By this point, you may be wondering: "How do I help prevent climate change from happening anymore?" Here are a few tips to get you started:
Make sure to organize trash, recycling, and compost items into their bins accordingly. If you don't have one already, you may want to consider getting a compost bin. Composting helps by not having so much waste end up in landfills, and it also can help to fertilize the soil so that we don't have to produce so many additives in factories. Additives harm the earth by polluting the soil and not allowing plants to grow, and not having enough plants is causing climate change too. Recycling is very important for the same reason. Waste in the ocean will end up in places such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, or twice the size of Texas. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch chokes sea animals and damages the habitats of marine life. Having healthy oceans is vital if we want to save our earth because many species depend on the ocean to survive. For example, if there were no more fish in the rivers, bears would die out since bears need fish to live long and healthy lives.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris located between Hawaii and California which is constantly growing, partly because gyres pull trash from all over the world towards it.
Don't waste food. Wasting food produces a lot more trash, which we don't want because that is bad for the earth. Also, more food will have to be produced, and producing food can have damaging effects and speed up climate change. For example, cows release methane gas into the atmosphere, which is damaging to the atmosphere, so it would be better for the earth to have less cows, but lots of people love to eat beef.
Don't order too many groceries. They might spoil before you have the chance to eat them. Order just as much as you need to, otherwise we will have even more food waste. Did you know that 30 to 40 percent of all food in America is wasted, according to this survey by the USDA: https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20food,percent%20of%20the%20food%20supply.
Buy organic food. Buying organic food means that no pesticides are used. Pesticides can be harmful to the earth by damaging the soil. Pesticides may also land on other plants, sickening many animals who depend on these plants to survive. Look for the "Organic" sticker or a sign.
You can also help out by not using so much water. Don't take long, hot showers, because these are wasteful, and try to avoid taking baths for the same reason. Remember to turn off the faucets when you are not using them actively, like when brushing your teeth or washing the dishes. When watering the plants, turn off the hose after so the water doesn't drip out from the spout. But definitely don't limit yourself on drinking!
A garden is a great asset if you want to help the earth. It doesn't have to be a nice garden. If you have a garden, consider planting in it. If you don't have a garden but have space for one, think about making one. By planting things in your garden, you are helping by growing your own food so you don't have to take as much car trips to the grocery store, and also plants are very beneficial to the earth. Plants actually take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen through a process called photosynthesis, which is a big long fancy word only meaning that plants use the light to do all this. So, in a way, plants recycle too!
A simple explanation of photosynthesis: plants take in sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water, and use these materials to output oxygen and glucose. This is not true for all plants, because some plants, such as corals, actually live under the ocean.
Don't use your car so much. Using the car less often means that not as much exhaust is outputted into the atmosphere. If you take the bus more often, then even though buses are bigger and use more emissions, more people are on that bus and the overall amount of emissions each person needs to have used up to get to where they need to go is smaller, which is what we want. If you are using Google Maps on your car trips, always make sure to select the fastest route to save even more gas, but if it's very dark and wet and the roads are bad and windy, it may be a better choice to select the safest route.