EarthPlex - Climate Platform for Teens

Does Owning a Dog Help the Environment? ⏱ Read time: 1.5 minutes I got a puppy a few months ago. He weighs only a few pounds and looks extremely innocent. However, behind that innocent face is the potential for a lot of emissions. I decided to examine the environmental impact of owning a pet dog and if it's worth getting one.  Poop Like all animals, dogs need to do their business. If not picked up, animal waste can cause diseases and contamination. Dog poop can take a long time to decompose, so it's essential that it's cleaned after. When removing dog poop from the ground, make sure to use biodegradable  bags!  Food Dogs require a diet rich in proteins, and it's not a good idea to have them go vegan. As EarthPlex has discussed repeatedly, eating meat negatively impacts the environment because farming animals requires a lot of land, and animal digestion is a substantial source of emissions. Recommended:  Burger King’s Whopper With Cows That Fart Less Exercise It's no

What's Wrong With the Texas Power Grid? ⏱Read time: 1 minute Millions of Texans lost power recently because of cold temperatures, and thousands of people remain without power, according to poweroutage.us . This is certainly an emergency, but there has been confusion over what caused this. One side says that natural gas pipes froze while others put the blame on frozen wind turbines. So, which is causing Texans to lose power? It might be both. According to The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), most of Texas's energy comes from sources such as natural gas and coal. Newsweek and Statistica claim that about 23% of Texas's energy comes from wind, and wind turbines did freeze. Newsweek's article about the Texas power grid  goes more in-depth about the freezing of wind turbines. The problem with Texas's power isn't due to a specific resource but a lack of preparation. Texas rarely gets temperatures this cold, so they weren't prepared. In the future, Te

  Meet the Teen who can Make your School Run on Clean Energy  ⏱ Read time: 5 minutes EarthPlex has interviewed a variety of teen climate leaders, and many of them were involved in the Green Schools Campaign (GSC). EarthPlex had the opportunity to interview Simon Aron, the founder of the Green Schools Campaign. We discussed his work and involvement with GSC along with his opinions on The Green New Deal and more. Can you describe how you co-founded the Green Schools Campaign and how you assembled a team to work with you? My involvement in the Green Schools Campaign started from a simple Instagram DM. It was about a year ago, and I was just beginning to realize the enormity of the climate crisis. I decided I needed to do something, but I didn’t know how, so I reached out to Climate Reality Los Angeles chapter via Instagram to see if they needed help. Turns out, they were beginning to create the youth committee, and I was just in time! I became the co-chair and along with actor and direct

The Message of Let It Grow - The Lorax ⏱ Read time: 2.5 - 3 minutes EarthPlex wrote about the environmental message of How Bad Can I Be from The Lorax a few months ago, so I decided to continue looking into the meanings of songs that relate to conservation and the environment. Let It Grow is probably the most well-known Lorax  song, and it's pretty catchy too. I looked into the message of Let it Grow , the meme-worthy song about planting a tree, and I realized its relevance in  2021. In the song, the residents of Thneed-Ville sang about planting a tree. One of the lyrics that caught my eyes - or ears - was "you can't reap what you don't sow." I have actually been thinking about this lyric for a couple of months, and I'm still confused about its meaning. My understanding is that people cannot profit off of something they didn't create, as O'Hare profited off of clean air.  Speaking of O'Hare, he sang the best line of the song. Just when it seeme

Image: A very boring meme made with Kapwing ⏱ Read time: 2 minutes A couple months ago, I reacted to climate change memes posted on Youth of Climate Reality's Instagram account . Unfortunately, the account removed most of the incredible memes that I reacted to, so I left descriptions. For the second edition of climate meme reactions, I will react to memes from climatememes420 on Instagram .  Read: Reacting to Climate Change Memes from Youth of Climate Reality View this post on Instagram A post shared by Climate Change Memes (@climatememes420) Raising livestock not only kills animals but also requires tons of water and dangerous levels of carbon emissions. Plant-based meats are the clear alternative; they have lower environmental impacts, and they're healthier than real meats in some ways. We must phase meats out of our diets as plant-based alternatives become more affordable and accessable. For you:  Thoughts on the McDonald's McPlant Burger 

 I Totally Hated That Oatly Commercial | Super Bowl LV ⏱ Read time: 1 minute Super Bowl LV aired yesterday, and fans from all over the country watched the action-pact, exhilarating, entertaining... commercials. One, in particular, stood out: Oatly. Oatly is a popular Oat Milk brand that EarthPlex plans to review in the future. To get notified when we release new posts, follow our (FREE) mailing list and our social media accounts!   The commercial featured the CEO of Oatly, Toni Petersson, singing about Oatly and that it's plant-based. The advertisement was terrible, which I think was what they were going for. Oatly now sells a T-shirt that says, " I Totally Hated That Oatly Commercial." This is a genius publicity stunt. Cow milk requires lots of land and water, making it an unsustainable method of production. Plant-based milks don't involve animal farming, so they use fewer resources,  and therefore, are an eco-friendly alternative .  EarthPlex has reviewed various p

  Earth Hero App Full Review ⏱ Read time: 2 minutes EarthPlex has been searching for apps that can help increase awareness of people's emissions. When I was searching through the Google Play Store a few weeks ago, I found the Earth Hero app, and I've been using it since then. If you haven't read my first impressions of the app, you should go read it before this full review. Read: Earth Hero: Can This App Lower Emissions? What is Earth Hero? Earth Hero is an app on the App Store and Google Play Store that helps people lower their personal emissions. They have a list of actions that people can take; each action is organized by its impact level and difficulty. For example, switching electricity to clean energy has an impact of 75 (impact is measured on a point system based on positive environmental effects) and a difficulty level of medium.  Earth Hero's goal is for people to become more aware of their carbon emissions so they can lower them.  What I like Overall, I reall

The Environmental Impact of Returning to School ⏱ Read time: 2 minutes Since September, students have gradually returned to an in-person learning environment. Coronavirus has changed our day-to-day lives along with the ecosystems on our planet. Covid-19 caused animal populations to regenerate in unprecedented ways. As life reverts to the way it was in 2019, we will see our planet respond. I decided to examine how returning to school will affect the environment. Read: Coronavirus Won’t Stop Climate Change Heating and air conditioning First, school buildings - which probably had heating and air conditioning off or on low power - will have to maintain room temperature. (This is assuming that the schools have sufficient heating and air conditioning.) Heating and air conditioning require power and energy, which will in turn increase fossil fuel emissions . It's important to note that if students' homes no longer contain occupants during the day, reducing the heat or air conditioning