EarthPlex - Climate Platform for Teens

Sustainable Tourism in the Covid Era By Xander Smith, age 17 With the distribution of millions of vaccines throughout the world, the beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have begun. Because of this, many people are starting to feel more comfortable to travel abroad again and are planning summer getaways. However, in order to make sure beloved locations are able to endure an influx of tourists, we need to remember to travel sustainably.  Sustainable tourism is the act of traveling somewhere while making little-to-no impact on the environment and local culture, and a positive impact on the local economy. This can be seen as staying in a locally-owned Airbnb and eating at locally-owned restaurants opposed to staying at a large resort owned by a big corporation. This becomes much more complex however when Covid is involved. Each country has responded to the pandemic in different ways and are currently at different stages of recovery. Thus, it is vital to only travel ...

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...

  The Climate Change News of 2020 | Earth Rewind ⏱2.5 minute read 2020 was a crazy year; life changed as we know it, and the world will forever be altered. Even though the coronavirus pandemic took over the news, the climate change threat has grown. This post will highlight the challenges and the progress from this year.  Wildfires 2020 began with a bang. The 2020 Australian wildfires were one of the first omens that this would be a bad year. Australia experienced unprecedented fires that ravaged parts of the beautiful country. Later in the year, another season of California wildfires began. They seem to worsen each year. The forest fires displaced citizens and weakened our economy, with a lot more damage in store. These wildfires are caused by global warming and a lack of forest management. For you: Climate Emergency: Wildfires  Reduced Emissions 2020 brought a nasty recession which caused millions of people to lose their jobs. Because industry slowed, emissions did as w...

 The Face Mask Pollution Problem  I read an Instagram post from 4ocean‌ earlier today. It detailed the PPE masks that are being found in oceans during the coronavirus pandemic . I highly request reading it and following EarthPlex on Instagram with this link . With millions of tons of plastic finding their way into the ocean every year, face masks disrupting aquatic ecosystems is a fatal problem that is masked (pun intended) by the severity of this pandemic. This problem doesn’t have to be as extreme as it’s been, for there is a simple solution to this catastrophe: reusable masks. I don’t have to go into much detail regarding the advantages of wearing a reusable mask. Consumers can only buy one or two masks that will last as long, or longer, than a box of conventional face masks. A reusable mask requires more resources to manufacture than an individual one-time use mask, but in the long term, they’re a much wiser option. I’ve been using a reusable mask for the majority o...

A Scavenger Hunt During Quarantine August 1 kicked off the 2020 GISH scavenger hunt. Many teams will compete to win it. So, what is GISH? Founded by Misha Collins from Supernatural, GISH is an online scavenger hunt that causes unreasonable pain and suffering . I signed up for it with my family a few weeks ago, and believe me, it seemed like a good idea at the time . Challenges include getting members of Congress to play at a park (Congressional Recess) and creating a bicycle-powered toothbrush.  My team, called MostlyCousins, is competing against hundreds of other teams to claim the title of top GISHers. For bored people of all ages, GISH is a fabulous way to spend quarantine; it’s taken my mind off of my stresses, and now I’m determined to win this hunt! What does GISH have to do with the environment? The challenges in the scavenger hunt “focus on tackling some of the world’s social problems,” they say on their website . Some of the challenges encourage voting, one of the most eff...

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...

This decade got off to a rocky start. When we said we wanted the “roaring twenties,” a global pandemic was certainly not what we envisioned. At EarthPlex, we focus on another one of Earth’s greatest threats: climate change. Well, it turns out that our two enemies go hand in hand. They say that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, but in this case, not so much. The Good  It is a challenge to write about the upsides to a virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. However, we are an environmental platform, and therefore, we discuss the environment. COVID-19 has actually helped to lower emissions due to a decrease in economic activity.  Nonessential workers worked from home. Many of them commuted to work by car or public transportation. Now, they commute to another room in their house, or if they’re like me, do all their work in bed. (Typed from my bedroom) This decrease in demand for transportation meant fewer cars on the road and fewer trains on the tracks. This t...

5 Ways to Help the Environment During the Coronavirus Pandemic These are strange times. It seems as if the world has paused, but it is still here and it needs your help! Even though you are only one person, your actions have a great influence on the Earth. So, what can you do to help it? 1. Do Not Hoard Items You Won’t Use It seems there is a shortage of everything now, but treating every day like there is about to be a zombie apocalypse is nonsensical. There will be enough food to feed our mouths and enough toilet paper to wipe our tushes. Buying boxes of products you will not need to use adds to the panic and requires more manufacturing, increasing your carbon footprint. Only buy what you will use. 2. Unplug Electronics take up electricity, obviously, so spending hour after hour on them is not shrewd if your goal is to use less energy. During a pandemic, it seems natural to waste time on Netflix and Instagram, but something has to power your device’s battery! And that something r...