint. By using solar energy we bring down carbon footprint by a lot. Granted, if we only use solar energy seven out of the 10 months when were at school it would still make a difference. For the other three months, we could use the same energy we use today in our school. According to Energy Sage, the benefits of putting solar panels in our environment is important because solar panels aren't just good for the environment, they can also provide serious savings. How much money you can save varies based on several factors including your location, current energy usage, the size of your solar panel system, and most importantly, the price you pay for electricity. For example, if you currently pay $150 a month for electricity, you’ll save about $65,000 over the next three decades. Most solar shoppers save between $20,000 and $96,000 on electricity over the lifetime of their solar panel system. In this article, we'll walk you through what you need to understand how going solar can save you money and how to figure out what your savings will be. There are a bunch of other ways that solar energy can help our school. Like how much they will reduce your carbon footprint. The significant financial returns are a compelling reason to invest in renewable energy, but money isn't the only thing solar panels save. When you install solar, you also reduce CO2 emissions by limiting your fossil fuel consumption. Thank you for reading and here is the site it used www.energysage.com.

Yes, climate change is real. It is also caused primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. Human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Due to the large amounts of carbon dioxide and other gasses, it has caused the temperature on the Earth’s surface to rise. “Human activities currently release over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year” (epa.gov). But the only way the gasses got released into the atmosphere was from human activities. “Rather, it is extremely likely (> 95%) that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming” (epa.gov).
Climate change is one of the biggest problems we have in the world today. It is defined as "long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns". Climate change can cause a lot of things such as droughts, severe storms, warmer temperatures, and rising oceans. This is really happening today and humans should be the ones to stop climate change from getting worse because humans are the ones who caused it. It is true that humans have caused climate change because of burning fossil fuels and chopping down trees. Humans really should start taking action to stop climate change. 2023 was the warmest year in 100,000 years ever put in record as said by the World Meteorological Organization. Cases of greenhouse gases, surface temperature, droughts, and even ocean heat acidification have increased. Not only did Climate change contribute to the economic losses such as heatwaves and floods, causing billions of dollars in damage. In Antartica, glaciers melting also means wildlife is suffering. In Taiwan, people have to turn on their air con’s or fan’s, however it is only spring. The spring that we know of today, is nothing compared to what spring was like in the past years.

Many people say they need to have something in order for them to be happy, but need is something we need in order to survive like food, water, air, shelter, and warmth. Buying a car or phone isn't a need, we won't die even if we don't have them. Want is extra things to keep us happy and comfortable like a transportation to go. If we can sort out what we actually need and what we just want, we can save many resources not buying unnecessary products like plastic toys, models, etc. We don't need a Lego set in order to live. For example, if we can save our money buying Lego the plastic pieces might become trash and end up floating in the ocean or laying there in a garbage dump. If we think buying little things won't hurt the planet, each small purchase adds up until we kill many habitats and ecosystems. We have to start thinking to do the right thing and buy important things that can really help you when you buy it.

I agree, sometimes we feel like we are just buying something little, but if everybody thinks this way and we keep buying them, it is going to create a lot of pollution. We should really think about whether what we are buying is really necessary. We don't need thirty pairs of basketball shoes.

Ocean acidification refers to the decrease in the pH level of the world's oceans, it is caused by the carbon dioxide from the atmmosphere. When Co2 dissolves in salt water, it forms carbonic acid, when then dissolve into bicarbonate ions and hydrogen ions, which lowers the pH of the water.

Why is ocean acidification a problem?
First, the lower of the pH level affects the lives of marine animals such as corals, mollusks, and some plankton species especially to build and maintain their shells and skeletons composition which is made out of calcium carbonate. If it is severe enough, it can cause problem in the marine food chain. Second, the coral reef decline. Coral reefs are vulnerable to ocean acidification. As they lose their ability to form and maintain their calcium carbonate structures, they will eventually collapses and die. This will affect the biodiversuty and the habitats supported by the coral reefs. Third, ocean acidification can distrupt the entire marine ecosystem, affecting species diversity and changing the predator prey relationship.

How do we solve ocean acidification?
One way that we can reduce ocean acidification whcih is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which means to be conscious of your energy use. Some ways we can do this is to drive less, switch to fluorescent light bulbs, and compost your food waste. To protect the ocean, we must also stabalize the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Ocean acidification is something that could ultimately affect us as well, since coral reefs are part of the ecosystem in the ocean. Each year, world trade in fish and fisheries products in 2023 is estimated at 65 million tonnes, which would also make our economy go down. To make the ocean acidification rate go down, we have to cut down our usage of fossil fuel and carbon emissions. To do this, we could take public transportations such as the metro or instead of driving, we could bike to the destination. That way, not only would you save the Earth, you would be exercising as well. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be reduced by the way we live daily.

Through most most people's carbon footprints, you can realize that most familes have their carbon footprint based onto either food or transportation. There many ways you can solve each problem. First, to solve food carbon footprints, I would first suggest going vegetarian because when you eat and buy meat, you can cause a large amount of carbon footprint. Another way to restrict carbon footprint by going fo something local. The first way is to simply go to a local vegtable shop and buying something there. Even if you still want to buy meat, you should still use it through a local source. If you want to use transportation, it should be better if travel and have vacations locally and not go somewhere very far. Even if you do, you should still use public transportation like trains to get somewhere. This will be able to help solve many of the world's problems in our carbon footprint.

Yes I, believe going vegetarian will help, because if we don't eat a lot of meat it won't cause a large amount of carbon footprint. So I totally agree that eating vegetables will help lower the carbon footprint. And I also agree that going for vacation not going to a far place also helps the carbon footprint lessen

Yes, being vegetarian would be better for Earth. Because we wouldn’t pollute the world more.

Earth may never be the same if we humans keep living like this. Everything would be different due to climate change. But today I will share with you how to avoid it. First of all, what is climate change? Climate change is changing average weather, making it warmer, wetter, or drier for a short or long period. How can humans do differently to avoid the effects of climate change? In this paper, I will explore the concept of climate change, its primary causes, the impact of the greenhouse effect, and steps we can all take to lower its effects.

   
    The Greenhouse effect is a metaphor for what is happening to Earth now. A greenhouse is a house with glass on all sides and plants inside. We are allowing sunlight to get into it. When the Sun sets the heat will still be trapped inside keeping the plants warm throughout the night or during winter. Humans are also inside our little greenhouse when we emit too many greenhouse gasses, including Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Water Vapor. Before humans had the right amount of greenhouse gasses, but due to human activities, we now experience more greenhouse gasses, making Earth hotter. These greenhouse gasses may come from burning fossil fuels and driving cars. This makes Earth hotter due to the amount of gasses we are making, and letting it be trapped in our atmosphere. We are inside the greenhouse trapped with all this heat. Completely eradicating climate change to 0 would be impossible. But we can still slowly decrease the number we have right now. I will tell you how we can slowly decrease climate change. First, we could save energy at home. If you're not in a room you can close the lights, or you would be wasting energy and money. Switching to renewable energy sources such as solar or wind can significantly reduce your carbon footprint. We can reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle. All these could slowly decrease or stop climate change.
We need to start thinking about the next generation. If we don't act now the next generation would need to clean up the mess that we made. So why not start doing it and then let humans suffer?
    Now we know how humans can act differently to avoid climate change. In short, we could change the world if we start doing this. In conclusion, we humans must act on climate change.

In almost everyone's carbon foot print there average is really high. So we have to protect our home so the next generation can live in a peaceful world. Recycle more, walk more, close the lights when you live a room, when you don't need air conditioner, protect our home.

In almost everyone's carbon foot print there average is really high. So we have to protect our home so the next generation can live in a peaceful world. Recycle more, walk more, close the lights when you live a room, when you don't need air conditioner, protect our home.

Yes, climate change is real. It is also caused primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. Human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Due to the large amounts of carbon dioxide and other gasses, it has caused the temperature on the Earth’s surface to rise. “Human activities currently release over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year” (epa.gov). But the only way the gasses got released into the atmosphere was from human activities. “Rather, it is extremely likely (> 95%) that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming” (epa.gov).
Certain gasses in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gasses was demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Most of the heat absorbed by the greenhouse gasses radiates in all directions and warms the Earth. Over the past century the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This happens because the coal- or oil-burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2. Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This proves that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of ice age recovery warming. CO2 from humans is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from natural resources after the last ice age. Humans caused global warming. But could also help reduce global warming from getting worse. This is why you should change or reduce the number of gasses you put in the atmosphere.

Plant a seed and watch it grow!
School gardens have been around for over 100 years, and school districts continue to use them today to establish healthy eating habits; as educational tools in the classroom; and to promote community inclusion. The fact sheet for farm to school stakeholders provides examples of school gardens that have taken root, and resources to continue growth: TEACHING GARDENS in Tennessee, aquaponics systems in Montana, salad bars in New Mexico, and garden based curriculum in Guam. Across the United States schools are growing gardens to provide food for child nutrition programs, connect children to the source of their food, and create hands-on interdisciplinary classrooms. School gardens pre-date the National School Lunch Program; the Federal Government has been encouraging school gardening since the early 1900s, even building a “School Garden Army” during World War I and supporting victory gardens at schools during World War II. USDA encourages school gardens by providing grant funding, guidance and resources, and support for food service personnel who are interested in purchasing products from a school garden. For additional information on school gardens across the Nation, check out the latest findings from the USDA Farm to School Census. Space for Gardens in All Seasons. School gardens come in all shapes and sizes, and districts
with varying amounts of land are finding ways to establish gardens both within and outside of school grounds. Gardens can be as simple as a few containers on a windowsill or can cover many acres, and gardens can thrive in all climates. Program operators find that even small gardens help children gain familiarity and comfort with the fruits and vegetables they are seeing more of at meal times. Districts are also overcoming growing season challenges in creative and innovative ways. Even in Montana, where the traditional growing season just barely overlaps with the school year, season extension techniques make it possible for students to garden all year long. Using School Garden Produce in the Cafeteria Food service directors use school garden products in the cafeteria every day, from herbs to spice up a pizza, to serving garden-grown lettuce on the salad bar, to roasting vegetables as part of a reimbursable meal. Foods produced in a garden operated or funded by the food service account can be used in the meal service and can be used for educational purposes. Produce can be procured from school gardens not funded by the food service account using a variety of procurement methods such as through an interdepartmental agreement, informal (small or micro purchase) procurement methods, or via a donation to the school meal program. Gardens as Classrooms, school gardens are living laboratories that create teaching
opportunities ripe for nutrition and agriculture education and experiential education across all disciplines. USDA has free resources for nutrition education lessons in the
garden through Team Nutrition, and lists garden-based curriculum on the USDA Farm to School Resources page. Food Safety in the Garden, food safety is a priority for all food served in child nutrition programs and products that come from school gardens are
no exception. Food from school gardens has the shortest physical distance to travel from harvest to plate, so its safety can be managed with more direct oversight than food
that travels long distances – a food safety benefit. While safe growing, harvesting and storage practices should be followed when implementing school gardens, there is no
research that indicates produce from school gardens carries greater food safety risk than produce from other sources. There are also children who work in the fields, that make sure the fields are taken care of, and the food is grown right, and able to eat. The nature of agricultural work exposes child laborers to many risks and dangers, many attributed to the following types of work or conditions. Every year, approximately 115 children die in an agricultural-related incident, and nearly 12,000 experience a non-fatal injury.
https://www.fns.usda.gov/f2s/school-gardens
https://www.google.com/search?q=Child+labor+in+feilds

What is ocean acidification? It is when the Ph of the ocean is reduced over an extended period of time. Ocean acidification is mainly caused by uptake in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon has been increasing over 200 years due to burning fossil fuels and land use change. The ocean absorbs a lot of carbon from the atmosphere, about 30%. When the carbon levels rise in the atmosphere they also rise in the ocean. When the carbon is absorbed by the seawater a chemical reaction happens causing more hydrogen ions. More hydrogen ions means the seawater will become more acidic but the water being more acidic carbonate ions to be less abundant. Certain fish have the ability to detect predators and when the water is acidic this ability decreases. Effects on other marine organisms are the extra acidity make it harder for things like coral and plankton to create their shell and skeleton. If the organism already has its shell it will begin to dissolve. Some things could benefit from the increased carbon. Some algae and seagrass are one of the ones that benefit from the carbon because it increases their photosynthetic and growth rates. More things the acidity can harm are mollusks, their shells could be very weak or dissolving. The marine organisms also can experience other changes such as abundance, changes in growth, development and survival because of ocean acidification. What can coastal decision makers do? Everyone can try to reduce their greenhouse gas admissions but the best way is to use the adaption approach. The adaption approach is changing things in your daily lives that will help produce less carbon into the atmosphere. What can we do to help? The only thing that will help the ocean acidification is lowering carbon admission. Ocean acidification is a serious thing that effects the environment, animals, etc and by reducing it the marine organisms will be able the develop normally.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations describes hunger as an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy.
Using the footprint calculator was pretty eye-opening for us. We realized that what we eat can actually have a big impact on the environment.
Certain foods, especially meat and dairy, have a way bigger carbon footprint than plant-based stuff.
I think if we all ate a little more sustainably and wasted less food, it could really make a difference. It would help the environment and maybe even make it easier to feed everyone, especially considering there are so many people who don't have enough to eat.
Food and hunger is a worldwide problem. 44 million people in the U.S are deprived of access to food. Food and hunger is a complex issue. When people face hunger, they often struggle to meet other basic needs as well — such as housing, employment, and healthcare. According to the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition World report, between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. Hunger has been increasing by millions each year.
Long-term Consequences of Hunger on Public Health can have really bad effects. Poor nutrition caused by hunger can lead to various serious health issues, such as weight loss, fatigue, anemia, weakened immune systems, and even cognitive delays, such as difficulty learning or concentrating.
There are a few important things we can do to decrease worldwide hunger. For example:
Reduce food waste and food loss.
Partner up with local food markets
Investing in smallholder farmers.
Promoting a planetary health diet.
Empowering women and reducing gender inequality.
Investing in climate-smart agriculture.
Advocate for local and national programs.

https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/foo … 0to%202019.

https://www.wfpusa.org/get-involved/

https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/end-hunger

https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/how-to- … solutions/

https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/effe … centrating

https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work … end-hunger
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations describes hunger as an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy.
Using the footprint calculator was pretty eye-opening for us. We realized that what we eat can actually have a big impact on the environment.
Certain foods, especially meat and dairy, have a way bigger carbon footprint than plant-based stuff.
I think if we all ate a little more sustainably and wasted less food, it could really make a difference. It would help the environment and maybe even make it easier to feed everyone, especially considering there are so many people who don't have enough to eat.
Food and hunger is a worldwide problem. 44 million people in the U.S are deprived of access to food. Food and hunger is a complex issue. When people face hunger, they often struggle to meet other basic needs as well — such as housing, employment, and healthcare. According to the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition World report, between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. Hunger has been increasing by millions each year.
Long-term Consequences of Hunger on Public Health can have really bad effects. Poor nutrition caused by hunger can lead to various serious health issues, such as weight loss, fatigue, anemia, weakened immune systems, and even cognitive delays, such as difficulty learning or concentrating.
There are a few important things we can do to decrease worldwide hunger. For example:
Reduce food waste and food loss.
Partner up with local food markets
Investing in smallholder farmers.
Promoting a planetary health diet.
Empowering women and reducing gender inequality.
Investing in climate-smart agriculture.
Advocate for local and national programs.

https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/foo … 0to%202019.

https://www.wfpusa.org/get-involved/

https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/end-hunger

https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/how-to- … solutions/

https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/effe … centrating

https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work … end-hunger

Food and hunger affect the world everyday. We are the only people on the planet so we need to solve our own problems. World hunger affects the unfortunate people that have no choice but to live in poverty and the people who were born with no food. We as the people who were born not in poverty should do our best to help the people with no food. Buying and cooking large amounts of food for soup kitchens and food banks help people a lot and feed millions of mouths everyday. Large non profit organizations like unicef feed people that have no food in third world countries. Giving food to your local church for food drives saves people and the impact these food pantries have on the world would affect world hunger. Rationing food for donations is also a good way to get the food count up. People have gone on food strikes to protest world hunger and people organize movements for the starving children. If you go to Ufpusa.com you can read about the United states of america's world food program and the activists that help with world hunger everyday. Ufpusa has a number 1 goal and that is to have absolutely no poverty. Today UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and has helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Nutrition is a key component  whether through an emergency feeding program during a disaster or famine. UNICEF is an established community clinic offering nutrition education and support to young mothers. UNICEF is the world’s largest supplier of ready-to-use therapeutic food for malnourished children.They also helped increase the world’s supply of therapeutic food by more than 9,000 percent between 2008 and 2012. By the end of World War II, many regions of the world were in poverty and there was an urgent need for food, medicine and clothing. UNICEF began its operations in Europe and, at the peak of its activities there, provided 6 million children with daily meals and milk, earning UNICEF the nickname “milkman to the world.”In the last two decades, UNICEF has helped reduce the number of preventable under-five child deaths by more than 40 percent. UNICEF has provided many services to a lot of people around the world. They have been one of the biggest providers to many people starving and in poverty around the world.-John.B.C and Yandel

Food and hunger affect the world everyday. We are the only people on the planet so we need to solve our own problems. World hunger affects the unfortunate people that have no choice but to live in poverty and the people who were born with no food. We as the people who were born not in poverty  should do our best to help the people with no food. Buying and cooking large amounts of food for soup kitchens and food banks help people a lot and feed millions of mouths everyday. Large non profit organizations like unicef feed people that have no food in third world countries. Giving food to your local church for food drives saves people and the impact these food pantries have on the world would affect world hunger. Rationing food for donations is also a good way to get the food count up. People have gone on food strikes to protest world hunger and people organize movements for the starving children. If you go to Ufpusa.com you can read about the United states of america's world food program and the activists that help with world hunger everyday. Ufpusa has a number 1 goal and that is to have absolutely no poverty. Today UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and has helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Nutrition is a key component  whether through an emergency feeding program during a disaster or famine. UNICEF is an established community clinic offering nutrition education and support to young mothers. UNICEF is the world’s largest supplier of ready-to-use therapeutic food for malnourished children.They also  helped increase the world’s supply of therapeutic food by more than 9,000 percent between 2008 and 2012.
By the end of World War II, many regions of the world were in poverty and there was an urgent need for food, medicine and clothing. UNICEF began its operations in Europe and, at the peak of its activities there, provided 6 million children with daily meals and milk, earning UNICEF the nickname “milkman to the world.”In the last two decades, UNICEF has helped reduce the number of preventable under-five child deaths by more than 40 percent. UNICEF has provided many services to a lot of people around the world. They have been one of the biggest providers to many people starving and in poverty around the world

The reason why extreme weather happens is because human activity is causing rapid changes to our global climate that are contributing to extreme weather conditions. When fossil fuels are burned for electricity, heat, and traps solar radiation, is released into our atmosphere. Over the past century, massive increases in carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gas emissions have caused the temperature on our planet to rise. That spike in global temperatures is fueling climate disasters that will only get worse unless we take action. Experts warn that we are running out of time to dramatically cut pollution to avoid climate catastrophe.
Extreme events are occurrences of unusually sever weather or climate conditions that can cause devastating impact on communities and agricultural and nature ecosystems. A common example is the number of consecutive days over 100 F, which can be used to quantify heat waves. This portion of the Climate Hubs website expands on the types of extreme events that impact the different climate hub regions. Climate change is expected to worsen the frequency, intensity, and impacts of some types of extreme weather events. There can be as many as 40,000 thunderstorms each day around the world. They are most common in the U.S., where they can produce tornadoes, floods, lightning and damaging winds. A thunderstorm is classified as “severe” when it contains one or more of the following: hail one inch or greater, winds gusting in excess of 50 knots (57.5 mph), or a tornado. Thunderstorms are most likely in the spring and summer months and during the afternoon and evening hours, but they can occur year-round and at all hours.
Much about tornadoes remains a mystery. They are rare, unpredictable and deadly. The U.S. has more tornadoes than anywhere else in the world. Tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, including Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. Even New Zealand reports about 20 tornadoes each year. Two of the highest concentrations of tornadoes outside the U.S. are Argentina and Bangladesh. The truth is that we don't fully understand. The most destructive tornadoes occur from supercells, which are rotating thunderstorms with a well-defined radar circulation called a mesocyclone. (Supercells can also produce damaging hail, severe non-tornadic winds, frequent lightning, and flash floods.) Tornado formation is believed to be dictated mainly by things which happen on the storm scale, in and around the mesocyclone.
https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov
https://www.nssl.noaa.gov
https://earthjustice.org

Ocean acidification is a reduction of pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused by the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Ocean acidification is not good because this can create conditions that eat away at the minerals used by oysters, clams, lobsters, shrimp, coral reefs, and other marine life to build their shells and skeletons. Not only is this bad for marine life but also human health. This condition can cause harmful algae species to produce more toxins and bloom later in acidified waters. This will only be harmful to humans if this is affected by shellfish or sicken fish consumed by humans. This is not only affecting humans but industries as well. For example, Alaska fisheries are suffering the consequences of ocean acidification. The Great Barrier Reef is being affected as well. There has been a decline of living corals, causing a reduction of habitat for living fish. Now how can we stop this? Helping stop emissions is a way we can help stop this since ocean acidification is caused by an increase of carbon dioxide. By trying to decrease the annual output, for example, cars, we can decrease the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, helping stop ocean acidification. Sure this might be a slow way of stopping ocean acidification but it will help over time. Along with decreasing the output of carbon dioxide we can also help by protecting and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems. Just planting kelp and seaweed forest allows them to absorb the greenhouse gasses and can help restore the oceans environment. In conclusion, if we want to keep out marine life and ecosystems safe we should take part in helping reduce/stop ocean acidification.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107 … %20warming.

https://www.epa.gov/ocean-acidification … 0community.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/aci … atmosphere.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/insight/ … %20concern.

The harvesting of crops on large, industrial farms is a process that pollutes the environment. Industrial agriculture often relies on a variety of different pesticides, whether for insects, invasive plants, or rodents. While these pesticides may be beneficial for the growth of the crop, they pose a risk to other organisms that were not its target. According to toxicologist Jesse Meiller at Georgetown University, "...the rain that falls on land where herbicides and insecticides are applied can cause soil and pesticides to run off into local waterways. Organisms that live in those waterways — including fish, invertebrates and even larval stages of insects — can be exposed to these pesticides." The pesticides that the agricultural industry so often uses, if used excessively, can cause harm to organisms unintentionally. Pesticides are also incredibly toxic to humans. According to a pie chart from the National Library of Medicine, the effects of herbicides, the most common pesticide, include liver damage, tremors, and dermal irritation.
Other than pesticides, the agriculture industry also consumes a lot of fossil fuels. According to the Emory Office of Sustainable Initiatives, the agriculture industry accounts for,”approximately 19% of the total use of fossil fuels in the United States. It takes about 7.3 units of (primarily) fossil energy to produce one unit of food energy in the U.S. food system.”
In conclusion, the use of pesticides and fossil fuels by the agriculture industry is harmful to people and the environment.

My 6th grade Earth Science students have used the ISCFC to jump-start designing their own environmental campaigns. Looking forward to sharing and hearing from other groups as well!

Hi Ms. Rossi!

In the age of fast fashion and clothing trends ending within weeks, one of the most environmentally conscious ways to stay on trends is to thrift your clothes. As of 2023, the fashion industry contributes to 60 million tons of plastic pollution every year, this mass amount of pollution is 1/5th of the world’s whopping 300 million tons of plastic pollution every year. When thrifting not only do you save money while being able to rep popular brands, but you also help lower the need of supply and demand for clothing products and prevent these items from ending up in landfills which damages the environment because clothing takes years to decompose depending on the material. Oftentimes you can find much more sturdy clothes due to older clothes being of higher quality in comparison to the newer more cheaply made clothing, this allows for more weartime which keeps you away from needing to buy replacement items as fast. Not only is fast fashion wearing on others' morals due to its contribution towards environmental destruction, but it also tests consumers due to its use of child labor and underpayment of workers. Of the fast fashion industry workers, it is reported that under 2% of those employed make minimum wage. On top of these unethical practices, “the apparel industry is among the top polluters, producing vast greenhouse gas emissions and in 2021 alone, the industry released 897 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents”. The production of new clothes can not be put to a stop and likely will never be stopped due to supply and demand in a capitalistic world, but by thrifting and choosing to wear clothes already made or handed down, you can reduce this rising need of production.

https://wp.nyu.edu/mercerstreet/2022-20 … thrifting/
https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2023/1 … ach%20year.
https://studentbriefs.law.gwu.edu/ilpb/ … -industry/
https://stateofmatterapparel.com/blogs/ … 0by%202030.
https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2023/1 … ach%20year.

Every year, about a third of all the world's food is wasted. What is food? Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth. Food waste is also a common problem in restaurants, fast food chains, bakeries, and cafes. If they have extra food they throw it away because they have no use for it. If they have extra food they should give it away to those who need it. What is Hunger? The strong desire to eat. How many people suffer from hunger? As many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. 16.6% of the world’s population is undernourished. 1 billion people are living in extreme poverty. Hunger is the cause of 45% of all chidren’s deaths. More than 99 million children under age five are still undernourished and underweight. To reduce food waste, aim to cook and serve the right portions for the number of people you are feeding. Freeze, dehydrate, pickle, or make jelly/jam, to reduce food waste. To reduce hunger in the world. We could start by not wasting so much extra food. Instead give it away.  Why is hunger a problem in the world? Persistent instability due to adverse climate events, conflict and economic slowdowns.  www.epa.gov

The number of people suffering from chronic hunger worldwide has climbed to 783 million as of 2022. Over 40 million people are facing emergency levels of hunger across 51 countries. The situation has gotten so serious in the last couple of years that many countries are now at the risk of famine. Research says someone is starved to death once every ten seconds. There is enough food to feed everyone on the planet but it's inaccessible to people in poorer countries. It doesn't help that on average a person will waste about a pound of food per day. The leading cause of malnourishment is poverty. Communities are too poor to provide a sufficient amount of food. Weather can also disrupt agricultural food production for long periods of time. Children are most vulnerable. 3.1 million children die each year from starvation and almost 100 million children under 5 experienced stunted growth. Without enough food, people who experience food insecurity may have difficulty concentrating, have low energy, or miss school and work due to illness. The easiest thing to do to help is try not to waste so much food. 40% of food is wasted because people buy more food than they can consume. You can prevent overbuying by creating a meal plan and by taking an inventory so you know what you have before shopping. Another way is to save leftovers. You can creatively insert them into your next meal. If you want to do more than just the bare minimum you could volunteer with friends, family, coworkers, or social groups for your local food pantry or soup kitchen. Lots of agricultural disruption is because of natural disasters. If there is a natural disaster near your area, you could help fix the damages and speed up the process it takes to get food production up and running again. You could also donate to one of the many organizations fighting hunger. It will take a lot of help but it is do-able.

https://www.wfp.org/ending-hunger
https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/the … ger-facts/
https://www.heifer.org/blog/understandi … urity.html
https://concernusa.org/news/world-hunger-facts/

If more places begin to grow food locally, more people will have opportunities to purchase the crops. Locally grown food can help to decrease someone's carbon footprint because when purchasing food the process itself releases harmful carbon emissions.The use of transportation, packaging, and especially fertilizers have a large impact on someone's carbon footprint, but when purchasing locally grown food, all those elements decrease. Different foods and the different ways of processing them, lead to different amounts of carbon emissions. For example peas do not emit that same amount of carbon as something like beef. An important factor of lowering carbon emissions would be some slight changes in diet. When food is grown more locally there is more access to fresh food which releases less carbon.
Starting your own garden at home would be extremely beneficial, but it can also be very complicated and for many difficult to maintain. Whether it be through not having the time or the resources, home gardens can be a challenging task. I propose an increased use of school gardens. They are not unheard of, and have been used in many areas, but that doesn't deny the fact that more of them can be beneficial. The use of school gardens still helps to lower carbon emissions, but for many would be an easier process. Instead of creating difficulties for families at home, school gardens would be able to be maintained by multiple people, and would benefit those in and around the school district. Not only could a school garden provide more resources that schools could use for healthy lunches, it would open up the schools to giving their students experience in agriculture. It opens up students to a different learning environment where they can work hands-on. Academic, social, and thinking skills would all be worked upon. Research has shown that students benefit from school gardens. Studies have shown that students become more attentive and engaged, but also have received higher scores in science based curriculum. School gardens not only are beneficial to the environment by reducing carbon emissions, but they can also improve the school environment. This is why I think school gardens should be a more widely utilized concept.

https://www.themomentum.com/articles/ho … 0footprint.

https://www.pennington.com/all-products … ommunities

Wasting food is a huge problem in the United states. Millions of people waste food each day. It is hard to realize when you actually do have food to eat everyday that some people don't. You go numb to the rest of the world because you have a good dinner to eat every day. According to the world health organization as many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. Coincidentally one-third of all food produced globally by weight is lost or wasted. With that converted into calories that equates to 24% of the world's food supply going uneaten. The food that people are wasting should be donated to anywhere where people need food. For example when something is only a couple days expired you should at least donate it. Some people are hungry enough to eat that food that you are wasting. Wasting food also affects climate change dramatically. An article written by worldwildlife.org states that when you waste food, you also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, package, and transport it. And if the food goes to the landfill and rots it produces methane- a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. About 6-8 percent of all human caused greenhouse emissions could be reduced if we stop wasting food. It is going to be a long process to fix food waste, hunger, and global warming. Some food for thought to stop this could be: planning ahead and buying only what you need at the grocery store, using your freezer to preserve your food, blend, bake or boil your fruit that could look over ripe. People are dying everyday from hunger. You can help out by following these steps and letting people around you know them as well. Help your friends or family recycle more, and if you see someone wasting food call them out. If this trend continues, food loss and waste will double by 2050. There are plenty of organizations and apps like: Too Good To Go, Olio, Full Harvest and many more that want to help with food waste and loss. You can help you just have to act on it.

Fight climate change by preventing food waste | Stories | WWF.
The Global Benefits of Reducing Food Loss and Waste, and How to Do It
UN Report: Global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021.
Top 10 food companies that prevent food waste - FoodChain Magazine

Wants and Needs are very different considering what is a necessity to live or compared to luxuries. Needs are an essential to live. Such things like a home, transportation, food, clothing, etc. You can cut back on some carbon footprint for needs by cutting down on things like transportation. For example, on a nice day maybe you can take a walk to school or ride bike instead of driving. Another example could be rather than going somewhere to eat like a restaurant you could cook something homemade at your own house. Most of people’s carbon footprint comes from transportation. People like to ride dirt bikes, or side by sides, etc. for fun. If you find other things to do besides things with motors, you could bring it down way more. Through this you can even cut back needs, because even our needs aren’t fully a necessity. Everyone has wants, as we are human. We want to go places such as the mall, the movies, the fair, etc. But there are some alternatives to make our world a better place. For example do you really need to go to the mall? Think about do you really need more clothes? You buying more clothes causes them to produce more, causing more pollution. As opposed to going thrifting, which will decrease carbon footprint and pollution. You and your friends want to hang out to go to the movies. Why not instead go to someones house and use a projector to watch a movie? If we all work together to cut back on our carbon footprint, we can make the earth healthier. Such simple things are possible.
Need or Want? | BioEd Online

Our thoughts about the connection between climate change and extreme weather events are that scientists use a combination of climate models and land, air, sea, and space-based observations to research how extreme weather events change over time. First, scientists examine historical records to determine the frequency and intensity of past events. Many of these long-term records date back to the 1950s, though some start in the 1800s. Then scientists use climate models to see if the number or strength of these events is changing, or will change, due to increasing greenhouse gasses when compared to what has happened historically. As Earth’s climate changes, it is impacting extreme weather across the planet. Record-breaking heat waves on land and in the ocean, drenching rains, severe floods, years-long droughts, extreme wildfires, and widespread flooding during hurricanes are all becoming more frequent and more intense. Climate change continues to expose more of the global population to more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Recent research shows that these changes in extreme weather have not, as yet, consistently motivated changes in opinions about climate change or changes in climate-related behavior. Extreme weather may reinforce opinions among people who are already worried about climate change, yet be misattributed or misperceived by those who are unconcerned. However, the characteristics and severity of personal experience may influence its impacts on climate opinions. Future research should consider appropriate research designs, such as matching or panel data, to disentangle the effects of experience from other factors, while also respecting ethical considerations for research among disaster survivors. As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident at the local level, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these experiences interact with other factors to shape mitigation and adaptation decisions. Human activity is causing rapid changes to our global climate that are contributing to extreme weather conditions. When fossil fuels are burned for electricity, heat, and transportation, carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps solar radiation, is released into our atmosphere. Long-term changes in climate can directly or indirectly affect many aspects of society in potentially disruptive ways. For example, warmer average temperatures could increase air conditioning costs and affect the spread of diseases like Lyme disease, but could also improve conditions for growing some crops. More extreme variations in weather are also a threat to society. More frequent and intense extreme heat events can increase illnesses and deaths, especially among vulnerable populations, and damage some crops. While increased precipitation can replenish water supplies and support agriculture, intense storms can damage property, cause loss of life and population displacement, and temporarily disrupt essential services such as transportation, telecommunications, energy, and water supplies.
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change … e-weather/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article
https://earthjustice.org/feature/how-cl … me-weather

The CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) levels in the air change how plants “breathe”. Plants “breathe” through the Stomata. These are the microscopic pores that plants take in CO2 through, in turn, releasing H2O (water) and O2 (Oxygen) into the atmosphere. These pores are then affected by the CO2 levels in the air, with higher concentrations leading to the closing of these pores. This leads to plants keeping in more H2O, meaning they release less into the atmosphere.
Subsequently, this affects rainfall patterns. Researchers note, “the reduction in water released by stomata through transpiration will result in changing rainfall patterns across the tropics.” (Asher). Although it changes the rainfall patterns, it has drastically different effects depending on the location. For example, in South America, rainfall patterns are influenced heavily by the amount of moisture released from plants. Meaning, that if plants retain moisture, it could lead to longer and deeper droughts. Forests in Indonesia, for example, are surrounded by humid air, and warm oceans. Reduced transpiration would mean that more warm air rises, which draws in the ocean's moistened air, leading to heavy rainfall. Researchers concluded that although their models lead to a dryer South America, and a wetter Indonesia, it is impossible to predict exactly what will happen.
Other researchers argue the claims of this study, even though the average of all models used predict the same thing. Douglas Sheil, a tropical forest ecologist at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, points out that climate models are known for being poor at accurately predicting the water cycle. “Personally… I don't think [the study conclusion] is convincing.” (Sheil). But, even with his disagreements, he still agrees that the study addresses an important issue.
In conclusion, plants retaining their moisture drastically change the rainfall in some regions, causing extreme weather conditions and patterns. Even if some researchers don't agree with the study, the study still addresses an important issue. An issue, that we as a global community, need to figure out how to fix.

Resources Used:
Plant response to rising CO2 levels may alter rainfall across the tropics

Climate change is one of the biggest problems we have in the world today. It is defined as "long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns". Climate change can cause a lot of things such as droughts, severe storms, warmer temperatures, and rising oceans. This is really happening today and humans should be the ones to stop climate change from getting worse because humans are the ones who caused it. It is true that humans have caused climate change because of burning fossil fuels and chopping down trees. Humans really should start taking action to stop climate change.

Yes, I agree that climate change is human-caused and should be addressed by people. While there are natural causes, such as changes in Earth's orbit and variations in solar activity, it is 95% likely that humans have been the dominant cause of warming (according to the EPA). Specifically. humans have contributed to climate change through the release of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, CH4, and NO2, and human activities, like agriculture and deforestation, decrease the reflectivity of earth's surface, which allows for further warming.

https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-scien … 0and%20gas

2023 was the warmest year in 100,000 years ever put in record as said by the World Meteorological Organization.Cases of greenhouse gases, surface temperature, droughts, and even ocean heat acidification has increased. Not only did Climate change contribute to the economic losses such as heatwaves and floods causing billions of dollars in damage. In Antartica, glaciers melting  also means wildlife is suffeing.In Taiwan, people have to turn on their air con’s or fan’s, however it is only spring. The spring that we know of today, is nothing compared to what spring was like in the past years. This is why I agree to not chop down trees and burn fossil fuels. Better alternatives are stated in this company founded in 2003: elephant poop can be turned into everyday use paper. It is a very simple process and much more sustainable than chopping trees down. First impressions might not be up to mind but think about our Earth! Our Earth needs our help! In conclusion it is better to use the resources that we have in abundance compared to what we are limited.

https://wmo.int/media/news/climate-chan … s-2023-wmo

Ocean acidification is the reduction of the earth’s PH. This can create conditions that eat away at the minerals used by oysters, clams, lobsters, shrimp, coral reefs, and other marine life to build their shells and skeletons. This causes a human health concern. Although ocean acidification doesn’t make the water dangerous for swimming, it can upset the balance of the multitude of microscopic life found. This can affect the seafood supplies for us humans while also deteriorating the oceans ability to store pollutants like carbon emission. Ocean Acidification reduces the amount of carbonate, a key building block in seawater. This makes it more difficult for marine organisms, such as coral and plankton when trying to form new shells and skeletons. The oceans have absorbed more than 150 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted from human activities. Those activities include the burning of fossil fuels, agricultural activities, and deforestation. With the increase in those human activities, slow, long-term changes in the carbon cycle can influence ocean acidity over time. Today, more than a billion people worldwide rely on food from the oceans as their primary source of protein. About 20 percent of the world’s population derives at least one-fifth of its animal intake from fish. Since ocean acidification has a negative effect on marine species. This often alters the marine food chains and food supply to humans. As a way to help ocean acidification, humans can start by reducing carbon dioxide emissions at home, at the office, and on the road. Also another way that we can limit ocean acidification and help improve it is by acting on climate change and watching the amount of fossil fuels we use as a community. If we limit the amount of fossil fuels we use right now we can stop future harm to the oceans as well as future warming. Doing this we can significantly reduce the harm towards our marine ecosystem. Overall, Ocean acidification    is something that might not be concerning to all but is definitely something that people to look at and try and solve. It won’t just take one person to try and solve the problem of ocean acidification but a whole community to try and solve an issue like this if we want a better future for our ocean.

One thing we think would greatly reduce Co2 pollution is to bring back the horse and buggy in replacement of motorized vehicles.  Motorized vehicles cause pollution to the environment.  These pollutants cause harm to our health.  They have greenhouse gasses that can greatly affect climate change.  The burning of gas and other fuels creates very harmful byproducts.  They also create Co2 which is the most common human cause of greenhouse gasses (Department of Ecology State of Washington).  Horses are selective grazers which causes them to not eat tougher grasses.  This is because they can not digest them (Extension Horse).  Horses are very important to the environment because it increases the plant diversity in an area.  (Lonker, Fenchner, El Wahed).  Horses are one of the biggest contributors to renewable energy and resources.  They produce up to 9.1 tons of manure every year.  This manure can be turned into green energy.  These farms and other energy companies around the farms can use this energy (Middleton Place Equestrian Center).  Lots of horse farmers utilized trough watering for their animals.  This helps the protection of natural water sources.  It also prevents erosion on the edges of the natural water source (Middleton Place Equestrian Center).  Vehicles are America's biggest air pollutant.  They are producing about one - third of all U.S. air pollution (National Geographic).  Highway vehicles release about 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere every year (U.S. Department of Energy).  As you can see the horse creates a smaller Co2 footprint than motorized vehicles (Extension Horse).

In my country the climate is ver beautifull and wonderfull. And anything alse
https://www.isabellamenorca.com/

Starting a garden at home is very beneficial to the environment. It can reduce carbon emissions, reduces pesticide and fertilizer usage, and provides better nutrition. You can start a garden very easily. First you want to make sure the soil is ready, if you take a handful it should fall apart. Clear the surface by removing any plants or weeds, brush or rock. Dig up the Earth and then sift the dirt. Then you can apply a covering to the bottom of your garden like clear or black plastic, cardboard, or old rugs. You need at least six to eight inches of ground for most plants to have enough room for their roots. If you're planning to grow substantial root crops (potatoes, say, or carrots), go deeper still - up to a foot or more. Adding organic material is very crucial for fertile soil.

Starting your own garden can help the environment in many ways. Growing your own food could mean that you don't have to drive to the store to get your food. Which reduces the amount of carbon emissions that are being let out into the atmosphere. You just have to walk to your backyard! It also reduces the amount of plastic waste. There is no packaging on home grown food. Which means less plastic waste overall. Another help to the environment is less food waste. When you grow your own food you have the option to only harvest what you need. Meaning you aren't wasting as much food if you didn't grow your own. Another great way to help the environment is composting! Composting is a method of fertilization but much healthier for the environment. You can recycle your food scraps and yard waste to create a very nutrient-rich soil fertilizer. How does composting even help the environment? It reduces the amount of waste that goes into landfills and instead is being reused. By using the alternative of composting you are also reducing the use of Carcinogenic Pesticides and Fertilizers unlike commercial farming composting is much healthier for the environment. Commercial farming emits harmful chemicals into the air, and also pours harmful chemicals into our soil and water. Filling our earth and the foods that we are consuming with harmful chemicals, some that have even been proven to cause cancer and other diseases.

After doing my calculations, the CO2 released from just driving came to 2271kg, only coming second to my meat-eating. I would like to bring that number down, but that wouldn't be feasible for me. I play hockey, so I have to drive around a lot, even going to rinks up to 3 hours away 2-3 times a week. Any other form of transportation wouldn't work for me, to take my bag on the bus or train would take up too much space and I would be afraid with the price of my gear to lose anything. Hockey is such a big part of my life and I'm not willing to give it up to bring down my transportation carbon footprint.

After going through the carbon footprint survey I have realized that my carbon footprint just from travel is insane. I can't control this as much since it is driving to baseball which is around 2 hours a day 4 times a week. Also, driving to games all the way across the country. There could be some ways to minimize this though like if we had an electric car we could save less on the C02 emissions from gas. The Department of Ecology says "Driving faster burns more fuel and emits more air pollutants. Accelerating gradually also burns less fuel. Getting a vehicle moving from a complete stop uses the most energy, so go easy on the accelerator. Try to anticipate the road ahead and avoid racing from red light to red light."(Melanie Foster). Doing this well taking long trips would be a very good start to making my travel safer for the environment. Another big issue that my family has is since we are always on the road we tend to have to waste lots of food because we are going out to eat all the time. Our always buying out. I also struggle with off the table with my consumption of meat since it is the main source of every meal I eat because I just enjoy the flavor so much and be I need the protein to be able to be able to perform my athletics at a high level. Some ways I could take this down by eating out less. Making meals that we can make in a hotel that is healthier to the economy like plant based foods. The United Nations says "Plant-based foods – such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils – generally use less energy, land, and water, and have lower greenhouse gas intensities than animal-based foods."(United Nations) Doing some of these steps could make a massive change in my carbon emission.

Food waste is a very critical and serious topic and needs to be further discussed. Poverty is perhaps the most significant factor contributing to hunger. People living in poverty often lack access to nutritious food due to financial dwindling. Majority of the hunger in the world is caused by poverty. Millions live with hunger and malnourishment because they simply cannot afford to buy enough food, cannot afford nutritious foods or cannot afford the farming supplies they need to grow enough good food of their own. About 783 million people go without food in our world today, yet about one pound per person is being wasted on a daily basis. As a whole we should do a better job at reducing the amount of food waste. For example having what you had the previous day as dinner for the next day. Or taking smaller portions of food so you’re not forced to throw away the food you do not want. Taking this into consideration will make people feel lucky that they have food instead of lacking it like others in most countries. To address this issue of hunger, and lack of food in our world, we need to do a better job at not being wasteful and taking into consideration that we as a whole are lucky to have food. People today tend to be ungrateful for what they have and want more. Most don’t look at the bigger picture. Being that they are extremely lucky to have what they have. Almost 1 in every 15 children in developing countries dies before the age of 5, most of them from hunger-related causes. While hunger exists worldwide, 526 million hungry people live in Asia. Over a quarter of the world's undernourished people live in Sub-Saharan Africa.In the world, a child dies from hunger once every 10 seconds. Leading to bigger and worse problems. Poor nutrition and hunger is responsible for the death of 3.1 million children each year. 

https://thp.org/what-we-do/issues/pover … %20poverty.

Reusing and repurposing materials is very beneficial to fighting against climate change.  Thrifting clothes, using reusable bags and recycling plastic and tin are all ways you can help fight against climate change by reusing and repurposing.  You can use old worn out materials, fabrics, or waste to make new and improved pieces as well.  All around climate change is a real issue and one of us fighting isn't enough, it takes everybody and this is a simple first step to moving forward in that.  An article made by kpwb states that "Because recycling requires a lot of  energy, it comes with its own share of pollution.  Reusing and repurposing do not create pollution.  Rather, items are made useful in their current state.  This is especially true for things  like clothing.  If you cannot reuse clothing, try recycling or repurposing it or donate to a local homeless shelter.  Practicing conscious consumerism will cut down on the amount of items that end up in landfills."  Stating that the action of reusing and repurposing different items including and especially clothing, can significantly help pollution, as doing this still causes some pollution but any reduction in the amount you are creating is worth it.  Pollution is almost completely unavoidable no matter what we do, but we should still strive to do everything we can to reduce our individual emissions.  Another article made by epa.gov states that there are many ways reusing and repurposing helps us and they list some of the many ways.  It reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, Prevents pollution caused by reducing the need to harvest new raw materials, Saves energy, Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change, Helps sustain the environment for future generations, Reduces the amount of waste that will need to be recycled or sent to landfills and incinerators, Allows products to be used to their fullest extent, and it saves money.  These are just more points proving how reusing and repurposing has so many benefits while also being one of the easiest ways to reduce pollution and help fight against climate change.  Climate change is a serious problem around the world and there are so many ways to help fight it. Reusing, recycling, repurposing, using composts, not wasting food, not burning unnecessary fossil fuels and many other things will help plenty.  Reusing and repurposing helps just as much as any other option but it's also extremely easy to participate in.

https://kpwb.org/why-reuse/#:~:text=It% … %20less%20

https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-an … cinerators

Encourage better business practices. This would encourage them to find better sources of power so they would reduce carbon because they won’t want to pay the carbon tax. The research for pollution clean-up has come a long way. Places like MIT have developed a new system that would basically pull carbon out of the sky, and businesses could pay to enact it. If businesses took responsibility for their pollution and helped to clean it they would be contributing to the solution. Right now businesses just get away with their unsustainable practices and it is a very harmful system. If there was an actually enforced law to make businesses pay for the amount of emissions they produce we may actually be able to afford clean-up. Converting to sustainable practices would boost business popularity as the public would want to support environmentally conscious businesses. It would be more expensive to enact and production might be down for a little while but if it’s between something and nothing a business still wants to make money. It would cost businesses 70 dollars per ton of greenhouse gas emissions. 35 countries currently have a carbon tax, the US does not have one and it needs one. Every country could benefit from a carbon tax on businesses because every country contributes to emissions. Businesses make up 70% of emissions and 5,489 million metric tons came from the US in 2022 alone. If corporations were required to pay the carbon tax we would have $384,230,000, based on the 2022 statistics, that could go toward cleanup technology and or operations to improve the environment. The only place that had a failed implementation of carbon tax so far was Australia. Most carbon tax prices fall somewhere between 69-73 US dollars per ton, 70 USD seems like a relatively reasonable amount if it were implemented worldwide. Businesses would have a choice between contributing to clean-up operations, new technology, or even planting trees. They would be given an opportunity to be a part of groundbreaking technology that would pull their harmful emissions out of the atmosphere. It would be expensive and many businesses would dislike it but if they keep going the way they are, the world won’t be here to continue running their business. We have to save the planet from these corporations that are left to be destructively unchecked.
Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ww … 74bDHkl0rJ
https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/blog/mo … -companies

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/invent … d%20sector.
(The Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks link)

Extreme weather events are getting more common, more expensive and harder to accurately predict. The cost per event has increased nearly 77% over the past five decades. July 2021's floods across Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands generated an estimated $43 billion in damages and killed 200 people.In Sudan in 2020, more than 700,000 people were displaced by the most severe storms since 1962. Floods in central China's Henan province killed dozens and displaced more than 250,000 and significantly disrupted economic activity. While extreme events have increased more than five times over the same number of decades, the cost of extreme events has increased nearly eight times globally since the 1970s. Also natural disasters can cause a lot of damage and require a lot of money to rebuild. Snow removal, rehabilitation and repair efforts and costs. For example, the city of Buffalo budgeted approximately $9 million for snow removal alone in 2014-2015. This just goes to show how extreme weather is affecting countries in huge ways. It is also admitting a lot of carbon. Jerry Brown recently proposed a $1 billion plan that will bring aid to the communities hit the hardest by the current statewide drought. This will create jobs locally. So extreme weather can stimulate economies while also costing the city, state and national governments great amounts. This is just one way that we can help improve the issues at hand. Again, Regardless of one’s personal views, there is no doubt that extreme weather can have profound effects on local, state and national economies. Economic harms from extreme weather and climate events have become more commonplace due to increasing temperatures, sea levels, and economic development in areas vulnerable to these events. In recent years, the United States has experienced, on average, more than one disaster that has caused over a billion dollars in damages each month. To put this in perspective, until this past decade, the country rarely experienced a year with more than a handful of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. Because of this it is crucial to come up with ways to help improve the effects of extreme weather.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/ … ost-wef23/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written- … er-events/

I am a middle and high school teacher at a small rural school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (we call it the UP). I teach 7th-11th grade, but will be focusing on Biology students for this project. I have been attempting to start a recycling program at our school, which is difficult because the closest recycling place is pretty far away and in the opposite direction I travel to school. I commute 140 miles a day to teach at my school, therefore, i anticipate my own carbon footprint to be high. Are teachers able to add to the footprint calculator?

Hello and welcome to the ISCFC!  Yes, anyone can calculate their footprints and save their data with our calculator -- including teachers

Hello from the Lower Pennisula! I live in southeast MI. Glad to see a fellow Michigander! My Algebra 2 students are participating as part of our data analysis unit.

We can grow our own foods, Like fruits and vegetables

yes.

Growing your food in your backyard/garden such as fruits and vegetables is a great way to reduce the emissions produced from processing and transporting the food we eat, not to mention providing a healthy, organic alternative to shop-bought, convenience foods. According to Rainforest Trust, composting conserves water and reduces water use by helping soils retain moisture. You might wonder what composting is. Composting is a process that decomposes organic matter like leaves, vegetable scraps, or tea bags into soil conditioners. This process can make sure that the plants are healthy, conserves water, and reduces water use by helping soils retain moisture. It naturally enriches the soil and prevents plant pests and diseases. In addition, the earth suffers from the loss of wildlife and deforestation because of food production. One of the main causes of deforestation and animal extinction is food production. The production of meat and dairy products in agriculture requires a lot of energy and contributes to deforestation. Always remember to buy locally or organically sourced food to prevent deforestation and loss of wildlife.

We have to use less fossil fuel.

We all want things we can’t have whether it’s clothes, traveling, etc. Wants and needs are very different. Needs are the things we need in life such as a roof over your head, water, and food. Wants are things we don’t necessarily need but buy for our own entertainment. To fix our limitations for wants, we must know if we need to buy it or not. Before we buy stuff that we want, consider these questions: Do I need it? What do I gain from this? How much does it cost? With these questions, it will help you decide whether or not you should buy the product. Adding limits to what we want, we can make the world a better place. Overconsumption occurs in a lot of countries with the excessive use of something.
Overconsumption is one of the causes of bad climate change and environment damage. Overconsumption can worsen greenhouse gas emissions and cause bad pollution. Which is why thinking before we buy something can help the world become a better place. After all, this is our home.

Exactly. Think before you do something that can be harmful to our precious yet dying planet. You might want something, but you might not need it. This is the case where you decide: Do you want to buy something that's unnecessary just because you saw it, liked it, and wanted to buy it? Or do you want to help reduce carbon footprint and save the Earth? Of course, you can still reward yourself with small gifts, but I hope we can all focus on saving the Earth. In other words, we are just preventing our greedy actions from destroying our planet.

As we all know, climate change and carbon footprints are destroying our precious yet weakening planet. We talk about it all the time. We talk about the causes and effects, the solutions, and why we shouldn't produce so much carbon footprint. But no one really took action. Instead we just sit here ranting on and on about how evil humans are, and how "deeply necessary" it is that we do something, blah blah blah. Now, don't get me wrong, what we talk about is all right and true. But we need to take action. For example, I now walk to school more often than before, instead of riding in a car. Even though this may not seem like a big change at all, it is still something. Remember, small things lead to great things. For those who have the ability to make a bigger change, don't wait, just do. This is for our planet. It's dying day by day while you're deciding if you should buy one more pair of shoes to add to your LOVELY shoe collection.
So please, let's start taking action into saving our planet Earth, and its wondrous nature. Big or small, it's still something, and it will help lead to a better future for everyone.

What happens if we loose the ability to plant as many trees? If we want to breathe fresh air outside while walking to get groceries, we need plants. We need to have more plants than the production of CO2 by cars, oil industries, etc. No matter how hard we try, CO2 will always be there to ruin our days. The Ozone layer got healed during Covid time since there was a lockdown and people didn’t use cars (no one could go outside) and the Earth healed by half. But, now it is disintegrating again since there was a boost in the economy since the last 4 years and we need to produce CO2 for that. Too much CO2 for plants to use and to make oxygen can kill the plants, and the population is growing due to large economic growth. And we need to cut down trees for food, homework assignments, furniture, paper to wipe your butt and to blow your nose, etc. If we cut down too many tress, the whole world will fall apart and human civilization can die out.

Every year, people throughout the world commemorate Earth Day to show support for environmental conservation. Earth Day inspires people to come together and take action in favor of a healthier world and a better future by serving as a global reminder of the importance of environmental sustainability and conservation. How can you support our house in any way? Here are a few easy ways we can all do our part to improve the planet. We have the option to take part in beach clean-ups and donate to companies who recycle plastic to make bags, chairs, and even tables (Enviro Tech Winder recycling)! Even the simplest actions can have the greatest impact on our world such as bringing your bags when you go shopping and using reusable water bottles instead of buying plastic ones in the supermarket. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, about 5 trillion plastic bags are used by Americans each year. This ends up with about over one trillion plastic bags in the ocean. Imagine all the animals suffering and ending up dead because they're thinking that the plastic bags are jellyfish due to the way they move. Earth Day is just a friendly reminder that the earth is polluted with tons of trash and that it is our responsibility to take care of it and help clean it up.

Are big corporations really acknowledging this problem? Or is it that they claim to be to not be attacked by protestors?

It’s happy to hear that Taiwan’s coal industry will minimize their production by half in 2030 and completely stop using coal completely by 2060. But this is just Taiwan. What about the rest 200 countries? Like the US, Germany, or India? All they want is money and when the time comes that people can breathe fresh air outside, there is nothing they can do about it but keep the money for themselves, making the poor suffer and rich live life like in a video game. The human population on Earth can die out by 2200 if we don’t stop climate change and major cities in Florida and Pakistan by 2100 will be flooded. What would million’s of people do? They can’t just make a new home when the air outside isn’t good to breathe. Big cooperations will always deny the truth for example the Taiwan Formosa claims to not use their chimneys. But at night when everyone is a sleep or when it is very cloudy, they would turn them on and you would barely notice it. So I think, in general, big corporations don’t acknowledge this problem.

My carbon footprint is 7285kgs, which is not much since in my country there is an average of 6968kgs of carbon emitted. However, I could try to reduce it even more because I make some mistakes when it comes to protecting the environment. I should use fewer plastic bags when I carry my lunch to school and take a Tupper so I wouldn’t waste that unnecessary amount of plastic.
On the transport matter, I can’t do much to change the quantity of carbon that I emit because I live far from the city and from my high school so, I have to travel by car. Despite that, I could try to avoid the car whenever I can and walk as much as possible.
To conclude, I think that our society in general is very consumerist, and we buy a lot of things that we don’t really need such as food or clothes. I think that we as a group should try to consume less and just buy the necessary to live and not waste.

Yah, I am in the same case of you. I have a big carbon footprint. I use recycle bag to not use plastic bag and pollute the earth. Sometimes I use my bike or walk when it is possible, my high school it's very far from my home too, so the morning I walk to go at school but to go back home I take the bus. I would like to more discuss about that because I like the environnment so if you want you can come dicuss with me on my email adress: lymu.49@gmail.com

There is no voice too small to make the slightest or biggest impact on a situation that will, as time goes on, affect every human being on a global scale.

Corporations can indeed do more to combat climate change, by acknowledging their involvement and the effects they've had on their carbon footprint. Straws, for example, especially plastic ones, have made a dramatic shift in the retail and restaurant industry. It was only after advocates for those impacted by these plastic straws made their voices heard to stop the devasting effects they had had on turtles in the ocean and marine animals, in a more general sense.

We can only voice our opinion in rallies and peaceful protests to push change, and hopefully see change in response and acknowledgment of the efforts made by the protesters.

To rephrase what was said above by me, in terms of what we can do to voice our opinions, I would like to add that rallies and peaceful protests are ways in which we can promote and encourage change, but it is not limited to these actions.

Every little thing that can be done to slow down climate change is important, but it doesn’t make that much of a difference unless everyone is doing it. While we should still do as much as we can individually, it would be more impactful if we could convince other people in our community to do small things as well. Perhaps we could buy reusable grocery bags for neighbors so they aren’t using plastic ones and offer to carpool with friends to save gas. A single person's low carbon footprint means nothing if it’s surrounded by high ones. The everyday lifestyle and norms participated in by everyone (especially in America) are the things that need to be changed the most.

I also agree,
My carbon footprint was 18,464 and I did not think that my carbon footprint would actually be that high. Though my carbon footprint was so high because of transportation, so if I cut down the amount of trips that I take each year by plane and instead of taking a car ride to places, walking it would help decrease it drastically. There are many ways to reduce our carbon footprints drastically, but there is a difference between reading about them and acting upon them.

I agree with you, we should try to buy more necessary things and less waste. And I recommend using a bike to travel to your high school, although it may not be a necessary item to have to live but it emits less greenhouse gases than the car. And instead of walking to your school and having to worry about waking up early and being late to school the bike would be faster than walking or running.

I have a carbon footprint of around 17,000 kgs per year, but only 382 kgs of it comes from purchases. I believe that most corporations quite literally do not care about the environment and are only looking towards making bigger profits. We as consumers can always try and buy things that are friendly to the environment and use recyclable or reusable bags, but the corporations themselves are the ones that need to put their huge amount of money towards helping combat climate change.

I would say that I have a pretty high carbon footprint unfortunately due to using planes for transportation but I wouldn't say my purchases or buying of more goods significantly affects my carbon footprint. With that being said, I think every individual can do a little bit to improve the world around us whether that is taking fewer flights or buying fewer items that could be harmful to the environment. I believe our own consumerism has led to the acceleration of some impacts of climate change but I also don't think it is even close to the primary source of pollution or the degradation of our environment. It is always important to look within but to only look at ourselves I believe is completely letting corporations off the hook for their part in this problem. Many of them claim to have carbon-neutral goals that they haven't put the effort into hitting and instead would rather feed into consumerism for their own profits than try to make an impact on our environment. Consumers will always pollute way less than the corporation will contribute to greenhouse gas emissions through activities such as energy production, transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture. The extraction and use of fossil fuels, as well as deforestation and land-use change, are significant drivers of corporate emissions. Stats such as these: "Since 1988, just 100 companies have been responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to this, only 25 corporations and state-owned organizations were found to be responsible for over 50% of the global industrial emissions2 during the same time period," really show how much corporations influence this issue. This is the source for the stat: https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/global-s … e%20period.
In conclusion, I think looking inwards at ourselves is important and how we fall victim to consumerism and use some types of transportation that are particularly harmful but we also must hold corporations accountable because they will always cause way more harm than any individual.

Yeah, I agree. As humans, we should try to buy the necessary things instead of junk we use one day and throw away the other so that there could be less pollution in the world. Most people's carbon footprint result is very high due to transportation. I had about 20,000 kgs in the section of transportation. This is mostly due to flights worldwide (about 15 hours). My result was also high because I travel in a car and don't use bikes to get from one location to another frequently. However, some days I walk depending on the distance. As we all know, humans should use bikes and walk to get to locations instead of always using their cars. Cars produce about 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere each year. That is a lot! Therefore if we want to make the world a better place and cleaner we should start taking action now.

Water as power is very cheap and easy to use. Sea water is most of the water in the world, yet we still don’t use it as normal and it will be very good for the enviornment. Use water as an efficent power source will be easy and will help a lot to the enviornment seeing that power is most of the carbon footprint we use.

I agree with you because water can be used as power. We can farm this from sea water since there is so much of it. This is also good for the environment because it can suck carbon dioxide out of the air.

water is a possibility and is good for the environment, but considering that big corporations that use gas as fuel would want efficiency I don't see it being that realistic. Big corporations care for money there are only a handful that actually do care and most of those aren't that successful. So although it's a possibility it's not realistic.

GasparRay is right. Companies are greedy by not saving the planet, but by earning money. But when there is no Earth to get money, what are they going to do? If we use water and companies are not greedy enough, half of climate change would disappear and it’s a possibility that we can use this new invention to cars. Japan has already started to make cars based of water but I don’t think it would be likely because oil companies will just pay a lot of money to stop production or they would collapse financially. So it is a 50/50 chance water can be used as power.

Having the latest technology is typically considered a want rather than a need. While technology can enhance productivity, communication, and entertainment, it's not essential for basic survival or well-being. Access to technology may vary depending on individual circumstances and societal expectations, but it generally falls into the category of wants rather than needs.

i want to say that alot of things now is a want than a need, the technology can produce and mke things humans want ,i woould say to be honest i would  agree that huans use needs to cover up their wants

so some things in the planet earth isnt needed for us when humans make it,so is it true we need it or is it jsut the fact that we want it? if we really need it does it effect the enviroment or if we want it does the enviroment realy need the things that we want but isnt needed. now technology can make things umans want but is it really a need?

wants or needs? DO WE NEED ALL OF IT?

In this city, imagine a network of pedestrian-friendly streets lined with bike lanes and green spaces, encouraging walking and cycling. Public transportation would be efficient, powered by renewable energy sources, and easily accessible to all residents. There would be an emphasis on mixed land use, with neighborhoods designed to reduce the need for long commutes. Renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines would dot the landscape, providing clean power for homes and businesses. Waste management would prioritize recycling and composting, minimizing landfill waste. It sounds like a city designed for a sustainable future, and definitely a place I'd consider living in!

I agree, I would also consider to live in a sustainable city. People should rely on renewable energy sources like the examples you gave in your text. Our waste should be recycled, which can lessen landfill waste. Renewable energy sources should be accessible to all residents, like you said in your text. I hope that in the future, people could live in a greener city.

What is a want and what is a need to you? For me, wants are things that aren’t necessarily something we have to have, instead it is something we desire. A need, on the other hand, to me, is something that is necessary for all human beings. That counts as water, food, clothing, etc… So, after looking at my carbon footprint, I realized that I can cut down on many wants. Things like using my electronics too much and buying things. Of course, clothing is crucial for human beings but, we don’t need to be buying excessive clothing. Sometimes, having too much is a waste because we might not even wear it at all. So, we should look through our closets once in a while and if we have excessive clothing or just anything in general, we can donate them to charity. Instead of wasting money on things for leisure, we should spend our money wisely, and buy things we actually need more of. It could even be spending our money on charities and donating to them. If yo don’t wanna spend money, then of course, as I mentioned, you can donate your things.

I think that the question you posed is and incredibly important question and a question that people should be asking more often. In so many conditions, people indulge in commodities that they "desire" or "want", usually consuming goods that are not necessary for their wellbeing. I think that it is great that you came to the realization that you can cut down on things that fall outside of your needs and it shows a level of maturity and control that many people need to learn. If people in general can cut down on the need to buy things (clothes, cars, electronics, beauty products, etc.) just because they want them, whether because they saw an ad or heard about it on social media, it would contribute to the continued fight against climate change and show that people are willing to buy products that they need and not just want. If this happened, there would not be as great a need to over produce cheap products and the impact on the climate and world in general would be amazing.

The oxygen provided by forests is too precious to give up

This is a big one. So much of historical rainforest area has been destroyed and converted for either agricultural or industrial purposes. Not only to these in themselves contribute largely to the amount of Carbon in the air, but the loss of the trees means that less cellular respiration is occurring, meaning that less CO2 is being taken out of the atmosphere. So yes, we do need to address the issue of deforestation, and preferably sooner rather than later.

In my opinion, everyone can reduce his footprint if they be aware about what they need and what they want. Many objects seem necessary but it is not true.

I agree with you, only we only pay attention when we have an idea of what we are doing. As a student I don't pay attention to what I consume.

i am agree

I agree. In the modern era, it's very common for people to buy things not because they need them for survival or convenience, but rather because they "look nice" or are attractive to them in some other way. We must realize when this is happening, and try to cut back on purchases like these. That way the materials otherwise used to make these products can be diverted for more environmental purposes, and your money can be spent on something more essential to your everyday life.

Climate change, started by the industrial revolution, is a problem that we all face now, not only the greenhouse effect but also the raising of ocean levels. This has resulted in an increase of average temperature in the world, which lead to harsh results. Hotter summers is an example of one. With hotter summers, hyperthermia is just a problem that more and more people will face. With limited space, urbanization has also came into place, leading to the need of more cement for the construction of buildings. Consider this, 1 kg of cement results in the release of 0.9 tons of carbon dioxide, which is harsh for all. Not just this, the usage of cement and deforestation traps heat in cities, making cities hotter and hotter. Since this problem occured, the result is the overusage of Air conditioning, which relesase carbon monoxide. This makes climate change even worse. This is just a little part of it. With the economic bloom post-WWII, the American Dream Life is fact. This made auto manufacturers create cars with V12 engines that emits too much carbon dioxide and waste gases. This, results in cities to be hotter. Climate change is a chain reaction of human behavior, and should thus be stopped by us. If not, the sinking of Venice or Amsterdam is not unpreventable, it is just a matter of time

I agree with the facts provided here. Climate change has become increasingly evident and the impacts of humanity's carbon emissions are being felt throughout the globe. Because of the increase in the frequency of natural disasters (i.e. hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, torrential rainfall), it should be harder and harder for people to deny the existence of climate change. One of the biggest issues with climate change is the lack of action and I think once people start personally feeling its impacts, action will be easier, but until then it is a hard battle to fight. I agree that continuous deforestation is one of the most pressing issues right now and would have incredible impacts if more conservation was pursued. I also agree that significant lifestyle changes would need to accompany any large-scale action combatting climate change (i.e. the full removal of gas-powered vehicles, decreases in the consumption of meats, conscious consumerism, etc.). If action is not taken soon, the consequences you mention will be inevitable.

climate change happened before humans, but we make it worse

I agree with this statement. Obviously the climate of the earth has been increasing. However, it has been increasing a lot faster compared to before people. People do a lot of things to increase the climate, such as, cars, industries, etc. It is important for people to start changing their lifestyles and considering the climate rising.

There isa really important distinction between natural climate change and human induced climate change for sure. In a book that I've been reading for my climate change class, the distinction has been described as "cold to cool" climate change vs. "cool to hot" climate change. This makes me think of the slow carbon cycle. While fossil fuels would make their way out of the ground eventually through erupting volcanoes and add carbon to the atmosphere, it is human action that speeds that process up. When we deliberately dig up fossil fuels for energy that would have taken hundreds of years to resurface, we are adding so much more carbon to the atmosphere than would naturally find its way back out of the atmosphere, messing up the careful balance that the slow carbon cycle set up by itself. The difference between natural climate change and human induced climate change is that when the climate changes naturally, even if the atmosphere is heating up, it knows how to self regulate. When we get involved, we upset the balances. This site: https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource … atmosphere. is also very telling on how human intervention affects how much carbon we're putting into oceans, also affecting the slow carbon cycle. Our effects are massively hearting the environment and the creatures that live both on land in the ocean.

My overall takeaway from my personal footprint was that I am overshooting my footprint with regards to transportation astronomically. This is unacceptable as someone who prides themself as a devoted climate change advocate. Most of my transportation kg came from traveling: I traveled internationally twice this year, across country once, and across the state twice. As I discovered from answering the survey questions, these airplane flights contributed exorbitant amounts of kg to my footprint. I can cut back on this, not only for myself, but for my family as well, by limiting the amounts of vacations and other trips we go on. For example, if my family is considering go on vacation for a holiday, I will advocate that we instead stay at home, or at least travel somewhere closer to our home (rather than across the pond!).

My total carbon footprint was abit above ther average. I think that I am doing ok to keeping the carbon emissions low but i could be doing more. The things thaat really pushed up my total number was the flights and transportation. I think I should take public transport more then getting a ride everytime I need to get somewhere. If I start doing that regulary my carbon emissions will lower and be around average. Another thing that vi can do is lower the amount of lights I have on at a time. If everybody did that the carbon footprint will be lower and climate change will be less of a serious problem.

I thought about this a lot as well when I took the survey. Flights and transportation were the biggest factor for me too, but it's hard to understand exactly what to do since most of this is determined by my families behavior that I have less of a say in. Since certain actions aren't fully my decision to change, it's really important for me to find ways that I can lower my family's carbon footprint otherwise. This website attached below was really helpful in giving strategies that kids can implement when wanting to make a difference. While its intended audience is younger children, it's definitely applicable for anyone who doesn't have total agency around environmental decisions they take part in. Some of the ideas it offers include changing what type of light bulb your family uses, always turning off lights and electronics, using fans when you're hot, walk or ride your bike if you're able, or carpool! While these things feel small, they almost make me feel that until I'm my own independent, I can still make a bit of a difference.

the link I used above was https://climatekids.nasa.gov/how-to-help/

To halt ocean acidification, we must reduce carbon emissions, promote renewable energy sources, preserve coastal ecosystems, and invest in research. Collective efforts are essential to safeguard the ocean's delicate balance and the biodiversity it sustains.

Yes, I agree that we must reduce carbon emissions to halt ocean acidification (as well as the other solutions you proposed). The ocean absorbs 30% of the carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere, and this CO2 causes the ocean's pH to drop. A lower pH means that the ocean becomes more acidic. This is a huge problem. As many of the ocean's fish depend on specific pH levels to detect predators, a more acidic ocean puts these organisms at risk--and perhaps the entire food web. This butterfly effect puts people at danger as well, especially coastal communities who depend on food from the ocean.

See this article for more: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/aci … atmosphere.

Hello all and happy Earth Day, my favorite day of the year!

Today it has just gotten warm enough here in coastal Washington state for me to hang my laundry for the first time since last autumn.  It is unusually warm and sunny here, which is probably due in part to climate change.  But his reminds me that in a changing climate we can adapt and still do things to help the earth, like drying my clothes in the unusual sun!

Also today I will go clean one of my favorite beaches when it is low tide - which is in 10 minutes!

What are you doing to celebrate our shared planet today?

extreme weather is influenced by climate change. For example the amount of rain in the sky is due to ice caps melting and more water getting released which in turn make rain more heavy and more dangerous. Another example is droughts which have been increasing at an alarming rate due to the fact that water is getting sparce in some areas and the heat from the sun is increasing due to greenhouse gas emmisions.

I also think that extreme weather is caused by climate change and is something that can be avoided or less extreme if the world made more effort to battle climate change. Some places are drier and are reaching dangerous levels of high temperature and heat while others are experiencing extreme cold weather. Yet there are still people with higher power that are convincing other people that climate change is not real.

I 100% agree. In Maine we didn’t have any snow during Christmas and now it’s spring and we’re about to get dumped on with predictions of 2 feet of snow. We also had 3 100 year storms. 3 times in the last few months we’ve been completely flooded, roads blocked and unable to leave our driveway. These storms are so uncommon they happen every 100 years. This all has to with climate change and how we’re getting less snow throughout the season and getting rain instead.

I agree! We burn about 40.9 million tons of fossil fuels each year, and we've been burning fossil fuels all the way since the 1800s (of course, the yearly emissions have increased a lot since then). With these emissions, we're releasing so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to the air and oceans to warm. The warming of the air and oceans increases the rate of land and sea ice melting, leading to a rise in sea level. With the rising of the sea level, we're going to see a lot more coastal "high-tide" flooding, as well as flooding cities through inlets and rivers. On the flip side, as the earth warms, drier climates (including, not limited to deserts) are going to get drier. The hotter air will lead to more evaporation of water from the ground, and droughts get more severe.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/image … ue-to-rise
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change … e-weather/

Do Lights really need to be on during school hours?

Extreme weather events are getting more common, more expensive and harder to accurately predict. The cost per event has increased nearly 77% over the past five decades. July 2021's floods across Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands generated an estimated $43 billion in damages and killed 200 people.In Sudan in 2020, more than 700,000 people were displaced by the most severe storms since 1962. Floods in central China's Henan province killed dozens and displaced more than 250,000 and significantly disrupted economic activity. While extreme events have increased more than five times over the same number of decades, the cost of extreme events has increased nearly eight times globally, inflation-adjusted, since the 1970s.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/ … ost-wef23/

recycling, saving water, cutting down cigarettes, using busses

We have already polluted the ocean too much.  We should protect and take care of our ocean.  Human beings are spending trillions of dollars for military budgets and also a lot are used for a lot of things that are unnecessary, such as playing golf, drinking beer or burning a cigarette.  If we spend more money towards saving the Earth and our precious ocean, we might have a chance of reviving our ocean into a cleaner place for the animals living in the environment.

I totally agree with you. U think very good keep thinking

I agree, people have been exploring the space but human have only explore 5 percent of our ocean and they should stop exploring outside the world and start exploring our own planet.

I also agree, there are too much trashes such as plastics, glasses, and other harmful material that human throw in to the ocean. We should keep researching about the ocean and also care for it to protect our environment.

I agree as well, there are many factors that are contributing to the negative impact on our planet. The ocean is one of the most important parts of the earth. The oceans hold a lot of life on earth, help regulate our climates, and are even very important carbon sinks. The pollution and poisoning of our waters do more than just kill the wildlife, when the trash and plastics decompose they use oxygen to do so, slowly taking away the oxygen that the ocean produces away from the atmosphere. On top of that it is a vital and important part of the water cycle.

To learn more:
https://www.texasdisposal.com/blog/ocea … 0depletion.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/ … vaporation.

I think would more people think like u the ocean were already a cleaner place of our Earth

I'm sure that a lot of our young generation would agree with you, but it's far easier said than done and many people in power right now are selfish, self-centered and don't really care about future generations and their quality of life.

I think your idea could work in a span of many years because it could be complicated to change the habits of humans that’s been going on for years and some parts of your idea has to do with the government. People would have to convince the government to not fund as much money into the military instead into our acidifying ocean. Some of the things you listed as unnecessary are drinking beer and burning a cigarette. These habits of humans may be a problem to just avert away from since the economy gets some benefits from it because of the money they produce. These companies producing beer and cigarettes also benefit people who are in need of jobs. These obstacles may cause problems to stop the use of money in unnecessary activities. We need to make a big organization or get a large following of people who want the ocean acidification to be taken seriously.

I agree, a lot of people are irresponsible with their money and spend it on meaningless objects to receive temporary pleasure. Some people even use it for drugs, smoking, and drinking (stuff that causes addiction in general) which is not only bad for the human, but for the environment as well. You can find so much cigarettes butts on the filthy roads which are just polluted with plastic and glass. If we all combined our money and put it to good use, like collecting plastic form the seas, we can all reduce our carbon footprint, save marine life, and cause less pollution.

I agree, we spend so much money on meaningless things, when we could be spending our money on trying to save our oceans. There is so much junk that gets tossed into our oceans and we should be trying to educate those who dont understand its importance. we need to be putting more money into saving our earth, rather then on things that are a one time use and meaningless.

Hey! You're so right! The biggest contributors to ocean pollution include runoff from human activities (both coastal and further inland) such as septic tanks, farms, and other big machinery. These examples are called nonpoint source pollution, coming from many different sources and much more frequent compared to its counterpart, point source pollution. Point source pollution is pollution with one origin, such as spills or discharge from oil rigs or other factories. When pollution like this happens, it messes with the quality of the water a lot (pH, acidity, temperature, etc.) and causes habitat loss for many sea animals that live somewhat close to land.

https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource … -pollution

You frequently receive plastic bags with your purchases, and once you're done with them, you just toss them in the trash. To reduce waste, you should reuse things rather than tossing them away. They can also be used for numerous other purposes, such as if you need to bring a project to school you can put them in there, or reuse them when going shopping. Consider whether anything can be used for something else first before throwing it away. When we have plastic bags to store our food for lunch like crackers or celery, instead of every single day you use 5 new plastic bags and throw them out, instead you can reuse them. This can have a significant impact on our plastic usage and might be able to gradually impact our world for the better.

This is so true. Plastic bags are extremely harmful to the environment. The World Counts writes that "an estimated 300 million plastic bags every year end up in the Atlantic Ocean alone"(https://www.theworldcounts.com). With so much plastic ending up in our oceans, many different species are being affected by mankind's habits of creating and wasting plastic. If we each individually can do our part by reusing plastic bags or bring our own reusable bag, we can help make a positive impact on our environment.

Yes, I agree that plastic bags are detrimental to the environment. Plastic bags are usually not biodegradable, however, over time the plastic breaks down into toxic polymers that contaminate water and soil. These particles stay in the water or soil, continuing to release toxins for many years. Also, to produce plastic bags, a lot of fossil fuels are burned, adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. As you said, this is exactly why it is so important to reuse plastic bags, so more don't need to be produced. Plastic bags that end up in streams can also block water flow, which results in flooding. They also end up in our oceans. Animals end up eating the plastic. A recent study found that 50 percent of sea turtles had plastic in their stomachs. An alarming number of animals are dying every year from eating plastic.
https://lochtree.com/blogs/blog/environ … astic-bags

Ocean acidification is the reduction in the pH of the Earth’s ocean. This process takes place over periods lasting decades or more. Its main cause is the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This, in turn, increases CO2 concentrations in the ocean. Between 23 and 30% of the CO2 that is in the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes. Acidification is one of several effects of rising CO2 on the ocean. Other chemical changes to the ocean can also cause acidification. As the ocean absorbs CO2, seawater chemistry changes, which changes the living conditions of marine species. Many different species are affected, especially organisms that rely on calcium carbonate shells and skeletons, like mollusks, oysters and corals. Organisms like these struggle to build those parts of their anatomy when ocean waters have increased acidity.

Yes, this is very true and it's sad that it is happening. Although it is natural for the ocean to absorb the CO2 in the atmosphere, it does take a long time for the process to complete. With human activity increasing the CO2 emissions, it makes it hard for the ocean to keep up with all the carbon dioxide and balance it all out. And yes, marine life is getting heavily affected by the chemical change in the ocean, if the organisms you mentioned are affected then so will their predators and so on. Their habitats are also affected by ocean acidification, especially coral reefs. Many species have fled or many have died due to coral reefs being affected. With this, most regions have lost many species of fish and most of their food.

Ocean acidification is something that not that many people know about, but it is a very important thing. First of all, when the ocean is more acidic it weakens the shells of shellfish. Like crabs, clams, mussels, and shrimp. The importance of this is that it makes them vulnerable to predators which will stop them from making it too adulthood. Which could lead to extinction. Another important animal that is at risk is corals. Ocean acidity is causing them to get thinner and thinner each day which will eventually make them extinct as well. Lots of coral reefs are dying out rapidly right now imagine how many will be alive by 2050. Scary right.

Yes, the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused the ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide and water produce carbonic acid, which releases hydrogen ions. The increase in hydrogen ions decreases the ocean's pH. Our ocean has an average pH of 8.1, but some experts say that the pH could drop down to 7.8 in the 21st century. A large cause of this increase of carbon dioxide is from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. I agree that ocean acidification will be detrimental to many organisms and if we don't do anything about it, could cause the extinction of these animals. The low pH also degrades the coral reefs, which serve as a home to many organisms. Coral reefs also protect coastal lands from erosion, so it will directly affect communities. The best solution to ocean acidification would be to stop burning fossil fuels! We need to stop producing so much carbon dioxide.

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/ocean-acid … #solutions

Website for info above

Economisesc  energie electrică

Many scientific studys show that
nature and the climate is declining at a very fast rate. We should act normativ before its to late!

Eu și familia mea ne străduim sa consumam mai puțin combustibil

Da ma da sigur

Let’s save the planet

Carți fueh

Aia zic bai băiatule

In my opinion,nature is our best friend and we need to protect it at all costs! A way to protect is planting more trees. Our city can be more sustainable and organized. The trees gathers the carbon dioxide, protecting us from its danger.

I believe that in order to be able to improve the cleanliness of my city, it is necessary to add as many trash cans as possible, each one for a certain category, either paper, or plastic, or cardboard, and that there are no more normal trash cans. In this way we make the work of garbage collectors easier.

There are many things we can do to make the city more sustainable, and we can start by reducing energy consumption at home by replacing regular light bulbs with LED ones and by using energy-efficient household appliances. We can also use public transport or a bicycle instead of a personal car to reduce pollution

In my opinion a way to reduce the carbon footprint in a city is by promoting renewable energy sources like wind or solar power.

I think one of the ways we can reduce the carbon footprint of a city is restricting the usage of old and polluting cars.

Did you guys notice that it has been so hot lately? It is just April and I could die of heat. AC are on everywhere I go. But, why is this? The reason is because of GLOBAL WARMING. It is is the long-term heating of Earth's surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere. Because of global warming, many animals are dying. The polar bears in North Pole are dying because of the heat. The ice that they are living on are slowly melting. In a few decades, or even less, they are going to be no ice. They are all just going to die!

The polar bears are not just going to be the target of global warming. We, humans, are also going to be targets. This is because in a few decades, the temperature on Earth might be 50 degrees or more. Can humans survive this temperature? I don't think so. Maybe humans can't even survive 40 degrees. Don't say that this is not possible. These few days in Taiwan are 30 degrees. It is only April!!! So maybe next few years will actually be 40 degrees!

Global warming is actually a cycle. First, people invented the AC because it gets too hot during the summer. When people used it in the summer, the inside stays cold, but in contrast, hot air will be released into the atmosphere. Slowly over time, it gets hotter and hotter everywhere around the world. Humans can't stand a little hot, so they will turn on the AC. So it goes on and on and on. Until maybe the winter won't be cold anymore. No more spring, fall, or winter. Summer all year!

In conclusion, global warming is a serious issue on Earth. If we don't fix this problem, we are all going to die. You can reduce this issue by saving energy, such as using fans instead of AC or turn off the light if you are not using it. You can also walk to places if they are close to your location or prevent driving cars and take public transportation with many more people. You can stop wasting food and reduce, reuse, and recycle. By accomplishing these steps, you will not only make a huge change to yourself, but also a huge change to the world.

What is recycling? Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turned into new products. A lot of public spaces have separate trash cans one in which for recycling and the other for normal trash. Now you might wonder how much percent of trash we can recycle. According to recycling. bins.com about 80% of the things we throw away could be recycled. Now many may say that recycling is a failure since only about 5-6% of plastic gets recycled in the USA. However, this may be because of several issues such as poor advertising, and humans feeling greedy. Now how can we fix this? In accordance with several reports, recycling campaigns have been useful in addressing the issue. There can also be laws that can be established regarding recycling and usage of products.

Some countries have already taken action such as Germany, France, Japan, and more. These countries have banned the sale of single-use plastic straws, cutlery, cotton buds, and food containers. Some other things that can help tackle the issue are if supermarkets ban the use of plastic bags and stop providing them to their customers. Instead, we could all bring our reusable bags. In addition, we can donate items that are still in good, usable condition to charities. Not only that but at the Christmas season we often wrap our gifts with wrapping paper and then throw them away. However, if the wrapping paper is not wrapped/destroyed why don't we reuse it so that we don't have to rebuy some next year?

  Why is recycling important? More and more people recycle every day. This helps reduce landfills and more costly forms of disposal. Recycling also lessens the requirement for raw material extraction (mining, quarrying, and logging), refining, and processing—all of which significantly contaminate the air and water. By lowering greenhouse gas emissions and promoting energy conservation, this helps combat climate change. Recycling prevents countless tons of rubbish from ending up in landfills. Recycling reduces carbon emissions in the UK by 10–15 million tons annually, which is the same as removing 3.5 million automobiles off the road.

  I encourage you to try to recycle as much as you can to create a positive impact on the world. Every bit helps!

I created a new account so it shows my name instead of dog123hello, so this conversation was created by Camille

What is recycling? Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turned into new products. A lot of public spaces have separate trash cans one in which for recycling and the other for normal trash. Now you might wonder how much percent of trash we can recycle. According to recycling. bins.com about 80% of the things we throw away could be recycled. Now many may say that recycling is a failure since only about 5-6% of plastic gets recycled in the USA. However, this may be because of several issues such as poor advertising, and humans feeling greedy. Now how can we fix this? In accordance with several reports, recycling campaigns have been useful in addressing the issue. There can also be laws that can be established regarding recycling and usage of products.

Some countries have already taken action such as Germany, France, Japan, and more. These countries have banned the sale of single-use plastic straws, cutlery, cotton buds, and food containers. Some other things that can help tackle the issue are if supermarkets ban the use of plastic bags and stop providing them to their customers. Instead, we could all bring our reusable bags. In addition, we can donate items that are still in good, usable condition to charities. Not only that but at the Christmas season we often wrap our gifts with wrapping paper and then throw them away. However, if the wrapping paper is not wrapped/destroyed why don't we reuse it so that we don't have to rebuy some next year?

  Why is recycling important? More and more people recycle every day. This helps reduce landfills and more costly forms of disposal. Recycling also lessens the requirement for raw material extraction (mining, quarrying, and logging), refining, and processing—all of which significantly contaminate the air and water. By lowering greenhouse gas emissions and promoting energy conservation, this helps combat climate change. Recycling prevents countless tons of rubbish from ending up in landfills. Recycling reduces carbon emissions in the UK by 10–15 million tons annually, which is the same as removing 3.5 million automobiles off the road.

  I encourage you to try to recycle as much as you can to create a positive impact on the world. Every bit helps!

Use more public transportation so less individual transportation waste

It's impossible for humans now to suddenly stop using electricity and find other energy source and replace it. However, we can still try our best to stop wasting the unnecessarily used electricity.

Is traveling a want or a need? Well, that depends on how you want to live and what you prioritize in life. If you believe that the most important thing in life is to visit family and friends abroad, discover new things, and see many different places while experience different cultures, then yes, traveling is a need. However, if you believe that what you need is just basic things to make sure you survive such as things like food, water and shelter, then no, traveling is not a need for you. Cutting down on expenses and pollution can always be good, but if it's how you want to live your life, then do it! Some people may be willing to give up basic needs to be able to enjoy what they think is most important in life. Prioritizing also has to do with your living conditions and your financial status. If you have good living conditions and financial status, then you may claim that materialistic things are part of your needs, while others with poor living conditions and bad financial status may strongly disagree. Moreover, some may argue that non of these are their needs. All they need may be just love either by parents, family, friends or a partner. They would be willing to give up all they have for that particular person or group of people. So, really, there's no an actual how-to guide on whether something is a want or need. It all depends on what you want to prioritize, because after all it is your life. Cutting on expenses and air pollution is obviously preferred, but if you have really decided that is not what you want, then no one can physically force you to do it.

My foot print is small

Use less air conditioning and heating

I think that traveling is something that pollutes a lot and it is more of a want than a need honestly, in my opinion traveling is good for your peace mind and disconnecting from
reality but when you travel quite a lot is not necessary and it pollutes a lot, so we should think more about the environment when traveling.

I both disagree and agree. Travelling can be a want, you want to go to Mexico with your family, or you want to go to Japan with your best friend. Those are wants. Travelling can also be a need though. People often travel for their line of work which then turns into a need. Sometimes you need to travel to make a living. So I see how flights can be a want and a need at different times. saying all this my opinion is that lots of flights can and should be avoided. Travelling for fun is great every once and a while, but if you look to help save the climate then avoiding flights should be a priority.

i both disagree and agree with you. i think that it depends on how you look at it. For example, some people consider traveling as a want because its something they enjoy to do because they like exploring and new experiences. however for others, travelling can be seen as a need, especially if it has to do with work, education, or essential purposes, like getting medical treatments or visiting family members. i think that it really just various from person to person with their individual circumstances. with all that said, travelling is something fun to do but if you want to help save the planet then i think you should consider how much your travelling and try and reduce it as much as possible.

I think that even if traveling is a want and not a need, it can be extremely helpful in seeing the bigger picture and having some perspective. Many people unconsciously assume that everywhere else in the world is making the same effort and having the same outcome as their country. When traveling, you often realize that some countries have done so much more to address the climate crisis. You may also see people and places that inspire you to continue fighting climate change, be it pristine or destroyed places.

I think that travelling can be both a want and a need. We travel almost every day whether it’s by bussing, driving, or flying on a plane for various reasons. Sometimes we’ll travel somewhere because we want to, which may include going on vacation or even driving to the beach. But most of the time when we’re travelling it’s for something we need to do. Like getting to work, buying groceries, or going to school. I’m sure there are ways we can travel somewhere which will be more sustainable, but in some cases it’s unavoidable. Some people don’t have access to public transport and they live in remote areas where it’s too far to walk.

For the most part I agree with this because as someone who has only really traveled for vacations and getaways, I can see how environmentally impactful (negative) this is, but I if I'm being honest, I tend to not think about it as much since I only focus on the fact I get to go and enjoy a holiday. But I also disagree in some aspects because ever since I moved to a different state, away from most family, I recognize that traveling is an essential aspect in my life, in order to see family and have those bonding opportunities I otherwise would not, I find it almost a necessity to fly home. Obviously when the cost is factored into it, I think most middle/lower class families would drive instead of fly, but honestly, most long-distance traveling isn't sustainable and isn't just going to suddenly disappear.

I think that travelling is both a want and a need. Sometimes we travel to gain access to things that are not in our country (i.e. clothes, certain shops, etc.). Sometimes, we travel to visit family members who we don't see often. If we visit a family member that we don't see because they have (example) a medical condition that needs to be taken care of, that seems more like a need compared to a want. Essentially, I believe that visiting another place just to purchase new things just shows that it is more of a want than a need.

I agree with you that traveling is a very big polluter, but I think that traveling is very necessary for a lot of people. I myself have family far away overseas and have to take 12+ hour flight to reach our destination. These are family members that are very close to us, and it is important that we meet them once in a while, but it is only about once every 1-3 years. While it is a fact that traveling emits lots of carbon into the environment, I think it is fine if done in moderation.

I agree, traveling indeed can pollute Earth. So maybe we should use more public transportation rather than private ones.

Sometimes what we want isn't what we need. If we buy less unnecessary things, then we can reduce our carbon footprint. We can also use that excess money to help people who can't even buy what they need. An example is how many women are obsessed with cosmetics when they already have enough. They just buy it for fun or to show off. But just think about how much money you can donate to the needy if you save the excess cosmetics money. So let's take action and reduce our carbon footprint together!

The coral reefs are disappearing quickly. Coral reefs make up of most of the fish in the oceans habitats. Coral bleaching is destroying the Great Barrier Reef and other small reefs all over the world. The ocean is loosing it’s biodiversity allow with the fish we humans depend on

I agree, protecting coral reefs is substantial to the environment of ocean life as well as the food chain, not only is the major for ocean life but also humans jobs resources because with out collar reefs there wont be huge attractions for sourest. There will also be less fish for fishing.

I agree, this topic is not discussed as much but I think is equally important. This is extremely important to ocean life and we need to do something to help preserve coral reefs.

I agree if all the coral reefs die there will be nothing to slow down the force of waves and that will cause tsunamis. Not wearing sunscreen in to the ocean will help a lot because the sunscreen kills the corals. If the reefs die, a lot of fishes will lose protection and the food chain will be messed up. Protecting the reefs is very important because it will effect everything from land to sea.

One big idea that I have to help reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere is to have more enviremental field trips. We could create plant a tree day, on a weekend/day where we plant trees, or clean up the plastic around the campus or in a local park. Or, we could take a walk to Sam Bridges in Greenwich, and plant native trees to Greenwich inside our campus. Some native trees in Greenwich, Connecticut are Norway maple, London Plane, and Honey locust.

I think it will be a good idea because it will make school fun, but if you want to go to other places that are more far away, you will still need to take transportations that will emit carbon dioxide.

for a healthy body try to go to the gym, have a balanced diet and go get some fresh air every day

i agree, it seem sometimes difficult to keep these habits but it's important in my opinion

I find that a lot of students spend a lot of money on food, computers clovers etc....

i am agree

I agree as well, I think it’s hard for students to stop the “I NEED this!” Cycle which makes it harder to stop buying things that we don’t actually need. Fast fashion is among these issues, we need to be looking for timeless items, not disposable trends.

Yes, I agree with what you said. Only. Students are not careful  when they buy items. Students will be careful once they finish studying.

Nobody likes litter

I agree we should find ways to clean up the world’s trash in ways that don’t hurt the environment. Because I feel like some of the ways we try to clean up the trash put more carbon in the atmosphere.

you can save some heat, you can use some blankets to warm yourself instead to turn the heat to 25 degrees C

I agree it would be better to just get some more blankets rather than turning your heat up a lot. Also if you do have some blankets people should use those and turn their heat down cause I feel like a lot of people have the blankets and maybe even use them but don’t turn the heat down.

People around the world should grow their own food at home. The benefits of it include: a cheaper living. We all know that inflation has affected how people used carbon emissions for food. The New York Times says a pint of strawberries has joined up in price by 25 percent in November, 2021. Tomatoes are growing rapidly in prices at 16.9 percent every year. Miracle Gro, a website that gives tips and tricks to gardeners, explains the second benefit which is creating less waste. This point is very critical because on Earth, trash pits are being overstuffed with trash. The last benefit which is the best, is that people can get to pick how ripe in flavor they want their crops to be. This reflects how we people can pick and decided depending on our own unique taste buds.

According to The Garden Continuum, carbon emissions can be decreased by people growing crops at home. Think about how long it takes food to end up on shelves in supermarkets. Nowadays, crops are sorted and cut by machines which seem convenient but, machines need fuel releasing carbon emissions. Large trucks them come take these crops to supermarkets. Food transportation is also a big factor in carbon emissions. Imports from different countries can also cause carbon emission to be created. If people don't stop growing food at home, the Earth will be affected by global warning or other serious problems. In conclusion, people around the world should grow their own food and crops for a better future!

Eu și familia mea ne străduim să nu mai consumam combustibil și energie.Sa folosim biciclete

I think we can make new ways to help our planet

Spălați-vă copii! ??

a healthy body will make us happy.

you can grow vegetables or fruits in your own balcony or in your garden. it s pretty easy to grow it in your home, you can buy some seeds and plant them, after that, all you have to do is to wait.

I Like this application very much you când learn to recycle and more other things???

You can grow vegetables and fruits in your own garden.

We as humans made the mistakes of polluting our planet by throwing trash everywhere and by destroying our environment.

It's not good to pollute!

NERF POCO

In my opinion, if we grow some of our food at home we can reduce carbon emmisions

I don t have a message

In my opinion there should be bins for recyclable waste to save more CO2 and stop polluting the air. We should also find a way to use recyclable waste in households as well.

The climate NEDS to change.

Global warming is the phenomenon of increases in the average temperatures of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades as a result of greenhouse gas emissions produced primarily by human activities such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. This phenomenon has serious consequences for the environment and life on Earth, including melting glaciers, rising sea levels and changes in weather patterns. Combating global warming is one of the biggest challenges facing modern society.

There's a lot of problem's and we should do something. CO2 is a big problem and there's country's that produce a lot of CO2
Here are the top 10 biggest CO2 producers (first time I searched top 10 biggest CO2 producers I was scared I didn't know that they are produce that lot of CO2)

China, with more than 14 million tons of CO2 released.
United States, with 6 million tons of CO2.
India, with 3.5 million tons of CO2.
European Union 3.4 million tons of CO2.
Russia, with 2 million tons of CO2.
Japan, 1,170 million tons of CO2.
Brazil, 1.140 million tons of CO2.

I know that's a lot of CO2

YES YES YES! All schools these days should 100 percent get a compost bin for the cafeteria, cause just think of all the uneaten food and where it's going out into the world.

I totally agree. Compost bin in cafeteria is one way that students can participating in helping the environment. Here are some advantages that I found online. To begin with, approximately 84% of food waste from restaurants is disposed of in the garbage, according to a research on restaurant food waste done by the Business for Social Responsibility. Composting not only stops this percentage from rising, but it also has positive effects on the environment. The absence of synthetic chemical fertilizers in compost is the largest advantage for the environment. We consume these chemicals when they are employed in the soil to cultivate fruits and vegetables. Additionally, when it rains, synthetic fertilizers wash away and harm local species. Composting produces healthier produce and has less of an adverse impact on the environment than chemical fertilizers.

I Agree with you. I know someone who works as a school lunch server and they have told me about how much food is wasted because all they do with the excess food is throw it in the trash. I believe schools, restaurants, and other places with lots of food shouldn't throw away unused food but give it away to people in need. They could do many things like give it to charities or serve it to the homeless, or even put it in to a compost bin. In conclusion people in general should try their best to avoid wasting food and if they can give some to people in need.

I totally agree with you. I like the idea of having compost bin for the cafeteria. In my last school we had compost in the school yard. I think that every school (and all the places that produce a lot of food) should have it because a lot of food goes to waste. Composting also has a positive impact on the environment.

Students who live in an urban center know less about composting. Examples of good practice could be integrated into their everyday life.
The coordination of specific activities would contribute to the integration of these behaviors that will have a finality in a more or less near future. EDUCATION makes the difference

I totally agree with you. I think that is a great idea because lots of food gets thrown away. Compost bin in cafeterias can have positive impact on the environment.

Compost bins are one of the great options for buildings and companies to take a bit of climate initiative. One of the big issues in schools though is that children don’t sort their waste properly. To combat this we can educate them earlier on little ways they can make change, and push for compostable utensils and plates.

Very true, I think composting is a great way to reuse the food we don’t eat. Also home gardens could be a great way to implement compost and get fresh food out to everyone.

925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO. Yet we throw away food every day good food without consideration for those who don't. We as a group need to do better and start thinking of others, not as fortunate. If you know you eating too much or you have taken too much food, consider saving it for the next day. We need to reduce food waste as much as possible, if saving some food for the next day helps then we should all do the same.

I know at least in my community we always try to compost our food which is a good alternative because when it decomposes than you can use it for things like gardening to grow more food. And there are a ton of organizations dedicated to helping people compost their food.

Food insecurity is a real thing. One in four kids in Maine don't have enough food to get through the day. Isn’t that crazy? Now that just talking about Maine. We are pretty fortunate in Maine to have food shelters and pantry’s to help those in need. However there are country’s less fortunate than where we are. My hope is one day we can find a sustainable way to transport food and water to other places that need it. It so ridicules that we produce so much foos in the US itself and there are till millions of people staving. How is that justified? It’s not there should be no reasonable answer for that. Don’t waste your food be grateful you even have the opportunity to have it. Be a kind human, help the ones in need. Be the change. Humans take things for granted we need to come back to reality and relies not everyone can take food for granted.

I agree. I think we should make a greater effort to get rid of food wast and save our left overs for later rather than. Allowing them to go bad or throwing them away.

All true. We can all compost and even give extra food to someone or somewhere to eliminate food waste. We can even give all the good waste to our dogs.

This is very true, many people in Maine may not realize the issue that is poverty and food insecurity because of how small some of the communities here are. In Maine it may not be a large issue but in other states like California, New York and Florida it is defiantly a more pressing matter. Advocating for money to put towards homeless shelters and food pantries would be a great way to start helping people that are in bad situations.

I think that in order to make our energy more clean that we need to advocate for more solar panels and other clean energy sources like wind turbines.

Thrifting can be very beneficial to lowering your carbon footprint for these reasons
1. Everything is way cheaper
2. Doesn't require anymore energy to make
3. You can find really cute stuff there[vintage, high value(for low cost),name brands]
4. Really good for basic items
5. Cheap sports equipment

Thrifting is amazing on so many levels. Clothing uses a lot of materials and produces a lot of chemicals in the process of being made. By thrifting, you’re cutting down the amount of emissions and resources it takes to make clothing. By recycling someone else’s clothing, you’re also taking away an item which could’ve ended up in the landfill. The items in a thrift store haven’t been imported in and it’s usually locals donating their clothing which means less pollution is getting emitted from vehicles. Depending on the thrift store you go to some of them donate their money to charities. It is usually a lot cheaper shopping at thrift stores than buying items brand new.

I 100% agree about thrifting. I get a lot of my clothes from my local good will and it is a lot cheaper than getting it new. Thrifting and donating to thrift stores helps everyone.(Including the environment) The donaters are happy because they got rid of their stuff that they do not need, GoodWill can hire more people and create jobs, the thrifter is happy because they got clothes for cheap and the environment is happy because more  GHG emissions were not put into the atmosphere to make new clothes. Everyone should at least do some thrifting.

I agree that thrifting is a great way to lessen carbon from damaging our planet. Think of it, the more we thrift clothes that are secondhand or even thirdhand can reduce the waste of producing large amounts of new product(clothing) every year. Plus on the bright side thrifting is a lot cheaper than buying new. When new clothing is made in factories it comes with a risk of chemicals being transmitted. It also helps to know when you thrift clothing, a large amount of it will be local. Some people can be concerned (for good reasons) where the product is coming from and who is making it. Overall, I think thrifting is a great idea for the planet and preventing less carbon emissions.

I agree. Thrifting is a good idea in so many different ways. By getting clothes secondhand, you are also preventing them from ending up in a landfill, saving energy and resources used to make new clothes and transport them, and supporting a non-profit organization, all while you save money. Sometimes, it can be hard to find things you like, which is your size while thrifting, but overall, it is worth it if you are saving the environment and your bank account.

I strongly agree, that thrifting is an amazing way to give clothes a second life! by purchasing secondhand clothes you are keeping them from ending up in a landfill and saving energy and resources. now that thrifting is easier than ever to do, heck you can even thrift online! there is really no excuse to be purchasing new clothes.

The benefits of thrifting are outstanding. There is no need to purchase everything new when it can produce more carbon and dirty water. Did you know it takes 3,781 liters of water to make one pair of jeans. And to get that pain of jeans from the factory and around the world through a load of different stores it will produce about 33.4 kilograms of carbon. Think if you went to a thrift store you could find the perfect clothing that you were even looking for. You can also use thrifted clothes to make something unique and new that no one else has.

Thrifting is a great way to let clothes live to their fullest potential. Thrifting is a great way to prevent the inevitable. Your clothes anting up in a landfill.

Ocean acidification is an important environmental issue caused by increased carbon dioxide absorption in oceans. It’s something we all should worry about because it threatens marine ecosystems, particularly coral reefs and shellfish. We need to raise awareness about OA and take action. The documentary “Chasing Coral" might help you understand OA better the effects it has on marine life. We have to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability to protect our oceans.

I agree greatly, the ocean over the years has taken in a lot of CO2 which has made things such as wild life and reefs become less dense and started to kill them. I think this is a great idea on showing how to help this and is a very important topic. It is much more then just doing the little things everyone on this earth needs to contribute to help our ouceans.

Agreed living on the coast the effects of the ocean are very important to me. The oceans acidifying is killing off corral and many fish that rely on the reefs. Among killing plants on the ocean floor that kill the bottom feeder sea animals causing the fish population do decrease.

Every year, about a third of all the world's food is wasted. That's about 1.3 billion tons. Meanwhile, there are about 1.1 billion people living in poverty. The numbers for both of these are rising. This is obviously a big problem we're facing. Most people take the food they have for granted and throw away food if it doesn't look appealing without a second thought. However, there are many people out there who can't afford to have even 1 good meal each day. The countries who waste the most food each year are China, India, and the USA, who waste 91 million tons, 68 million tons, and 19 million tons respectively. This is partially due to their huge populations, but that does not excuse the enormous amounts of food they're wasting.

Source: worldpopulationreview.com

I think that food waste is something people nowadays easily look past, especially people who grew up comfortably. A parent might think that if their child doesn't like the meal they made, they can just make something for them after. This is actually wasting time and food because now you have to go make something else and you have to get rid of the food they didn't eat. This waste problem is also common in restaurants, fast food chains, bakeries, and cafés. If they have extra food, they'll throw it all away because they have no use for it anymore. They could easily donate this food to people in poverty or give it away to those in need instead of throwing away piles of food each day. I actually saw an example of this in my life and I was disappointed to hear the situation. One of my family members worked at a popular sports arena, and one time they came home with a huge bag of popcorn from the concession stand. They said that if they hadn't taken the bag, it would've been thrown away like the rest of the food they threw that night. I believe that's something to think about and hope to change, not something we normalize. That was just one sports arena in my city. Imagine this same case in every arena everywhere in the world. That is an absurd amount of waste from concession stands.

Agreed. Most people waste food instead of consuming it. There are so many solutions to then fix or help fix food waist. There are so many people that go without their proper food amoung other things when their are so many people that live not to far from people who are starving and dying. Those people are throwing away food that those people down the street would kill to have. The spread of where starving people in America live compared to “rich” people is disgusting.

Greenhouse gas emissions from humans are a hostile force that is wiping out and threatening many plant and animal species. Although many precious species, from the golden toad to the orange-spotted filefish, and more have gone extinct due to human activities resulting in climate change, it is still our responsibility to protect the rest. According to a report by the United Nations of Biodiversity, species are depleting hundreds of times more than in the past 60 years. There are over 9.2 million living organisms on planet Earth. Around two-thirds of those living organisms live on land, but they are constantly facing the threat of extinction, as are the species in oceans and aquatic habitats. In today's world, we are facing the sixth mass extinction event, caused by humans, which could be the final blow to wiping out all species on earth if we don't work as a whole to overcome this. The WWF Living Planet Report 2022 displayed that in less than 50 years, the world lost sixty-nine percent of all mammal, fish, bird, reptile, and amphibian populations. This means that many keystone species might've died, leading to trophic cascades that negatively affect the ecosystem, as biodiversity is very important for an ecosystem to thrive. There are now a total of 42,100 species on the IUCN Red List, and 16,306 of them are endangered or threatened with extinction. This is up from 16,118 compared to 2022, which is a huge leap, mostly caused by high carbon emissions. Only 28% of species have been analyzed by the IUCN Red List, and out of these, 41% of amphibians, 27% of mammals, 34% of conifers, 13% of birds, 37% of sharks and rays, 36% of reef corals, 26% of selected crustaceans, 21% of reptiles, and 69% of cycads are all at risk of extinction. Additionally, wild mammal biomass has declined by 85% since the rise of humans. Researchers predict that 6% of plants and animals will disappear, going completely extinct by 2050. Furthermore, in the worst-case scenario of global warming, scientists estimate that 27% of plants and animals could disappear by 2100. For instance, Asian elephants and orangutans are endangered because their habitats are being destroyed by deforestation and the loss of plants they feed on due to climate change. Leatherback sea turtles are also becoming endangered because of global warming, which is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, as the water is becoming too warm for them and their food to survive in. Additionally, snow leopards, polar bears, and Adelie penguins are endangered due to the Arctic shrinking at 14% per decade and their prey, such as krill, moving away on melting Antarctic ice sheets. With this rapid decline in the amount of ice, either these animals die of starvation or they search other areas for food and survival, like land. Not only do animals on land face high risk, but also aquatic animals such as the North Atlantic cod have been going extinct. As the Arctic melts, the cold water that melts from the ice changes how the entire ecosystem works, and unfortunately, The North Atlantic cod could not adapt. Lastly, many corals, such as the Staghorn Coral, are threatened by coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and diseases, which are all caused by warmer water that these organisms are not used to living in. In summary, the entire world is suffering from heavy species loss due to greenhouse gases, especially carbon emissions. We can do our part to conserve and restore biodiversity by doing simple things, such as biking more often, taking shorter showers, or buying locally, which may help to rehabilitate all of our extraordinary, distinctive species on Earth.

Sources:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/h … ate-crisis
https://www.co2nsensus.com/blog/animals … al-warming
https://www.iucnredlist.org/search?taxo … pe=species
https://ourworldindata.org/biodiversity
https://www.theguardian.com/environment … -warns-aoe
https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/m … ast%20year.

The alarming rate of species going extinct due to climate change highlights the urgent need for action to mitigate its effects. As habitats become uninhabitable and ecosystems are disrupted by rising temperatures and extreme weather events, many species are struggling to adapt and survive. This loss of biodiversity not only impacts the natural world but also poses significant risks to human societies, including disruptions to food systems, increased vulnerability to natural disasters, and loss of cultural heritage. As app developers west palm beach, we have a responsibility to leverage technology and innovation to address these challenges. By developing mobile apps that raise awareness about climate change, promote sustainable practices, and facilitate conservation efforts, we can empower individuals and communities to take meaningful action to protect our planet and its precious biodiversity. Together, we can work towards a more sustainable and resilient future for all species.

Students need to do as much as they can to limit their own carbon footprint as well as act now so that future generations have a planet that is thriving and most importantly surviving. For starters, youth and students are the future of our planet so we need to educate them on CO2 emissions, teach them/help them learn what their own carbon footprint is, so that we can educate them on how to lower their own CO2 emissions from a young age. As well as learning about their own carbon footprint they also need to learn about others across the globe. When I look at the data of students carbon footprints there is a lot of variation between different countries. Most likely due to the fact that some countries are wealthier, have access to better or more resources, and because of the climate that they live in. The more we can teach the upcoming generations about their own carbon footprint and other students carbon footprints and how to limit and lessen it the better shot our planet has at survival.

I agree, students can be very careless with what they do. They litter and pollute the world. Obviously they’re not all like that and there’s many other different age brackets that pollute but students are that’s we’re talking about. We need to come up with ways in school to reduce our footprint. For example all metal utensils and reusable plates and all that stuff.

An electric car only produces about 200 grams of CO2, they are very efficient. Electric cars are also more expensive than the average gas car. The price is 17% higher for a new electric car than a gas car. A family is going to worry more about putting food on the table than buying a sustainable car especially if the price cost is higher. As these cars become more widespread the price of them may go down. The question is how can we make them more affordable now? Hybrid cars might be part of the solution. They are around the same cost as a gas powered car, but are much more efficient in burning fuel.

In the U.S alone 44.2 million people live in food insecure houses. This means that 44.2 million people either don't get enough food on a daily basis, they don't get any, or they don't get nutrient rich food. Americans waste 80 million tons of food per year which is 149 billion meals, if you divide that by the amount of hungry people each person could have access to 1862 meals. If we were able to save and provide even half of that to people it could help so much. We need to make more nutritious food options available to people around the world. If you can try to donate healthy options to food pantries or local soup kitchens.

Cons of cattle farming-

Contributes about 11%–17% of global greenhouse gas emissions
.methane and nitrous oxide released from digestion
.land use and conversion and desertification
.vast amount of food and resources being consumed
.1,800 gallons of water per pound of beef produced.

The costs of the cattle industry greatly outweigh any benefits in my opinion. It takes up massive plots of land while producing minimal meat. There are a lot more climate friendly options, like Guinea pigs that take up a lot less space and resources. Alternatively, you can pick a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Living a vegan life style may not sound like a great diet but it does more than you think. While it is very healthy and can have great boosts and effects on you it also helps with climate change. Growing these things from your house is a key way to lower your carbon foot print and greatly expand your diet at the same time.

For not have the extreme weather in summer like the others summers, We need to recycle more for not having a bad weather.

I agree with you but I think that recycling isn't the only reason for extreme weather. 1.3 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions are generated annually when the trash that could be recycled goes into landfills. Based off this drastically high number you would think this could be a leading cause of the extreme weather, but really a lot of different CO2 emissions weigh into it, not just people not recycling. I think if we are trying to stop or slow down these weather events there are a lot of other measures we could also take. Some examples are, taking a bike or electric car compared to gas cars, eat less meat & dairy, and reduce your energy usage.

You are correct but the same time recycling wont compleatly change the weather it will help but we need to limit other things as well. We need to stop burning as much fossil fuels, trash, and stop flying so much and the weather will improve.

Yes, while this is true it does not fully affect the climate. This may make a change but in the long run it will take a lot more then just recycling. It does have a massive foot print on climate change but so does things such as over heating houses, and heating a house when it is not needed. With things like driving and flying have a huge foot print. So while recycling more will help it will not be a fix to climate change.

I think that traveling by plane pollutes a lot. In my opinion, it is good because you go to disconnect and get to know a new culture.

I think that travelling in some cases is totally necessary such as if you are visiting your family and they live overseas, but it also causes a whole lot of pollution. I dont think travelling by airplane is always needed.Such as in lockdown my family couldnt fly anywhere so we focused on driving around our province and it really opened up my eyes on how there is so much where you are and so much to see.You dont need to fly somewhere when there is so many places that people dont notice.

In my opinion travelling can be totally necessary if you need to visit family, or attend a funeral or wedding but the downside to these trips are planes create a lot of problems and pollution. In some scenarios travelling by plane is not always necessary. For instance the year when covid was around my family’s trip got canceled, so we drove to Ossoyoos and Kelowna instead. My experience was amazing and i saw how amazing places right here in our own province is.

I think that because traveling and planes is already done so much, we need to focus on making planes less of a polluter. From the little research I have done, there are fuels being tested that do not emit carbon. These are known as biofuels and if we are able to implement these, it would make drastic changes. Things like high speed rails and electric cars cannot travel over water, so planes are not something we can just get rid of. Families need to be able to visit each other and international travel helps bring humans together and sticking together is what we need to do to combat climate change.

I believe while traveling and modes of transportation like cars, boats, planes, etc. are massive contributors to many peoples’ carbon emissions, traveling shouldn’t be thrown out as a whole. Although it’s not all of the time, traveling is still a necessity sometimes. I believe humanity needs travel for many reasons, from economic trade to just simply seeing family; not to mention the amount of countries that rely of tourism to stay afloat. I think that if humans are so determined to become more advanced while at the same time reversing the effects of climate change, we should focus more on creating biofuel instead of cutting off all possibilities of traveling internationally. Traveling should definitely be cut back on if completely unnecessary, especially through air travel as it’s one of the main contributors to air pollution and has no alternative fuel to be even remotely eco-friendly.

Traveling shouldn't be looked down upon or discouraged, even though it and other forms of transportation such as cars, boats, planes, etc. are huge contributors to c02 emissions. Traveling is a necessary part of the human life. it gives us the opportunity to explore new places and cultures, learn new things, and make connections with people from all over the world, to take this way would be depriving the new generation of humans from a once in a lifetime experience. while the consequences of air travel are real I strongly believe we should be putting more effort into producing biofuel rather than removing all international travel.

In our society, there are always changing trends and micro-trends circulating. Many of these will only be popular for a few months or less. When we see something that's trendy, we often don't think about how long we will wear it or how long it will last. We may see something in store or online we like, but never wear it. It's important to know how clothes you like differ from the clothes you like on yourself and what you will wear it with. Sometimes you need to give yourself time to see if you will wear it in the long run.

replying to carbonara123 i agree and i feel like a lot of people dont understand how wasteful it is to buy fast fashion that bis trending because you only wear it a couple of times and then forget about it in the back of their closets, because it is no longer in style. we waste so much trying to make cheap, bad quality items that will eventually be thrown out because people feel they cant wear stuff after it is out of style.

I completely agree with this. Sure, it's nice to buy all the trendy clothes and be in style, but not everyone takes into account how much waste it causes. When you're planning on buying clothing, it's much more beneficial to invest into something more expensive that will last in the long run instead of something cheap that will only last for a couple wears. There are many brands that intrigue you with fast-fashion, but most things are poor quality and are meant to last as long as the trends do. These companies we're buying from don't care about the waste, they only want to make money. They know that once an article of clothing becomes popular on social media, people will go crazy to get their hands on them quickly. By purchasing  from them, we're giving more money to make more cheap clothes and cause more waste.  In my opinion, trendy clothes are most definitely a want.

I think trendy cloths would be a want instead of a need, because although cloths are a need, it being trendy is not. as a teen there is some pressure of keeping up with the trends, especially in cloths, and top clothing brands, but most of them are just mass-produced and after the trends have moved on to another type of clothing, that once trendy top you bought is now just a piece of clothing that you might not want to wear anymore due to another trendy top that is better. A lot of trendy cloths get dumped, and end up in the land fill, swell as create green house gas, contributing to climate change

I agree it’s a want. We are constantly being influenced to buy more. Clothes especially. The issue with trendy clothes is that they’re being produced at a mass amount, the factories that they’re made in produce a lot of pollution and the clothes that aren’t bought end up getting thrown out. We too throw out clothing when it’s not “trending” anymore. It’s so harmful to the environment because a lot of materials are used to make clothes and most of it ends up in a landfill.

I agree with Elaria that trendy clothes are definitely affecting the planet in a negative way, but as a teenager who's easily influenced by trends and other things seen on social media, it's hard to not cave into these trend clothes as it seems to now be society's norm. I think a good alternative to these trendy pieces is getting more pieces of clothing that you will continue to rewear after these trends come and go. It is hard to not purchase these trendy pieces when it does feel good to keep up with what's popular but another way to stay trendy is to thrift or make pieces yourself.

I agree with you, we are a society built on overconsumption. The waste of fast fashion is incredibly huge. The amount of clothing we purchase and throw out each year is absurd. Companies like SHEIN don’t help with this. Furthermore, thrifting is supposed to be the best way we can dispose of clothing but places like goodwill send their clothing to countries in Africa- which destroys their local economy and leads to piles of clothing on their beaches. (https://www.insideedition.com/mountains … hana-69935). We can reduce this by not buying fast fashion and instead buying in quality over quantity. Of course, this is dependent on your financial situation, but the earth, Ghana, and the employees being overworked making all the cheap clothing will thank you.

Although Sometimes it may seem to be easier to use a car, cars create so much carbon admission into our air, contributing a lot to climate change. Although sometimes using car might not be avoidable, trips that you could use other form of transportation that might be more sustainable would overall help reduce your carbon footprint. Especially in the city I live in I have lots of access to bike routes near me, making me more likely to chose biking to places  instead of going by car. Some places though might not have the access to safe bike routes, but they might have access to forms of public transit, like the bus, and or sky trains, which can also reduce carbon admissions. I think finding other ways of transportation can help us reduce carbon admissions into the air helping us create a more sustainable city.

I agree that your ideas would decently reduce carbon emittions but for most people not using their car is not a viable possibility, everyone taking way less planes would be a much more effective way to reduce carbon emittions.

In the U.S., we waste 80 million tons of food annually; this is horrendous and needs to change. A big part of food waste comes from restaurants. The average restaurant can waste up to 75,000 pounds of food annually, and only 1.4% of this food is donated. If restaurants could find a way to decrease their food waste by having an option with smaller proportions whenever possible and donating the majority of the food that isn’t consumed, we could reduce food waste and hunger. Doing this would be very beneficial because it conserves resources like land, water, labor, and energy while also giving food to the people in need.

I agree. I believe that the restaurants should resort to a better way of getting rid of extra food by donating or giving them away instead of just throwing away perfectly good food. For example, I have seen a video show Dunkin’ Donuts employees throwing away perfectly good donuts at the end of the shift when they should donate or give them away to reduce the food waste. Food waste is bad and it’s not helping the environment.

From my perspective, phones are a necessity in the modern era due to their fundamental role in communication, access to information and various utilities. However, the choice of phone type may vary depending on individual preferences and needs. In short, they are essential, but personal choice plays an important role.

I agree with you. Certain Wants and needs are definitely different especially with something like a phone and like you said it Vareis on the person. On terms of supporting our environment, we often only focus on what we want and disregard what impact it might have on the environment.

I completely agree that phones are an essential part of life today as phones act as a very efficient method to communication, access to information, and a multitude of utilities. Phones are a very useful device due to their extreme multi-functionality. The main downside to phones is the way they’re made. Phones are made up from many components such as rare metals, and the process for creating each phone emits mass amounts of carbon. So although the production of phones is a major contributor to the world’s carbon footprint; they are very essential to modern day societies and should remain within them. Phones are most definitely a need, not just a want.

I agree, phones are a basic necessity in the modern human world because of how much our world depends on them. We need them for communication, for traveling, etc. Phones are the one thing that everyone will more then likely have in their life time because of how much we need them and use them. We also all want one because of social media and what not so it seems like phones are a want and a need but mainly a need.

One of the biggest contributors to climate change is the fossil fuels that most of us use everyday to heat our homes, power our cars, and to cook our food. This is something that is so important to fix. Something that we can do is to start using alternatives to propane gas. There are lots of alternatives out there for using propane gas, such as biodiesel, electric powered vehicles, natural gas vehicles. To heat your home there are also lots of alternatives such as geothermal power, which is very cost effective and works very well. Solar power is also another alternative to heating homes, that is so much better for the environment then gas. There are so many other solutions to heating your home in a different way, and they are not all exponentially more expensive. We should all be trying to find ways in our lives to find alternatives that will work for us for cars, heating, and all of the other appliances used in our household in our daily lives. It is hard to make an immediate switch from your old gas powered car to a new electric one, but start small. Look at how these alternative solutions will effect you and your carbon footprint. This small switch might seem like it is unnecessary and not doing a lot, but it will  impact so much if we all do our part to try and lower our carbon footprint.

Hello, I'm Mara, I live in Ondara, Spain
and I studing at the IES CHÀBAS in
Dénia, I think that climate change is
caused by man because we exploit natural resources for our needs and use fossil fuels to generate electricity, transport, heating,
industry... also the felling of trees
greatly affects the climate and the
amount of CO2 we emit and we are
damaging the atmosphere by
increasing the greenhouse effect and
global warming.

It’s interesting how humans have gone from doing everything we can to survive hunting for our food and building structures for sleeping to making everything so easy and almost boring. Humans are the Maine cause of global warming we have slowly been heating up this planet by manufacture and estimating more carbon emissions everyday. Now we have to think about the fact we have made all of this stuff can we convince people they don't need it anymore? We lice in a society of lack of motivation our climate is falling apart and we should care that we are the ones that will fall with it.

Climate change is most definitely real and caused by humans and the way we run our societies. Climate change can be seen in almost everyone’s everyday lives; many areas dealing with more wildfires, many coastal towns looking into ways to protect themselves from rising sea levels, and many other examples. Although climate change has occurred naturally in the past, modern day climate change is very obviously caused by humans. As many know, trees and plants as a whole respirate opposite to other living organisms by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen in turn; the full process known as photosynthesis. But humans have ruined natural balancing by cutting down mass amounts of trees and plants for personal gain. The exploitation of plants isn’t the only things humans have done to cause climate change. The reasoning for the deforestation is commonly due to humans urbanizing and industrializing in every area they can. The industrialization and urbanization has caused major increases in the carbon levels of the atmosphere; which in turn causes changes in climates all around the world.

I’ve found not just on this app but looking at other resources that Carbon footprints relate directly to two things,
1. Country Development
2. Transportation.
Granted I am looking at this through the views of all individuals not just students, however I see a very clear correlation between the two. For example the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) Was ranked by the UN to be one of the least developed country’s in the world, and similarly has less than 0.1 tons of Carbon Per Capita. Meanwhile country’s like the U.S have a Per Capita of roughly 14.9 tons. To my second point, on a smaller scale transportation plays an incredibly important role in Carbon footprint, and when comparing my transportation relate emissions I found them to be much larger than those whole live in city’s. These two variables are essential to understand when comparing international carbon footprints.

Eating local food helps the environment by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are produced from transporting food long distances. It also means fewer chemicals on our food and supports local farmers and communities. Having food gardens at home or school is cool too because it teaches us about growing our own food and makes us more connected to nature. I personally have a garden at home and it’s an experience I think everyone should have.

Climate change is a big issue, and a lot of it comes down to human actions. When we burn stuff like coal and oil, it releases carbon dioxide. That gas hangs around in the air, trapping heat and warming up the planet. Then there's deforestation. Trees soak up carbon dioxide and with fewer trees around, there's more CO2 in the air, making things even warmer. There’s also car and factories that produce tons of pollution, making the problem even worse. Us humans are causing our own climate problems. But if we change some of the things we do and the way we think about the climate, we can definitely start fixing things and making a positive impact on the planet.

The amount of trash we use is a massive number, and all of it goes into a landfill but there are so many ways we could reuse this trash and lessen the numbers in the landfill. For example, plastic water bottles don't have to be used for just one purpose, they can be refilled with tap water or at a water fountain and used repeatedly. As well as a piece of paper, don't just use one side and throw it out, use the other side. There are also super fun activities for kids that can be making crafts out of pieces of trash like a toilet paper roll, or kleenex box. What I'm saying is not everything is just a one and done, things can have other purposes as well.

I agree with you, reusing items and materials has a positive impact on our environment and helps with climate change. Reusing is a part of the five Rs (refusing, reusing, recycling, reusing, and reducing). There are tons of examples for reusing such as pins that could be used as holding items, cardboard boxes that could be used as holding paper, and jars or paper cups be used as holding pencils in them. These are some great ways to reuse materials. As you said plastics could also be reused as many uses to us. Yes, and crafts are another important but also fun way to reuse and a good idea to teach new learners or kids. Instead of just throwing something away and buying another, reuse it. Basically, the concept is reusing as many things as we possibly can to help our environment be more friendly and reusable. If you are curious about the five Rs in general then go look at my most recent post under 'Reusing and Refusing'.

I agree with both of you. So many materials go to waste, instead of being used again. Reusing instead of wasting would have a positive impact on the environment by preventing pollution and saving energy. Lowering the amount of waste going to landfills also reduces the amount of toxicity in the water around the landfills which has a positive impact on the environment.

I totally agree with the three of you. So many people, when throwing something away, don't acknowledge the fact that they could reuse or repurpose the item they are throwing away. Not only can reusing or repurposing items be fun and a creative activity to do (depending on what you are reusing), but it can prevent your waste from ending up in landfills in turn harming the environment, and turn what would have been "waste" into "art." Other than the environment, this can save you money as you can use that object to the max instead of throwing it away and spending money on a new one. I give many specific examples in my post on the topic of "Reuse and Repurpose" that we can start doing today for a more sustainable environment

I agree, recycling can deffinetly contribute to a Greener future. After using plastic bottles and other containers, you should always recycle, wether its putting it in the recycling bin or making a craft project out of it, you should deffinetly do it. After using a plastic bottle, where do you think it goes? Well, it turns out that some of it gets dumped into the ocean and can injure or even kill Marine life, so next time you are using plastic, consider how you could reuse it.

I agree, recycling and reusing definitely will help make this plant greener because there would be less one use plastics, there would also be less green house gas emissions because we would be making less plastic and glass.

I completely agree! I recycle and refuse everything I can and it was honestly surprising how many people don’t do this! I did some research and was astonished that more people haven’t taken action and helped people who either don’t know how or don’t know where to start.

If you grow your own food locally, say in your backyard, it can help our climate/Earth by a long shot. You don't contribute to burning fossil fuels when it comes to shipping out items, nor are you using up gas/electricity. Also, veggies/fruits often come in plastic packaging. If you grow your own food, you are not using any plastic, which means you aren't contributing to (potentially) throwing away plastic into the ocean.

I completely agree with you! Growing our own food can reduce the amount of CO2 released by factories buring fossil fuels to produce food. If we plant our own food, the plants would help the world also by taking in the carbon in the air. Overall, I think growing our own food is a great idea!

I agree, growing our own food reduces the CO2 emissions from trucks that ship the food and the CO2 emissions from the big farms.

I agree because it helps you eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and you can decide what kinds of fertilizers and pesticides come in contact with your food and it lets you control when to harvest your food

These are great responses. Growing food in your backyard is a great solution to help our climate. Growing food at your house or having a garden outside by your house is awesome because you don’t contribute to burning any fossil fuels. When you get vegetables and fruits at the grocery store there is so much unnecessary plastic that is being used. Growing your own food reduces CO2 emissions from trucks that ship the food from country to countries. With all of this being said, you should start a garden and plant your own fruit and vegetables!

I agree with growing your own fruit and vegetables because it reduces fossil fuels being used and plastic waste so it has a much more positive outcome.

I agree I think that if we choose to grow and farm our own foods we will lower the CO2 emissions and plastic wast exponentially.

I agree with that I think it’s important that we should grow our own food rather than getting it from stores which were transported by trucks (CO2 emissions). Growing our own food can help prevent most food waste because you would be growing exactly what you want to eat instead of a bunch of food being mass produced and it eventually not getting used or eaten. If you were to grow your very own food in your backyard or your own farm you would be reducing the burning of fossil fuels. Plus any plastic waste that comes from containers would be greatly reduced as well.

I agree that it is very important to grow your own food, growing your own food can reduce your carbon footprint, and help contribute to a future with less carbon. Tomatoes, potatoes, strawberry’s, lettuce, garlic, onions, carrots, these are all foods that you would normally get at the supermarket, however with a little bit of care, they can also be grown at home. Growing foods at home is a great idea, it helps the environment and most of all, it is tasty.

I agree with this statement. Growing food in your backyard is a great way to get some vitamin D, and have some fun while benefiting our environment. My mom has a small garden going and we use all of the veggies from it in our meals. It is a great way to produce healthy, tasty foods while helping out with climate change.

We should grow our own food, to be less reliant on the economy and government, to reduce green house gasses and to have healthier and more organic food. We would be less reliant on others. Because you would be in charge of your food intake, you would reduce green house gasses because there would be less fuel and gas used to ship your goods. Your food would be healthier because there would be no toxins or gmos.

I agree! Most of the problem with this tho is that not many people have time to do this, my mom for example goes into work everyday and gets back pretty late so it would be pretty hard to maintain a garden. Even so I think that if people have time or can manage to change their schedule, they totally should!

It's good to reuse things and repurpose them. Although not all things can be reused/repurposed, there are still many other ways to reduce carbon. Some example are buying a reusable water bottle rather then buying single use plastic ones, instead of buying a paper or plastic bag at the store, bring your own reusable bag, deonate your old clothes or buy someone else's clothes(thrifting). You can repurpose your old clothes or even change up some of the new clothes that you thrift. All of these are examples of ways we can reuse and repurpose things to prevent more waste in our environment.

I agree with this statement. Reusing and repurposing makes a huge difference in the environment and your carbon footprint. I agree that some things cannot be reused, like for example light bulbs. But there are so many things that can be reused for instance, clothes, plastic bags, plastic water bottles, bins, boxes, and so much more. Another action you can do is repurposing, you can donate clothes and shoes to thrift shops, or to families in need. I feel as though people should know the distinction between a want and a need. There are many things that people want in the world, an example would be new clothes that are trending, or the latest iPhone. But these things are not a need. I agree with the fact that phones are good to have and most people communicate through them and use them in their everyday lives. But you don't always need the new edition of a phone. The same also goes for new trendy clothes, many people buy clothes because they are trending online at the time. But overall reusing and repurposing clothes is a lot better for the environment.

Climate change is a real thing and people need to start taking bigger steps to reduce the climate. This is important because the Earth could be at stake. People need to start using items that don’t emit carbon. Cars and other transportation are a big factor. Lucky for us, there are hybrid and electric cars. These cars dont use as much gas as a normal car. If everyone had an electric car, it would help the climate. There are many more things that people can do to help the Earth.

I agree that humans need to step up and start taking action to help prevent climate change from worsening. We have seen many clear changes in the world’s weather patterns, oceans acidity, more animals becoming extinct, and so much more. We have also seen that many of these things are caused by CO2 imbalanced caused by humans. One last thing is that our carbon foot print really shows that our daily activities affect the carbon cycle greatly.If humans just made an effort right now and took action then maybe we can reduce climate change.

I agree I think people should drive electric cars. This is better because Elon Musk is a genius and knows how much better our world would be with everyone sliding in electric whips.

Climate change is a real and big thing, people need to start worrying about it more. If people learn about it then people can learn how to help. Many things can help but a lot more hurt the environment. Electric cars can be very helpful but there are some that hurt the climate more then helping.

Today we waste a lot of food, but in the word 828 milions of people suffer from hunger and in Italy we waste about 67 Kgs of food per inhabitant per year. To reduce the hunger we shoulden't throw food when is still good and we must learn to use everything we have to reduce waste.

I completely agree, the number of hungry people in the world is huge, and in some parts, food is still not consumed rationally. Less food is wasted in Croatia than in Italy, about 22 kg of edible food per inhabitant per year, but it is still a large number. For example, 57 million tons of food were thrown away in the EU in 2020!

Do you know that Africa isn't dying because of hunger? THough there are still some places that still suffer from hunger but it's only a fifth of africa

I completely agree with you. Food waste is a major problem, and it's important tha we take steps to reduce it. One way to do this is by being more mindful of the food we buy and consume. We can try to plan our meals in advance, make a grocery list, and only buy what we need. We can also store our food properly to make it last longer, and use up leftovers instead of throwing them away. Additionally, we can support local food banks and other organizations that work to distribute food to those in need. By taking these steps, we can help reduce food waste and ensure that more people have access to the food they need.

I think it's ironic that there are people dying because of over eating in rich countries and in poor countries the people are dying because they don't have enough to eat.

Food waste can have serious environmental consequences, such as greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. Additionally, the food we waste could be used to feed people who are hungry. That's why it's important to reduce the amount of food we waste and use food in the way that's more sustainable for the planet.

I completely agree that reducing food waste is VERY important for sustainability and fighting hunger. About one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted, resulting in significant environmental consequences. Things like greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution happen because of this. This waste could feed almost 2 billion people, which is more than twice the number of undernourished people in the world. It's really important to take action like educating consumers and giving excess food to those that really need it.

I found some info from here: https://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/en/

Hi Luiisa, I completely agree that in this world today we waste a lot of food. Here in America we waste about 147.4 Kgs of food per individual per year. To solve this, I agree that we shouldn’t throw away good food but instead use everything in our power to lower the waste of food all around the world.

Hi Luiisa, I completely agree that in this world today we waste a lot of food. Here in America we waste about 147.4 Kgs of food per individual per year.To solve this, I agree that we shouldn’t throw away good food but instead use everything in our power to lower the waste of food all around the world.

I completely agree with this take. Food is wasted in so many ways that we don't even know. Did you know that only (approx.) 32% of the world's population composts, and most of that comes from developing countries. Food waste is such a big problem, and not using our food to all of its abilities is costing us. In America alone, over 40% of our food is wasted, which puts 119 billion pounds, $408 billion in food, and over 130 billion meals in the trash YEARLY!

Everyday at school as I pass by the trash cans, I see so much food that was carelessly tossed because students don't want to eat it. It's sad because it can very simply be reversed, every student just has to eat everything given to them. However, something like controlling hundreds (and maybe thousands, depending on your school size) of students to eat what they have to take is impossible. Be the change, only throw your garbage away, not your food.

I completely agree with you, I live in america and according to rts.com we waste 325 lbs or 147 kgs of food per american per year. I also believe composting would be a good way to reduce food waste because it would still be food not used  but it is being put back into the environment. Which could create a healthier ecosystem.

https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/#:~:text=That's%20estimated%20to%20be%20almost,pounds%20of%20waste%20per%20person.

I agree with this greatly because we're wasting tons of food. Saying this, the world wastes around 2.5 billion tons of food every year and the US alone wastes around 60 million - 120 billion pounds every year which is around 0.012 - 2.4% of the world's waste. It doesn't seem like a lot but making sure to only take what we can consume and not throwing away good food can really help with world hunger, and making sure that other parts of the world are able to contribute to their citizens as well as make sure they aren't as hungry. I think that to some extent, we are taking advantage of what we're being supplied and provided as a developed country, over those who may still be developing and may not have as much access to the same amount of resources. The amount of food the US wastes is about 40% of all of our food which is calculated to be around 325 pounds of waste per person, while there are some people out there who may not have that much in general. While I think it's important that we aren't wasting food and making sure to grab what we eat, we should also make sure that we're all decently healthy and not starving ourselves. I don't think this could be considered selfish, but more looking out for our personal health as well as others because we shouldn't have to trade lives with certain people in order to make us feel good about ourselves.
https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/#:~:text=Here's%20some%20%E2%80%9Cfood%E2%80%9D%20for%20thought,120%20billion%20pounds%20%E2%80%94%20every%20year.

I completely agree with you in today's society we waste plenty of food because of our habit of over-buying food. Although our waste cannot always be restored and sent out to countries in need  due to it can going bad, we can reduce the amount of food we waste by not over-buying it and instead the food could still be fresh if restored properly. We can support local food banks or other organizations who help distribute food to those in need. By taking these steps I think the problem of hunger around the world could be solved.!

This statement completely true, food should not be wasted carelessly while others still suffer from hunger. Could you believe that more than 44 million people suffer from starvation in the United States?  828 million people globally were affected by hunger in 2021. In the U.S. alone, 120 billion pounds of food is wasted every year; this is a big part of the 2.5 billion TONS wasted every year globally. 40 percent of the U.S.’s food supply is wasted. Food is wasted everywhere around the world and it should be taken into more consideration. Nearly one and ten people around the world go to bed hungry every night. People throw away food they don’t want to eat or finish like its nothing even if its new. The least they could do is save it or donate it to food banks. It’s really important to realize how fortunate we are to eat whenever we want because others around the world can’t afford to feed themselves let alone their family. 130 billion meals are put in the trash each year in America, to reduce this amount we should take what we need and not buy knowing we’ll never eat it because you don’t know how much that food would mean to the people who need it the most.
Sources:
https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america
https://www.who.int/news/item/06-07-202 … on-in-2021
https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/#:~:text=Here's%20some%20%E2%80%9Cfood%E2%80%9D%20for%20thought,120%20billion%20pounds%20%E2%80%94%20every%20year.
https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/#:~:text=Here's%20some%20%E2%80%9Cfood%E2%80%9D%20for%20thought,120%20billion%20pounds%20%E2%80%94%20every%20year.

You're right! We waste too much food when so many people are hungry. We should avoid throwing away good food and make the most of what we have. Small changes can make a big impact.

I completely agree with you. As humans we waste a total of 2.5 billion tons of edible food. Wasting this much food causes the amount of carbon we release to go up by 170 million metric tons. If we keep up at this rate we will cause climate change to get worse  than ever before. There are also millions of people around the world who are going hungry and don't have enough food to eat. Instead of wasting this much food on game shows and cooking shows we could transport the food to parts of the world where food may not be as accessible to everyone. Doing this will lower carbon emmissions and get us closer to ending world hunger.

I think that what your saying is true! Most people don't even get food and we just waste the food and throwing it away even though it can fill up someones hunger.A good way so we don't waste as much food or dont even waste the food is by giving it to pople who need it like homeless people on the streets begging for stuff.

I think that you’re 100% correct we waste so much Time and money on food we just end up wasting.

I agree, we waste way to much of our food not thinking of what it effects or how it effects. The food we just throw away could be used for more helpful things. Like feeding other people or using it to make our planet more sustainable. Throwing away our food could cause big problems.

Climate change disproportionately effects marginalized communities particularly within the black community  “ Black or African Americans are 40% more likely than non-Black Americans and non-African Americans to currently live in areas with the highest projected increases in mortality rates due to climate-driven changes in extreme temperatures.” -EPA When we are talking about the effects of Climate change we need to talk about who it is effecting the most, and sadly it will often not be the people that have cause the most environmental harm. In order to make real social change we need to make environmental change as well, to neglect climate change as an issue will effect minorities disproportionately so if you are about social change you must work on  environmental change as well.

Onshore wind turbines are the obvious choice for clean energy generation, as they outperform offshore wind turbines in many different ways. Onshore wind turbines have three main advantages that set them apart from their competitor, offshore wind turbines.
Firstly, onshore wind turbines offer substantial cost advantages over offshore turbines. Onshore turbines are nearly four thousand dollars per kilowatt-hour cheaper, therefore they provide quality wind power at a mere fraction of the cost. This affordability makes clean, easy to harvest energy accessible for anyone. According to the American Wind Energy Association,small onshore wind turbines cost between $3,000 to $5,000 for every kilowatt of power. This makes them considerably better than offshore wind turbines.
Secondly, the ease of installation and maintenance is a huge defining feature of the onshore wind turbines. Due to their convenient locations on land, they are a lot more accessible. This leads to reduced downtime and fewer repairs. This then translates into less disruption for all th
Lastly, onshore wind turbines demonstrate a clear environmental advantage over offshore alternatives. By harnessing wind power on land, these turbines minimize the ecological impact associated with offshore installations. Their operation produces clean, natural energy, contributing to a healthier environment and sustainable future.
In conclusion, the evidence supports the assertion that onshore wind turbines surpass offshore options in terms of cost-effectiveness, ease of maintenance, and environmental benefits. As a result, prioritizing the development and utilization of onshore wind energy stands as a prudent choice for advancing clean energy initiatives and mitigating environmental concerns.

I agree, onshore wind turbines are very helpful to reducing carbon emission. They produce a lot of energy without using fossil fuels. The resources used to get the running is completely natural and only ends up in net energy that is environment friendly. Wind turbines are great ways to make energy for communities and help the environment by giving a way to make energy from the natural wind.

Sustainable aviation fuel or SAF is a fuel made with feedstocks that can go into all commercial planes when blended with traditional jet fuel. Currently we can only blend 50% SAF with conventional jet fuel on commercial flights, but even with that limit, SAF can reduce GHG emissions by 40-47%. One negative of SAF is that it is about 3 times more expensive than conventional jet fuel. I do believe it is a necessary development if we want to save the planet.

Climate change is a real and major issue that our Earth is facing and if we don’t act and make changes right now, the future of our planet is at high risk. For starters, many people don’t even realize and understand that climate change is a real issue and many don’t believe that it is a real thing. So first off we need to get more people on board with the fact that this is a real problem that our planet is facing. Obviously not everyone is going to believe that climate change is really happening, but we do not have time to wait for every single person to get on board. We need to get more people on board with the fact, and then keep moving forward. World representatives, presidents, leaders, etc. need to focus on big changes that countries as a whole, for example implementing solutions like ocean power, geothermal power, kelp restoration, etc. to make bigger changes to help limit countries carbon emissions as a whole. At the community, town, and school level they need to focus on making smaller changes like going plastic free, creating more gardens, etc. because it is not realistic for schools to be making major changes, but if we get a majority of schools, communities, and towns to make a lot of small changes we would see a major decline in our CO2 emissions. Everyone needs to get on board with the fact that climate change is real and happening right now, and if we don't act now the future of our planet is on the line.

Recycling is something that we should all do to help keep the environment clean and safer.  There are many videos and photos I'm sure you’ve seen that show the absurd amounts of trash in rivers/oceans/lakes.  If we all just recycle and clean our environment would be clean and safe not just for us but future generations.

Though i do agree that recycling is extremely important. It is also important to bring the facts to light. In 2021, only 5-6% of plastic produced was recycled and the rest is all thrown away. If we implement laws and rules to better enforce recycling there could be bigger change. Another way to combat plastic pollution is changing the packaging that is being used. There is already so much plastic out there, so we dont need anymore. Reusing the plastic and finding substitutes for plastic are the steps we need to take. Also, many people who do recycle, dont know where all the plastic goes. They put it in the bin, take it to the dump, and then where? I think if we properly educate people on recycling it will encourage people to do it more.

I completely agree, more recycling will be an overall better out look on the world because of how much waste there is in the world. Aldo us picking up after ourselves will reduce the waste that gets littered in the ocean or in the streets causing it to be a safer environment.

All of these responses are great! I am a firm believer in that recycling can make and has started to make a big impact on our earth. There hasn’t been a great amount of enforcement when it comes to making laws and having regulations. If we recycle more our climate and our planet will become healthier as time goes on. It is crucial to recycle and reuse so we don’t constantly waste important goods and be able to repurpose so we have less unnecessary product floating around.

I agree with recycling being a big importance and it impacting our earth greatly. Everyone knows of recycling but many still don’t participate in it. If we can get more people to see how important it is than I think it could help the earth even just a little bit. Recycling makes out environment safer from litter and toxins.