Presented are a selection of the student writings online and in print.
Dear Editor,
Milk and climate change: A story of how everything can affect this world
A few days ago, I was drinking milk for breakfast, and I accidentally spilled it. Instead of pouring myself some more, it made me think how much impact it would make on the environment if I spilled milk every day. I also started to wonder how humans have been affecting the earth and its environment for the past 10 years because we have not been taking particularly diligent care of it.
A lot of people consume milk every day, because it is good for our body and health. It’s quite a surprise to hear that a person drinks an average of 13,056 pints of milk in her or his lifetime. This is a lot of milk and to produce all the milk that humans consume, there are 9.2 million milk cows. They eat over 100 pounds of grass in one day. On top of that they use 50 gallons of water, to let these cow live, they need over 20 million acres (about the area of Kentucky) of land.
Some things all humans do at least once every two days is taking a shower. It’s nice to take a shower and clean yourself. Showers is a very normal thing for us we take all know how to do it. But all these showers end up averaging you 28,433 showers in your life.
Adding on using the toilet, washing your hands, and watering your lawn you use about 1 million gallons of water in your lifetime. To put this into perspective even a leaky faucet can waste 2,700 gallons of water a year.
Chocolate is one of the world most popular snacks everyone from kids to seniors eat them. But the candy bar in your cupboard or in your hand can add up to about 14,518 candy bars in your lifetime! To keep up with the demand producers uses 320 million pounds of peanuts, 759 million pounds of cocoa beans, 2.3 billion pounds of sugar and 1.04 billion pounds of milk each year. That is a lot of food.
How much the everyday things I wrote up in paragraph one really makes a difference. By doing the things we take for granted us humans are artificially changing the level of greenhouse gas.
We do this by releasing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Studies show that in 2050 the earth will have twice as many days above the temperature of 30 degrees.
People are not caring. There is still debate whether if global warming is happening or not. We lose an average of 13 per cent of or sea ice each decade and on the last 30 years and we have lost around 95 per cent of the old ice chunks in the Artic.
It’s such a shame really because these ice chunks can tell us how the environment has been doing by digging a hole in the ground and looking at the air bubbles. But our main problem right know is fossil fuels. They are 70 per cent of all greenhouse gas, yet every day over 115 million cars are still used in America alone. According to the [American government’s Energy Information Administration] Americans use 390 million gallons of gasoline. This sums up to about 3.4 gallons of gasoline for each car every day.
It shows that we need to start the process of mitigation. The process of reducing greenhouse gas is called mitigation and it reduces buildup of greenhouse gas there are many things that we can do.
There are many ways that we can create change. Here are a six of effective ways to change the earth.
Firstly, plastic plays a significant role in the environment all the plastic bags, straws, and bottles all end up in the ocean this isn’t good for the environment.
Secondly, make an energy diary it helps you see how much energy you used each week. If you tally up all the times you used energy each day, you will see if you are doing good or need to improve this can really help you limit your energy output and make sure that you do not use more energy than you need.
Third, turn off the lights when you don’t need them. They waste energy at an alarming rate.
Next, air conditioners are very energy wasting and unnecessary you don’t have to have the AC on all the time you can just wear some thicker jacket.
Use rainwater. Watering your lawn every couple of days takes a lot of water and if you just put some buckets outside when it is raining you can save quite a bit of water.
Finally, trees play a major role in helping slow global warming. They suck in the carbon and give out oxygen – the exact opposite of humans. You could help by planting trees or you can even donate to noble causes like Team Trees that take your money and plant trees with it.
There is only one earth. It is the human beings home. It is where we live. It provides for us, but humans take the good of the earth and used it against it. The earth is in ruins, and if humans don’t action now it is going to be too late so everyone can do their part everyone should try to not spill their milk.
Henry, Grade 7, Gordon Greenwood Elementary
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