Since students and younger kids are becoming more aware of Earth and our carbon footprint, we have the opportunity to do what it takes to save what is left of our planet. By doing the carbon footprint challenge, I have learned so many important things that I didn’t know before and I’m positive that other students feel the same way. We now have the opportunity to spread our knowledge among others and do what is right. Now it’s time for action.

In order to take action, we must start using healthier eco-friendly resources. For example instead of plastic bags, cups, straws, etc. we must use reusable bags, cups, straws, etc. Also instead of using plastic toothbrushes, we could use bamboo ones or just reusable electric ones. It all starts with one person. Tell your family and friends about brands that are good and other reusable products that are nice and make a change. We must take action before it's too late.

Do you know how many plastic bags end up in the ocean every single year? There is an estimate of around 300 million plastic bags that end up in the atlantic ocean every single year. If you do the math correctly that's around 821918 plastic bags every single day. Can you imagine how much marine wildlife can be saved if every person uses a reusable bag instead of a plastic one? Please, next time you go shopping, or anywhere that involves the use of plastic bags, think for a moment how much more it would benefit not only you, but the environment as well, if you use a bag made of fabric, or paper.

Have you ever thought about how many resources go into making your new clothes? “The total greenhouse gas emissions from textile production currently stands at 1.2 billion tonnes annually and accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions.” Thrifting is so much better, you get to reuse clothes and might even find something cute/cool to wear. It also goes against fast fashion. “The global fashion industry produces over 92 million tonnes of waste per year.”

Scientists have come up with many big earth clean up projects. We do not have to come up with a big project like them. We can start with the little things, for example trying not to use plastic or if we do recycling it, not littering, or educating others about how we need to clean earth. Everyone matters.

I believe that we need to start cleaning up the world because all the littering has been harming our world and the wild life for too long. Lots of plastic has been ending up in our ocean and it's hurting so much of the marine life by eating it. Plastic is also another reason of pollution. It also harms our food and our health, it is contributing to climate change.We need to start picking our waste/trash.

I agree, we are harming Earth. We all need to start cleaning/recycling.

Although most people hear the three Rs many times in their life, they are actually a very important rule to follow in order to help reduce pollution and your carbon footprint. An easy example of this is plastic. Even though recycling plastic bottles may be much better than throwing them away or littering, reusing them before recycling helps you to use less plastic overall which will cause your footprint to go down. However, reusing plastic bottles does pose risks to yourself, so it is even better to reduce than to reuse or recycle. An easy way to do this is by getting a reusable bottle. Not only are you reducing the risks of reusing a non-reusable plastic bottle, but you are also cutting down your plastic use tremendously. By following the three Rs, you can help to cut down pollution by a large amount with minimal effort.

Did you know using hot water increases your carbon footprint by a lot compared to using room temperature water? Although it may be a part of your daily routine, using hot water for a relaxing shower, is not good for our environment because the hot water in your showers is made by electricity. Taking cold showers is actually very good for your health. Taking cold showers releases endorphins which are good for your mental health. If sacrificing hot showers is too much for you, take short showers.

Want to lower your carbon footprint? Although it may not make much of a difference turning off the tap water when not using it for a few seconds, increases your carbon footprint. Just by turning off the water while you brushing your teeth in the morning and before bedtime, can save up to 8 gallons of water, adding up to more than 200 gallons a month.

Is it really necessary to pay for that 50 cents bag? You could just carry a reusable bag instead of buying a new one every time you go shopping.Not only will you be saving money, you'll also be saving the environment.

I completley agree. It really takes no extra effort to bring a few extra reusable bags when you go shopping. Not only does it save you money, but it also helps save the environment. Which makes it completely worth it.

Going shopping and spending 5~10 cents for a plastic bag? The better choice is to just bring along a cheap reusable bag for shopping. You don’t even have to carry it around every time you're about to go shopping, you can just store it in the storage compartment in the front of your car. Using a reusable shopping bag not only gets rid of your plastic bag collection but also helps the environment.

Hi, thank you for your comment and I agree with you! I used to get a plastic bag every time I went shopping until I realized how wasteful it is. Now I use a reusable bag that is not only good for the environment but also looks nice to carry around. I suggest everybody stop using plastic bags and get a reusable bag.

Eco-friendly options like buying reusable containers, water-saving and efficient appliances usually cost more than their non-green counterparts.
This also directly relates to human ethics. Buying cheap things made through underpaid and unsafe work saves a lot of money but also supports an extremely wrong industry. Compare this to buying things made in your home country, where every worker is paid a livable wage and all materials are environmentally friendly. It's obvious that it would cost a lot more.

I agree with this. While these re-usable items are a lot better for the environment, they cost more to produce and buy. Because of this, many people just decide to get the cheaper option, which while saving them money, will not have very good effects for the environment.

I see your point about eco-friendly options being more expensive, however, it is better than having so many bad stuff in our environment, such as plastic. I agree with your second paragraph, though as buying cheap things, such as clothes, but it is extremely unethical, as the workers are most likely underpaid.

I thoroughly agree with you. Sweatshops and other unsafe factories based on unprotected labor regulations save a lot of money, but are also very unethical. Usually, these products are made with non eco-friendly materials, since they’re so cheap. Organizations that use eco-friendly materials usually have more expensive products. While buying eco-friendly products is good for the environment, people have to recognize that we cannot do this unless the lines blur between classes and poorer people have access to much more money. -Rainn

I have to agree with you. Most of the products that Americans use are actually not from America but from other countries like China or countries that are not that rich. They make them from cheap materials that they ship to America and they get sold for a bigger price and get used for a year and get thrown out into the oceans.

Cars and other forms of transportation make negative impacts on the environment and air pollution. They emit carbon dioxide, along with other major greenhouse gases, thus causing worldwide temperatures to increase.  Ways to decrease this affect, is by carpooling, using public transportation, walking, using vehicles that don’t require gas, etc. These changes are quite small, but extremely effective and will have a positive impact on the environment.

Companies claim to have recyclable plastic bottles but that is false. Only about 9% of plastics are recycled and they will be reused a few more times and they to will join the other pieces of plastic in the oceans. The government should fund scientists to make actual recyclable plastic.

We should have done this a long time ago but we should ban or limit the use of cars that need gasoline. The government should fund companies that want to make electric cars like tesla. Electric cars will also cost half as much as a gasoline car from a study of the university of michigan.

Even with the smallest contribution, it’s possible to help our planet. I’m sure ALL of you have heard this many, many times, but it’s true. Whether it’s by recycling (even if it’s for the money), biking, using reusable bags, and relying less on gas, YOU can be the change. This lessens the amount of plastic and greenhouse gases in the world, and if we all contribute, the effects of our efforts will be seen on a much larger scale.  So if possible, please recycle, please reuse, and please help save our Earth.

- AS (ML)

Many people just push this aside. They don't think that the pollution is that bad. At the rate we are growing, scientists have confirmed that in 10 years, the air would be over 60. We need to change our lifestyle and though the change might be hard at first, we will get used to it overtime and save this planet a little longer.

When ever you go to the store you usually come home with 2 or 3 plastic bags. These plastic bags are made from nonrenewable resources and the process through which they are made from releases tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We can all cut down on the amount of plastic bags we use by just reusing the bags you get from buying groceries. Reusing bags is one of the easiest ways to help your community.

This may be more of a tertiary prevention than an actual change, but we could completely ban the usage of fossil fuels, and instead use other forms of renewable energy. These could be things like Hydroelectric Energy,harnessing the wind,and solar. Nuclear energy could also be good, as it releases less radiation into the air as fossil fuels, and it's overall very efficient.

We cant just "ban" them.. it is going to take a lot of time and on top of that a lot of space for solar panels..  Watch this you tube video, it will explain more about it

If you damage the environment and stuff you are a sussy impostor and deserve to be ejected form the spasce ship.

This is absolutely correct. I am the imposter and I will name anyone with malicious intents towards the environment as a sussy imposter.

It's very sus to hurt the environment. I agree those should be ejected from the space ship.

yes this is very sus

its true

Hello everybody, I think that we have to be honest with ourselves, everybody wants to save the planet and be a good ecologist in this world. But I think that if we wanted to be a real ecologist we  would have to be an extreme ecologist because to defend a cause we have to be an exemple. I mean that our foot print has to be approximately equal to zero. But be this type of hero doesn’t exist because it has a price and no one wanted to take this responsibility. I think that nobody want ’s to renounce to our privilege so we do some little things to say that we are ecologist and be accepted in this society. But that will not change anything, one man’s action can’t change anything. You will certainly say me : « if everybody do this little action it will make a great thing », but just for exemple turn of the light when we go out of our room is really really insignifiant when we are wearing clothes which have travel the whole world in a plane. You can do what you want but for me a decided to be honest with myself and be happy to be in this beautiful capitalist world.

The reason the things we do to reduce carbon footprint can seem insignificant sometime is because most pollution and carbon emissions come from major companies around the world.

This doesn't mean it's not good to make an effort to reduce your carbon footprint when you can, though. And this world being capitalist is not really the best option for earth's future at the moment.

While it’s true that small actions like turning off lights make very little difference, this doesn’t mean we should accept our fate. Ignoring the problem is exactly what previous generations did that led to the current situation. It’s our responsibility to give future generations a chance to live. Instead, this just means that we need to make a radical change to the very way we think. For example, using your analogy, we would need to start manufacturing clothes locally and reduce the carbon emitted from shipping products around the world. (This also means we should dismantle capitalism, which is responsible for the current consumerist mindset that is leading to rising carbon emissions.)

It's true that our efforts might be insignificant, but that doesn't mean you just stop. You have to push for larger efforts to be made. I noticed you mentioned capitalism - in my opinion, capitalism is actually one of the main reasons why our climate is as bad as it is. @girlboss already made a great example of why capitalism makes things worse, you should read their comment thoroughly.

If you damage the environment and stuff you are a sussy impostor and deserve to be ejected form the spasce ship.

People can lower their carbon footprint by doing many things. This includes using renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal power. People can also  try to buy only things that they need to avoid wasting products.

Yes, but telling everyone this wouldn't change much. People like to live more comfortably than this, and plus if nobody bought what they wanted then a lot of products on Earth right now would go to waste.

Many people from the 60's - 70's are thinking about that they did not do anything and regret everyday not taking actions. They knew about all the problems but did not do anything. it is on mine era to take some actions and we can't wait to start anymore

Yes, we need to take extreme measures to slow down climate change before there is nothing we can do. But, every year that is one everyone says they will do but not enough measures are being taken place...