EarthPlex - Climate Platform for Teens

According to Google Trends , searches related to Zoom Video Communications grew by about one hundred times in the month of March. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in a surge of new video calls, with the platform, Zoom, leading the herd of video communications companies. A bit off-topic, but what happened to Skype? Anyway, is Zoom good for the environment? The video calling revolution is upon us and it will have an everlasting effect on our economy and the planet. Most importantly, Zoom calls replace the need for students to go to school and for employees to commute. A commute usually requires a lot of carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere. If video calls become the new normal, a long car ride will be replaced by opening a laptop and socializing with coworkers or peers.  In addition, fewer commercial buildings will need to exist in order to support the population and growing economy. The decrease in commercial real estate development translates to a need for fewer reso...

Recently, we discussed renewable energy and its benefits. There was a form of energy we didn’t mention, primarily because it’s not renewable. Still, this is a form of clean energy with potential to change the world. In case you didn’t read the title, I’m referring to nuclear energy. What is it and how does it work? Nuclear fusion is when “two light nuclei smash together and fuse to create a heavier nucleus,” according to energy.gov . It is inspired by the way stars, such as the sun, burn energy. Nuclear fission on the other hand, is the splitting of an atom’s nucleus. Nuclear fusion is a better source of energy than fission because it's safer and more powerful.  Environmental Benefits According to the International Atomic Energy Agency , Nuclear fusion doesn’t emit carbon dioxide into the air. This means that it has major potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions if the technology becomes more widely used. Its fuel, hydrogen and lithium, are widely available. Conserve Energy Fut...

Premise I may be a bit old to be reading children’s books, but “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein really stuck out to me. It's about a young boy who adored playing with a tree. As he grew older, he used the tree’s resources for profit, housing, and transportation. The more he took from the tree, the less the tree had left to give. By the end of the story, (SPOILER ALERT) the tree had become a stump. Symbolism “The Giving Tree” symbolizes humanity’s toxic relationship with trees. The trees give and we take. We cut down trees for resources and to make room for “more important things.” In response, the trees don’t ask for anything. They are powerless and it is our responsibility to limit the amount of trees we cut down. Review While reading the book, I primarily felt disappointed; not in the writing - the book itself was well written. It disappointed me that a person would strip the life out of a tree for greed. However, that is our world, and Shel Silverstein did a good job of...

The generation who the Paris Agreement helps most is also the generation with no say in government. As of now, almost every country has signed it. Sadly, the United States of America, one of Earth’s greatest emitters of fossil fuels , is attempting to withdraw from the agreement. In order to understand the significance of The Paris Agreement, we have to know what it states. What is it?  According to the Natural Resources Defense Council , the Paris Agreement aims to reduce and assist developing countries in reducing the amount of emitted greenhouse gasses, limiting global temperatures. This is our global leaders’ response to climate change .  The U.S. Withdraws In 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement because it “disadvantages the United States, to the exclusive benefit of other countries,” as Trump addressed. The United States is still a part of it because the withdrawing process takes three years. It...

I am writing this fifteen days after the murder of George Floyd - one of many victims of police brutality - so I’ve had time to reflect and listen to stories from different perspectives. I attended a local Black Lives Matter protest as well. Even though he was not an angel, George Floyd didn’t deserve to be murdered, and the color of one’s skin should not determine one’s odds of being murdered by the police in 2020. EarthPlex believes that diversity can help businesses, schools, teams, and society in general by offering a range of perspectives and ideas.  Racial justice relates to environmental justice because we cannot have a clean environment without making significant progress uniting. We must start by joining together peacefully. Then we can attack the climate crisis. We need diverse ideas that reflect on every American’s different experience and creatively end climate change.  Not every police officer is at fault for this racial catastrophe, but the system itself is...

So, I told you guys that I would review the Beyond Burger in a recent post analyzing Beyond Meat’s environmental impact. I am keeping my word, but I realized that I am not a food reviewer. This is EarthPlex, not FoodPlex. Leansquad’s review is more of your average food review, but I’m sure there is some enjoyment in reading a review from somebody who eats food like anybody else and doesn’t think about every little ingredient as he chews.  As a climate blogger, I can discuss the benefits the burger has on the environment more easily than I can break down the taste, but with that out of the way, it is time for a climate blogger to review the Beyond Burger. Where should I start? Where do most food reviewers start? I’ll start with how normal burgers taste. No, you probably already know that. Appearance Okay, I have decided to start with the Beyond Burger’s appearance. It looks like a burger, but if I look closely, I think I can see vegetables. Maybe, it's me just thinking about the v...

Smartwater, and all plastic one-time-use bottled water for that case, isn’t smart. Not only is it thousands of times more expensive than tap water, but it hurts the environment too. Think about Fiji Water, “Earth’s finest water.” Yes, it’s made in Fiji, but does that really matter. It’s still water. Tap water in most parts of the United States is healthy, so why would somebody pay so much more for some extra convenience? Plastic bottles are one-time use, so they get thrown out immediately. This builds up to a lot of trash. As you read this, hundreds of thousands of bottles are being thrown out. They end up in landfills, or worse, in ecosystems and oceans. There are entire companies, such as 4ocean , dedicated to removing plastic from the water. On the other hand, reusable bottles can be used thousands of times before being disposed of. This reduces the amount of pollution drastically. Smartwater isn’t smart because it’s not reusable and can create a dent in your wallet over the lon...

Renewable Energy - The Basics  Imagine a world with limitless resources and enough energy to power everything without running out. You could have anything you wish for because, well, nothing would run out. On Earth, we are nowhere near that status, and if we ever do achieve it, it wouldn’t be for a very long time.  In fact, there is even a scale that measures how society uses energy: the Kardashev Scale. The Kardashev scale measures how much energy we can harness on a logarithmic scale from one to three. A type one society can harness the energy of a planet, a type two society can harness a star’s energy, and a type three society can harness an entire galaxy. Let me answer the question everybody wants to know: where’s Earth on this scale? You may be surprised to find out that we are only a 0.72 society. Yes, there’s a type zero. Futurism does an excellent job of explaining why Earth is a type zero society.  Definition Now that you understand how little civilization has p...

Climate change has been the topic of many protests and discussions lately. Prince Ea, a YouTuber, is known for creating inspiring videos, and he made one about climate change. I watched the video to understand and reflect on what he says. Let’s begin. " Dear Future Generations, I think I speak for the rest of us When I say, Sorry, sorry we left you with Our mess of a planet. Sorry that we were too caught up in our own doings to do something. Sorry we listened to people Who made excuses, To do nothing." Since the Industrial Revolution, Earth has been treated like garbage, and this was made aware a long time ago, but not much was done about it. More awareness spread beginning in the twenty-first century, and Millennials have expressed anger towards the older generations who have not set many environmental regulations. " I hope you forgive us, We just didn't realize how special The earth was, Like a marriage going wrong, We didn't know what we had Until it w...