EarthPlex - Climate Platform for Teens

  How This Teenager Composts With Her Family By Yara Sultan, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

 Creating Clean Water With Freewaters By Marisa Vo, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  We Love Our Oceans, Right? By Annika Hurtig, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  Do You Have the Knowledge to Protect Your Environment? By Emma Truong, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  The Dark Side of Fast Fashion By Jesus Esquivel Marin, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  When Will We Choose Change? By Audrey Bickley, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

Raise Our Voices, Not Pollution  By Samantha Abascal, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  The Water Access Crisis By Alina Zuniga, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  Microplastic Pollution Affects Both People and Animals By Francisco Islas, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  The Dangers of Deforestation By Omar Ali, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

 Even YOU can make a difference, so you might as well try By Wyatt Wilhelm, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  Endangered Species in California By Jimmy Martinez, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

 What Happens to the Trash in Our Oceans? By Dominic Caiazzo, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

 Tackling the Ocean Plastics Crisis By Tyler Chiangtong, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  The Zero-Waste World Starts With You By Sara Ligman, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  Wolves Are a Vital Part of the Environment. They're Dying By Ryan Bavouset, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

How to Save the Glaciers By Alexander Garcia Benitez, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

 Climate Change: The Problem and Solution By Cyan, grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  The Ocean's Future Depends on YOU By Gisell, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  The Ocean Plastic Crisis By Mikayla Fields, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

What if it was Your Home? - PSA By Emily Spears, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

How Pollution Affects Marine Life By Samantha Medina, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  Ending Plastic Waste By Esmeralda Brito, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

Why Seals are Sadder Than you Think By Saige Prim, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

  Meatless Mondays PSA By Ezekiel Saldana, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our  Submit a Post   page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

 Think Green and Save The Marine! By Tony Cerezo, Grade 9 This submission is part of an environmental PSA project created by students at Ocean View High School.  Visit our Submit a Post page to feature your work on EarthPlex!

Are School Uniforms the Answer to Gen Z’s Overconsumption Problem? By Charlotte Roberts, age 16 Across millions of TikTok videos marked with the hashtag #haul, the scene remains consistent: a Gen Z influencer unboxing dozens of items worth of clothing, usually at an attractive price to the consumer but a detrimental one to the environment. Viewers can usually count on seeing these outfits appear once in an Instagram story or TikTok clip and then deemed “out of style” and discarded to make closet room for the next shipment. The cycle repeats itself, and with each new trend comes more waste and environmental harm.  While the desire to keep up with the latest trends is not unique to Gen Z, social media, such as TikTok, with 60% of its one billion users being Gen Z, has made it easier than ever for young adults, including high schoolers, to see what their peers and popular influencers are categorizing as trendy must-haves. With over 45 billion views across the TikTok hashtags #haul, #cloth

 Why Global Warming Will Never Demolish By Seungjun Jung, age 19 Record-breaking temperatures flash across screens while sea levels creep up shores and catastrophic natural disasters sweep across continents, all of which seem to exacerbate each year. Global warming has time and time been condemned as the killer of Mother Earth, the news of which has only recently jolted the international community out of its oblivion, intentional or otherwise. According to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050,  the world will “need commitments that will deliver a reduction of emissions by 45% by 2030…” While a commendable emulation, the potentiality of this ambition remains dubious in mere eight short years. The money, time, and manpower necessary for the development of renewable energy infrastructures are staggering, and while this may seem like a feasible goal for rich developed countries, it might as well be a crushing sentence for poo

  In 2021, billionaire Marc Lore announced plans to construct a city called Telosa that would have the capacity to house millions of residents. Lore assembled a diverse team of economists, visionaries, and innovators to make this city unique; if his plans work, Telosa will lead the world in sustainability. What is Telosa? Telosa is a city currently in the planning process, with the goal of "creat[ing] a new city in America that sets a global standard for urban living, expands human potential, and becomes a blueprint for future generations." The city will be built in Arizona, Nevada, or Utah and will cover 150,000 acres of land. Telosa's many sustainable qualities include an advanced water recycling system that could mitigate the effects of draughts caused by climate change and even provide water for neighboring towns, a robust renewable energy system with the goal of producing more energy than the city uses, and a tremendous amount of green space with greenery incorporat

  By Ayrek-Robison-Hanchett, 15 Global warming Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the world has been getting worse. For example, the greenhouse effect is causing the ice caps to melt which is causing the oceans to rise! Little things like driving your car to work can make a big difference because if we just act like it doesn't exist, then sooner or later, we won't have an earth to call home. Problems with the water, but why? The use of CO2 (carbon dioxide) has made the greenhouse effect worse, and with the heat in the air, the temperatures start to rise, meaning that the ice caps are slowly melting; for instance, NASA has found that the oceans are slowly rising 8 inches every ten years and are only getting worse.  Cities close to the sea like New York City, New York, and Jacksonville, Florida are in the most danger! What's with all the storms? With the earth warming, there has been an increase in evaporation. Because of this, the perfect conditions for hurricanes have

  How Conservation Work Changed My Life By Autumn Litten, Age 17 As soon as I moved within five feet of my dad, he let out a noise somewhere between a yelp and a gasp and told me that I smelled like a stray dog and was in desperate need of a shower. “45 minutes MINIMUM,” he ordered. I simply smiled a knowing smile and obliged. Being under warm running water had never felt so close to paradise before in my entire 16 years of existence - but that night it was a sweet, sweet, hour of pure bliss.  Now, this wasn’t the greeting I had exactly expected from my dad after not seeing him for 5 weeks, but it was a reasonable one as he was right - I had showered for a total of 10 minutes, broken up between 3 separate occasions, during those 35 days.  Once in the shower, the water that ran down my body and to the shower’s drain was brown. Dark brown. I was washing off just over a month’s worth of sweat, dirt, and who knows what else. The time leading up until this moment had been the hardest five w

All About Hybrid Vehicles Hyundong Cho, age 13 Hybrid cars are becoming more common in the 21st century. It is no surprise that the technology for building hybrid cars has gotten more accurate and intense. Hybrid car owners may know that their car is earth-friendly but may not know how the car operates. This article is more than enough to get people’s brains caught up on hybrid cars. Ferdinand Porsche is the first person (company) to create a hybrid vehicle. The first hybrid car, Lohner-Porsche Mixte, contains a common four-cylinder engine with two motors to make it a hybrid car (Porsche Cars North America), (Figure 1). Air pollution was becoming a problem for humanity, so many countries took action. Thereby, the car companies focused on electric/hybrid cars.  Figure 1: The first hybrid car, Lohner-Porsche Mixte. Photo from Motorbiscuit. The most popular first mass-produced EV/hybrid was the Toyota Prius and the Rav-4 EV. Even though the Toyota Prius was mass-produced, it was only in J

  #TeamSeas - Everything you Need to Know In 2019, YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) teamed up with Mark Rober and the YouTube community to plant 20 million trees . The project was a success, and more trees are being planted to this day. Two years later - on October 29, 2021 - Rober and Donaldson announced a new project: #TeamSeas. The goal of #TeamSeas is to remove 30 million pounds of trash from the Earth's oceans. They claim that every dollar donated equates to one pound of trash removed from the ocean. Is it Enough? About 16 billion pounds of plastic enter the ocean every year. Estimates put the total amount of plastics in the ocean at 300 billion pounds. If #TeamSeas achieves its goal of removing 30 million pounds of plastic from the ocean, that would be 1/10,000 of the total, or 0.0001%.  Information about the amount of plastic in the Ocean is from the Ocean Conservancy . These numbers sound discouraging, but 30 million pounds is a good start, and it will spur investment in

 The Future of EarthPlex Last year, we switched from creating three posts every week down to two . This was meant to improve the quality of posts. Now, that will be taken a step farther. Recently, we started posting less frequently; not even every week. We will continue this trend, so when we do post, the topics will be more interesting. If you would like to see more frequent posts, you can write your own by visiting our "Submit a Post" page! Encourage your friends to submit posts as well!  If you have any ideas that would help us to improve, comment it below or contact us ! Thanks for reading!

  The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative By Anna Goldstone, 17 What is it? The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. RGGI is an agreement between states in order to reduce 30% of carbon emissions, from 2020 through 2030. This program is implemented in the following states: NY, NJ, ME, MA, CT, NH, DE, MD, RI, VT, and VA. Pennsylvania is in the process of trying to get the initiative across the state, and Gov. Tom Wolf is using his executive powers to implement RGGI by the start of 2022. In January 2021, Wolf signed an executive order setting climate goals to reduce carbon emissions by 26% by 2025, 80% by 2050. The initiative’s goals are planned to be achieved by capping the amount of CO2 emissions from the states’ electric power plants. Since the regional cap is the most important, individual states are selling or auctioning off their CO2 emissions allowances. The majority of CO2 emissions are auctioned and the money is used to

"How We Fix the Climate" According to World-Famous Authors John Green and Hank Green are well-known authors, entrepreneurs, and YouTubers. Following a recent climate report from the United Nations , the two brothers made a video about how to fight climate change. I found this video incredibly informative and inspiring, and I believe everyone should watch it. The video lists a few ways to lower your negative impact on the environment, the most important being to inform yourself on policies. Any EarthPlex reader knows that being informed can help people to make more educated and wiser decisions. A few minutes into the video, there's a chart that breaks down what is contributing to greenhouse gas emissions . This alone is enough information to make you more educated about climate change than 99% of the public, but the video contains plenty more information.  For example, the video explores solutions to climate change, such as carbon pricing. These solutions are explained in

  Solarpunk: What the World will Look Like if we Beat Climate Change The future. Will it be good or bad? We can never know, as it's impossible to predict. However, we can see several possibilities of our future through art. We're going to explore Solarpunk, an artform that envisions a future where we have defeated climate change and become one with nature. What is Solarpunk? Solar punk is a design style focused on a future with lots of greenery. The image above is a real photograph of Singapore's Gardens by the Bay. This is the greatest example of real-life Solarpunk. Most examples of Solarpunk are only renderings. The Amazon Spheres (pictured above) in Seattle is also an example of Solarpunk in real life. Its interior contains trees to give it a nature-like effect.  Final Thoughts It is cool to imagine a world where we can get rid of our environmental issues, but this requires cooperation. A few green futuristic buildings cannot put an end to the climate crisis, but Solarp

Boxed Water Review Bottled water is convenient. Obviously, plastic bottles are terrible for the environment (not to mention the marked up prices), but people still buy them. Why? Because they're simple and convenient. What if there could be an alternative to bottled water that has a positive environmental impact? That's the idea of Boxed Water. What is Boxed Water Boxed Water is brand that basically sells water bottles, but they come in boxes, sort of like milk cartons. Above is a picture of a 250 mL box, which I tried.  Review Boxed Water simply tasted like water. The box did not affect the water at all. It was just as convenient as any plastic water bottle I've used. Overall, Boxed Water is just water, but in a more environmentally friendly package.  Buy Boxed Water here! For you:  Is Smartwater Smart? No

How We're Solving Climate Change Wrong Nuseir Yassin is an Israeli-American digital creator. He publishes videos to social media platforms under the name Nas Daily , covering incredible people and important issues. A popular video on his YouTube channel  tells a story of when he went to McDonald's. An employee informed him that they didn't have plastic straws, a sensible move that companies have taken to better their impacts on the environment. However, Nuseir noticed that he was drinking from a plastic cup, and the utensils were plastic. Additionally, McDonald's serves meat, which is terrible for the environment, begging the question, "Why does McDonald's care about straws, but not cups, utensils, or the food they serve. What is selective empathy? This post isn't about McDonald's. It's about selective empathy, something we are all guilty of. Here's an example of selective empathy: people feel sad when a celebrity dies tragically but not when th