EarthPlex - Climate Platform for Teens

An open letter to Starbucks: Think of the environment, not the Siren Written by Mia Risser, age 18 Dear Starbucks corporations,  I am writing to inform you that the amount of plastic you produce and use every day is a big problem.  As one of the biggest food and beverage companies in the world, you must try to better the environment in any way possible.  Whether it be making a reusable alternative or producing less plastic as a company in general, your impact on the environment must change.  A better environment is important for safety.  A strong environment is important for development.  A clean environment is important for human lives. As someone who has worked at Starbucks for almost two years, I know I have a significant reason to be writing this letter.  In just a few hours, we go through hundreds of plastic cups.  Starbucks—more than any other to-go coffee shop—“uses more than 8,000 cups in a minute, which adds up to more than four billion i...

  Why Ecosia Will Always be Worse Than Google When I search Google for "stayin alive lyrics",  the search results page shows all of the words to the song. When I make the same search on Ecosia  - an environmentally friendly alternative to Google - I see a list of links. When I Googled "How Tall is Lebron James", it told me he's 6'9" before I even clicked enter. Ecosia, again, gave me a list of links. While Google provides in-your-face answers to your questions, Ecosia requires more work to find answers. This post will explore why that is. What is Ecosia Ecosia is a search engine with a social mission. The majority of ad revenue goes toward reforestation efforts, and Ecosia works with organizations to plant trees. The work they have been doing is remarkable, but Ecosia has an issue that won't allow it to become the greatest search engine. Ecosia's problem Ecosia invests more than half of its revenue into planting trees, according to its June 2021...

  The Environmental Impact of Google Alphabet is one of the largest internet companies in the world, so the decisions made by its executives impact every human on this planet. Fortunately, Alphabet has shown great commitment to limiting its ecological footprint.  In case you didn't know, Alphabet is the owner of Google along with some other companies such as Nest and DeepMind. This post will focus on Google's environmental impact. Energy investments Google has made large investments to run on clean energy and keep its impact minimal. The company also has bold ambitions that will allow it to run on renewable energy all of the time. Saving trees The internet has replaced paper products such as newspapers and encyclopedias. Paper products equate to cutting down trees. Google Docs means that less paper is needed for writing and Gmail has replaced snail mail. Combined with Google's reforestation efforts, more trees exist because of Alphabet's innovations. Final thoughts Alp...

Google Maps Will Stop Showing the Fastest Route  Google announced that its popular GPS app would stop showing the fastest route by default, but instead show the most fuel-efficient route. This is controversial, but Google had valid reasons to do this. The good thing about this decision is that it will protect the environment. The most fuel-efficient route uses less gas than the fastest route, and often, the most fuel-efficient is also the quickest. In addition, this will save drivers gas money. Similar:  Your Guide to Sustainable Driving It is fair to be critical about this change because it will slow people down, and although the most fuel-efficient route probably isn't much slower than the fastest route, people want to arrive as soon as they can, so this option may bother many users. However, users have the option to default to using the fastest route.  Google's new change to Maps is controversial, but it could be a positive change for the planet. Google should let us k...

Alter Eco Dark Chocolate Bar Review  Halloween is approaching, and families are buying candy to give out to trick-or-treaters. I don't know if Halloween will be anything like it's been in the past because 2020 has been quite a year. There are a few issues with candy - specifically chocolate. First, it's quite unhealthy (newsflash), and second, it is not very good for the earth. Most chocolate bars require unfair treatment of cows, and we have explored the environmental impact of breeding cows in a few of our posts .  That's where alter eco comes in. They state that their mission is "to pioneer a full circle approach to eating, farming, and doing business – and to inspire others to do the same." As a certified B Corporation, they prioritize giving back to the world, and their tree planting efforts make up for more than their carbon emissions, according to alter eco's website . In addition,  their chocolate is made from clean ingredients, and it comes in co...

  The Machine that Turns Ice Cream into Energy | The Ben & Jerry's Chunkinator  Ben & Jerry's is one of the most well-known ice cream companies, and as a certified B Corporation , they also care about corporate social responsibility. One of the coolest parts about the Unilever-owned brand is The Chunkinator, and that's saying a lot for the company that invented cookie dough ice cream!  The Chunkinator turns ice cream into energy, so Ben & Jerry's uses their own product to power the production of more of that product. The Chunkinator is a BIOPAQ®AFR Biodigester, and it basically works like this: micro-organisms eat the ice cream in the machine and turn it into biogas. You can read more about it on the Ben & Jerry's website or the BIOPAQ®AFR official web page . The Chunkinator can cut food waste by converting it into energy, and it can cut carbon emissions as well. Ben & Jerry's states that The Chunkinator has powered the production of 16 mill...

Apple Stopped Including Charging Adapters With their Products - Why it's a Good Thing  I've watched a lot of tech YouTube videos over the years. Creators such as Marques Brownlee  have educated me on the smartphone industry, so when I found out that Apple was rumored to sell their charging cables separately from the 2020 iPhone, I was surprised. Yes, they've already ditched the headphone jack along with other ports, but not including a charging cable is a whole new level. Update: The iPhone 12 doesn't ship with a lightning adapter, as rumored. Apple announced two new Apple Watch models on September 15, 2020, that won't include cables in the box, which supports the rumor that the lightning adapter won't be included in the next iPhone. My first thoughts were Oh come on! That's a cheap move!  But the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that this wasn't a very bad idea. If you're an Apple fanboy or fangirl, ask yourself this: How many iP...

 The Best Environmental Sources  Like many of you reading this, I am interested in climate change and the environment as a whole. As a climate blogger, I must have adequate sources to maintain the integrity of this website. Citing sources is necessary every time I include information that I didn't previously know (contrary to my beliefs, there's a lot that I don't know). I decided to compile some of the most trustworthy sources for when you're curious about the environment, ranked in no particular order.   EarthPlex (Yes, us!) How could I not include the site you're currently on!? EarthPlex is a blog and climate platform guided towards teens. We frequently post high-quality content about climate change and how to live a more ethical life. As a NY Times featured platform , we feel the need to contribute accurate information to educate teens on humanity's biggest challenge. You can read more about us in our mission statement .  World Wildlife Fund (WWF)    ...

TikTok and the Environment  It seems that everybody between the ages of 13 and 20 has TikTok, the social media app that has transformed American culture. It's owned by the Chinese internet company, ByteDance, and it's synonymous with teens dancing to "TikTok songs" and sabotaging Trump rallies. Let me put it out there: when I said everybody between the ages of 13 and 20 has it, I meant to say that everybody between those ages has it except for me. I don't want to lose my target audience by saying this, but I don't get TikTok. This isn't about my opinions, though, and we'll put all of my negative thoughts aside for my environmental analysis of TikTok. TikTok has gathered teens together, and it has done a really good job. Any post has the opportunity to reach millions of users, and some of the posts are very inspiring. A single post could potentially change lives, and some of them are about climate change . TikTokers have raised climate awareness, which ...

The Mysterious Environmental Impact of Supreme If you haven’t heard of Supreme, you may be intrigued to find out that a business with less than fifteen locations has taken the world by storm. Supreme is well placed in a market where exclusivity manipulates consumers’ decisions. They take a product, usually an article of clothing, and sell it at a marked up price. Supreme paraphernalia sells for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars on the resale market.  But when it comes to their environmental impact, much is unknown. The company is private and secretive about their emissions. The lack of transparency means that they may have unethical practices that worsen the planet. Good On You, a website that rates clothing companies based on how ethical they are , recommends avoiding them because they don’t share their production practices.  If we were to try to estimate Supreme’s environmental impact, we would predict it to be relatively small compared to other clothing companie...

Burger King’s Whopper With Cows That Fart Less - Explained The Problem  Cows burp and fart methane, which is bad for the planet. The EPA claims that agriculture amounts to almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions; a portion of that comes from cattle digestion. How can people eat beef with a lower carbon footprint if cows’ burps and farts are killing the planet? Of course there are vegan options , but many consumers prefer real beef. Burger King’s solution That’s where Burger King’s new Whopper comes in. They claim that they can reduce emissions by more than 33% by using cows that burp and fart less. This way, consumers can feel better about their choices. How it works Burger King will add 100 grams of lemon grass to the diets of its cows. Lemon grass helps with digestion, so the cows will flatulate less. The chief marketing officer of Restaurant Brands International (Burger King’s parent company) told Business Insider that “without lemongrass, more methane is emitted primaril...

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...

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...

Beyond Meat and the Environment Burgers are a staple of the American diet. Billions of them are consumed each year. Sadly, meat production requires energy, water, and land. Agriculture, especially with cattle, is really bad for the Earth. We all love burgers, but we don’t want to feel guilty eating them. That’s where Beyond Meat comes in. Beyond believes that “there is a better way to feed the planet.”  So, do they have a better way to feed the planet? Well, yes, depending on what you consider better. At EarthPlex, we consider the better option to be the one that is more sustainable. You may be wondering, What is my Big Mac doing to destroy the world? Well, Brian, red meat uses a lot of water in the production process, requires farming land, and methane from cattle digestion pumps tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Now you may be wondering, How can one company fix all of these problems? Well - let’s make you Jill - Beyond doesn’t make meat like most companies do; instead...