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Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth (Read Aloud)

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The ClimateHero Carbon Calculator estimates your carbon footprint in units of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). This is the unit that climate researchers commonly use to deal with the fact that all greenhouse gases do not have the same strength in the greenhouse effect. As an example, 1 ton of methane gas has the same climate impact as 28 tons of carbon dioxide (over a 100-year period). This means that 1 ton of methane equals 28 tons carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).

ClimateHero uses about 30 public sources to calculate your carbon footprint. Based on these sources and your answers in the climate calculator, we can estimate the emissions from your private consumption, which amounts to about 10 tons of CO2e per person per year for many of us. The world average, including those living in abject poverty, is around 5 tons CO2e per person per year.

ClimateHero uses the Exponential Roadmap which tells us that climate emissions must be halved by 2030 at the latest. That leads us to a personal climate budget for the average global citizen of about 2.5 tons per year. But since the world population continues to grow, we round off downwards to a climate budget of 2 tons CO ₂ e per person per year.

That is where we have obtained the four archetypes that we use to categorize your climate footprint:

1. Climate Hero (<2 tons) - Already today living within the 2030 global climate budget

2. Climate Friend (2-5 tons) - Already helping to decrease the world average

3. Climate Consumer (5-10 tons) - Increasing the global average

4. Climate Villain (>10 tons) - Exceeding the average among wealthy individuals

Out of the estimate of 10 tons CO ₂e per capita, you can affect about 80% as a private individual. The remaining 2 tons is associated with public investments that you as an individual can't change through your way of life. These 2 tons must be halved before 2030, which is why we single out 1 ton of these when we calculate your footprint. That means you can't get a lower footprint than 1 ton CO ₂ e in the climate calculator.

It is important that your carbon footprint is calculated as accurately as possible. But to us it is even more important that there is a quick and easy way for you to estimate your footprint and learn from the important lessons in the test. This is why the calculation contains some general assumptions, enabling us to limit the number of questions and estimate your carbon footprint in five minutes. As a rule of thumb, we have chosen to exclude/simplify questions if the outcome is less than 0.1 tons CO ₂ per year.

Your carbon footprint should therefore not be interpreted as being precisely correct down to the decimal point. That being said, you will most likely end up in the correct category from the four archetypes we use to portray the carbon footprint (Climate Hero, Climate Friend, Climate Consumer, and Climate Villain).

As ClimateHero aims to help everyone on the planet to reduce their footprint, we use data sources that are internationally viable as much as possible, but supplement with country-specific data where necessary.

Click here to see a list of the data sources that the climate calculator relies upon.

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.

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Skip to main content The ClimateHero Carbon Calculator estimates your carbon footprint in units of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). This is the unit that climate researchers commonly use to deal with the fact that all greenhouse gases do not have the same strength in the greenhouse effect.

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I remember once when I was standing at the sink in the kitchen when my seven-year-old daughter suddenly said, "You're lucky you got to have your adulthood before the planet was completely destroyed by climate change."

I didn't know this was on her mind. I hadn't spent all that much time talking to her about it.

And the worst part, somehow, is that her voice wasn't full of emotion. It was completely matter-of-fact. Like, oh well, we don't have time to stop for ice cream, and I don't get to grow up in a world with a functioning ecosystem.

How do you comfort a child when the science suggests she's correct?

These six tips form a guide to parenting through a slow-motion emergency.

1. Break the silence

For a growing number of families all over the world, there's no avoiding it: Climate change is already at their front door.

Others, who are privileged enough to have evaded the direct impacts so far, seem to be struggling to deal with the constant barrage of anxiety-provoking news about the environment. And one of the biggest barriers among that group is emotional.

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, is working on a book for MIT Press about climate change and reproductive choices.

He says, despite the fact that the climate crisis literally affects everyone on earth, too many of us are sitting alone with our worries, our faces lit by our phone screens in the middle of the night. "We seem to be more scared of upsetting the conversation than we are scared about climate change."

Mary DeMocker, an activist and artist in Eugene, Ore., is the author of The Parents' Guide To Climate Revolution, a book focusing on simple actions families can take both personally and collectively. "The emotional aspect is actually, I think, one of the biggest aspects of climate work right now," she says.

Asked what feelings parents tell her they are grappling with, she ticks off guilt, distraction, confusion. And the big one: fear.

"Who wants to talk about this idea of imminent doom or huge storms or wildfires sweeping through your town? ... It's frightening. I can't look at it every day. I have to take it in microdoses honestly."

And on top of that, "We also fear alarming our children or saying the wrong things if they have big feelings."

But, DeMocker says, talking about climate change with other adults, including our feelings about it, is a necessary first step towards helping our kids cope.

2. Give your kids the basic facts

NPR found in a poll earlier this year that fully 84 percent of parents, including a majority of both Democrats and Republicans, agreed that children should be learning about climate change. But, only 45 percent of parents, just over half as many, said they had actually talked to their own kids about it. (There was a similar gap among teachers surveyed as well, so we can't rely on schools to do this for us.)

Here's a suggested script, based on conversations with several educators and psychologists, that could be used for kids as young as four or five:

"Humans are burning lots and lots of fossil fuels for energy, in planes, in cars, to light our houses, and that's putting greenhouse gases into the air. Those gases wrap around the planet like a blanket and make everything hotter.

A hotter planet means bigger storms, it melts ice at the poles so oceans will rise, it makes it harder for animals to find places to live.

And it's a really, really big problem, and there are a lot of smart people working hard on it, and there's also lots that we can do as a family to help."

We've written before about learning resources on climate change. If you want to do a deeper dive, watch a movie or read a book together.

You know your kids best, so try to make sure the level of information you're giving them is appropriate and not too graphic or upsetting. But at the same time, we can't always control what they may be hearing elsewhere, so it's good to be proactive with the simple facts.

3. Get outdoors

Dawn Danby lives in Oakland California and has spent 20 years working in sustainable design, technology and business. She also has a 6-year-old daughter, a "fierce little person," and she doesn't want her to be too scared by what's happening to the planet.

"I've encountered lots and lots of people who've been really traumatized as they've encountered" ecological crisis, she says.

So Danby takes a different approach. She and her daughter spend as much time as possible exploring the outdoors, from old-growth forests to vegetable gardens.

You don't have to live near mountains or the ocean to expose your kids to nature. You can start with ants on the sidewalk. Dawn encourages her daughter to "look at the bugs and think about what the bugs are doing ... everything has a role to play here."

She's raising her daughter to understand the web of relationships in nature rather than dwelling on ecological damage, because, she says, "I have a rationale around this that it's very hard to defend what you don't love."

4. Focus on feelings

Amber, in Huntsville, Ala., responded to our callout on childhood anxiety. We're not using her last name because she's sharing information about her daughter's mental health. She says when her daughter was just 3, in preschool, she learned that sea turtles will eat plastic in the ocean and die. To this day, five years later, at the age of 8:

"If she sees litter it's not just enough for her to pick it up and throw it away - which she'll do - but she'll bring up the sea turtles again." With questions like: "'Why would people throw things on the ground? The sea turtles are going to die!' She cannot let it go."

Clinical anxiety affects a small (and growing) percentage of children. But worries about the environment are widespread. In a recent poll in The Washington Post, 7 in 10 teenagers said climate change will harm their generation - that was a bit more than older folks.

Susie Burke is a senior psychologist at the Australian Psychological Society. She's an environmental psychologist, specializing in what's become an emerging field: climate psychology.

She says there are three big-picture positive responses to a huge stressor like climate change.

The first is known as "emotion-focused coping."

This could include "Spending time with people who we love and care for. Doing positive activities. Spending time in nature. Having a break."

Becoming more emotionally literate as a family, and having a toolbox of comforting activities to try when your kids are feeling anxious or low, is one way to help everyone become more resilient to stressors - whether it's something on the news, or a storm coming to your city.

Burke says that of course our instinct is to protect our kids from the harshness of the world or from ever feeling bad. But once they are old enough to be in school and to understand a bit of the news, that may not be possible. It's our job instead to be open to "hearing how children might be feeling and thinking about the climate crisis and be able to help the children to manage those feelings."

5. Take action

The second big-picture way to cope with a stressor like climate change, after emotion-focused coping, is problem-focused coping. These, says Burke, are "the things that we do to try to mitigate the actual problem that is causing the stress."

Shuo Peskoe-Yang worked in public health. A self-described "do-gooder," he had never paid special attention to environmental issues before his daughter was born in 2018. He realized that she had a good chance of seeing the year 2100, and the business-as-usual climate forecasts are grim.

Peskoe-Yang went all in. He started volunteering full time for a group called The Climate Mobilization. "The year 2100 was always a really abstract thing for me. It's not something I'll see, it's not something I'll experience. But when [my daughter] was born it became very real."

Of course, not everyone is in a position to change their lives this dramatically. But there are other places to start. DeMocker, in her book, lists 100 different ideas for families at all levels of time, budget, and introversion or extroversion, from actions of "stewardship" for the environment like composting and picking up trash, to civic engagement, like writing a letter or showing up to a local meeting or protest.

Beyond taking action as a family, increasing numbers of parents find themselves supporting teenage activists. That same Washington Post poll reported 1 in 4 teenagers had taken some sort of climate-related action.

16-year-old Jayden Foytlin has become one of 21 youth plaintiffs of a case called Juliana vs. the United States. These are young people suing the federal government, claiming it has violated their rights to a livable planet.

So she's balancing schoolwork, her love of art and court appearances. Jayden says it's about, "Showing people that youth voices do matter. And this is something that has to be taken seriously, or we will lose lives."

Jayden's mother, Cherri Foytlin, has been a dedicated environmental activist in Louisiana since the BP oil spill in 2010. She says Jayden has fun and goofs around like any other kid.

"The only difference," Foytlin continues, "Is her mind and her heart is so passionate about protecting life. She's just inspiring to me, to be honest."

The youngest of Susie Burke's three children has taken an activist path too. She co-founded the Australian chapter of the School Strike for Climate. Burke says, getting involved with an urgent cause "fits beautifully with the skills and qualities that we know are great for children to develop in order for them to thrive as adults." Like empathy, cooperation, presentation skills, self-efficacy.

But it doesn't mean, says Burke, we should push any particular actions onto our children.

Her daughter Milou Albrecht 14, says in turn of her parents: "Some of the most important ways they support me would be listening to me and providing helpful information and support, but also kind of stepping back and let me do my thing."

6. Find hope

Emotion-focused coping is about feelings. Problem-focused coping is about action. The third path to coping with a stressor like climate change, Burke says, is meaning-focused coping. This is about thinking: how to frame the problem so that we can continue to hope and not collapse into cynicism, apathy or despair.

She cites Swedish psychologist Maria Ojala, who is looking at how children and teenagers are finding resilience to the threat of climate change. Ojala found one successful strategy was to develop trust that others are working on this problem - to realize none of us are alone. A second was to focus on the many benefits of a sustainable future, like more social justice, stronger communities, better health.

"To be able to keep hope is important," says Burke. And for our kids, reminding them to take breaks and enjoy just being a kid. It's important that they are "still also feeling carefree and joyful and finding things that are wonderful about the world, learning ways that the world is worth living in, even though they're also addressing big life challenges."

DeMocker says parents have a tricky role to play as young activists step up. "We have to partner with them and we have to not abandon them in this crisis and we have to step back at the same time and let them lead."

She compares the balance to parents' job when children are younger and first finding independence.

"So it's this funny dance, which is a lot of what parenting is - whether you have a toddler who wants to put on her shoes herself and then whoops! she trips. So now she actually just needs to be a little kid again and be comforted."

When I think about the options available to me as a mother in 2019 trying to cope with a global crisis while also paying my mortgage and packing lunches, I don't see "hope" as a landing place or a single destination. I see myself facing the facts, taking action, and offering comfort when I feel stronger, and taking breaks, reaching out for support, and looking to others to carry on when I get tired. It's all a cycle, or in DeMocker's words, a dance.

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Climate change is here. These 6 tips can help you talk to kids about it : Life Kit

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subscribe to Life Kit podcast subscribe to Life Kit podcast I remember once when I was standing at the sink in the kitchen when my seven-year-old daughter suddenly said, "You're lucky you got to have your adulthood before the planet was completely destroyed by climate change." I didn't know this was on her mind.

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Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth — Official Trailer | Apple TV+

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" Here We Are, of all my books, seems the most relevant for the world's current reality, it began as a sort of comedic routine in pointing out the obvious but slowly it dawned on me the importance of re-remembering the basic principles of what it is to be alive on this Earth and appreciate it, right now.

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We're Handing Our Kids a Damaged Planet. And Our Excuse for Doing Nothing About It Has Now Fallen Apart

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Why would we hand our kids a damaged planet? We no longer have an excuse to ignore the threats of climate change.

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Global Earth Challenge: A Citizen Science Initiative

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Earth Day Flipgrid group to collaborate, collect thinking and prompote conversation and engagement of ideas

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Flip is where social and emotional learning happens! The leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families.

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NEW! Advocacy Packets Earth Day 2026 Climate Civics Toolkit Environmental History Timelines Lesson Plans Pollinator Toolkits quizzes Book Hub Earth Month 2026 Calendar Earth Day action menus Resources from our partners Reading list Elementary Middle School High School

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It comes as no surprise that money talks, even when it comes to climate change. Governments hold the key to transforming our economy by empowering green business practices as the ethical and lucrative option. Clean energy jobs provide earnings +25% the national median wage, yet our governments continue to incentivize technology damaging to our future. The fossil fuel industry profits over $5.9 trillion annually (and rising). It is time to make our voices heard and get our government leaders to launch the sustainability revolution TODAY!

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As citizens, we have the power and duty to make our voices heard. What each of us does, and how we do it, has a massive ripple effect on our ecosystems, as well as the pace of corporate and government action. Gen Z provides inspiration, with 45% having stopped buying from brands with poor ethical and sustainability practices. Through civic actions and our day-to-day life choices, we have the power to lobby for and support the businesses who actively choose eco-friendly practices and climate-friendly investments. There is no time more vital than the present to take action and INVEST IN OUR PLANET!

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Get Earth Day 2023 information from the official Earth Day site. Find events, see what you can do, and learn about this year's theme: Invest In Our Planet.

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"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." - Rachel Carson

Earth Day is a great opportunity to engage students in service projects, whether through tree planting or a community clean-up. But in order to shape environmentally-conscious citizens for the future, we need to be engaging our students in critical thinking.

Environmentalism is a year-round (and time-sensitive!) affair, and it's important for students to understand the human impact on the planet so that they can take action.

We've put together a list of Earth Day lesson plans and paired them with Edpuzzle video lessons to create a complete learning experience for students in elementary, middle, and high school (in that order).

If you like what you see, just copy the video lesson directly to your Edpuzzle account to use right away, or edit the video to adapt it to your students' needs. Happy Earth Day everyone!

Recycling (Pre-K)

It's hard to get preschoolers to remember to throw things away in the recycling bin, as opposed to the trash bin, if they don't understand what the difference is. This lesson introduces recycling to young students with the hands-on opportunity to sort their own recyclables.

And what better way to learn about recycling than with Sesame Street? In this video, Murray and Ovejita (the bilingual lamb) take students on a virtual field trip to a recycling center to see what happens to plastic, glass, and metal after it gets recycled.

"Here Comes the Garbage Barge" by Jonah Winter (Grades K-3)

This hilarious book (based on a true story) tells the tale of a town that tries to dispose of their trash using a barge, only to have every port refuse to accept the cargo.

In this lesson by Storyline Online, students analyze the story from all angles. Activities include: tracing the route of the Garbage Barge, building a landfill model, and writing a persuasive piece about recycling.

Don't have a copy of the book? No problem! You can watch the animated version with students in class and use Edpuzzle's Live Mode to strategically stop the video for discussion.

Composting: A Scientific Investigation (Grades 3-7)

Although recycling is great, composting is like recycling 2.0. It further reduces the amount of stuff that ends up in landfills by separating organic waste from regular trash.

Organic waste comes from plant and animal material such as uneaten food and lawn scraps. This is the same type of waste that is found in nature when plants and animals die.

In this two-part inquiry-based activity, students explore why only some types of garbage decompose and design an experiment to test different variables affecting the rate of decomposition.

The Crash Course video below is great for elementary students who are starting to learn about ecosystems and energy.

Middle school students will enjoy this TED-Ed video that reimagines the food chain that we typically think of.

What's Causing Sea-Level Rise? Land Ice Vs. Sea Ice (Grades 2-8)

The ocean is about 7 to 8 inches higher now than it was a century ago. But where exactly is that extra water coming from?

In this hands-on activity from NASA, students conduct an experiment to learn how melting land ice versus sea ice contribute to rising sea level.

The lesson pairs nicely with this animated video (also from NASA), which introduces the concept of sea level and how scientists measure it.

Changing Climate, Changing Cities (Grades 3-8)

Did you know that it can get so hot in Phoenix, Arizona (over 110°F!), that some residents have baked cookies in their cars?

In this lesson from the Nature Lab, students take a virtual field trip to Phoenix and Shenzhen, China, to learn why some communities are at greater risk than others and how everyone can be a part of the climate change solution.

Because this video is about 27 minutes long, we recommend chunking it out over the course of a few days using Live Mode, or having students watch it at their own pace as part of a flipped classroom experience.

Coal, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Mountaintop Removal (Grades 6-8)

40% of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States comes from burning coal for electricity, so it's no wonder that coal companies are racing to find fast and cheap solutions like mountaintop removal.

In this fun yet thought-provoking teaching activity, students "mine" chocolate chips from cookies to help them understand what drives the coal-mining industry and how damaging their actions are.

Introduce how mountaintop removal became a popular method of mining and how it changes the natural landscape with this video from The Smithsonian Channel.

In this National Geographic video, students can learn about the environmental impact of mountaintop removal by listening to the stories of people living near mining sites.

The Legacy of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (Grades 9-12)

When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, she exposed the harmful effects of the insecticide DDT on ecosystems. This inquiry-based lesson helps students understand the lasting effect of Carson's book on the chemical industry.

To introduce the topic, students can watch this PBS video that explains the history of DDT and why people struggled to accept Carson's findings.

'Don't Take Our Voices Away': A Role Play on the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change (Grades 9-12)

In 2009, indigenous people from around the world met to discuss how to combine traditional knowledge with new practices to adapt to the effects of climate change as part of the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change.

This role-play activity introduces students to the important role that indigenous perspectives can play as the world attempts to respond and adapt to the realities of a quickly changing planet.

Use this video from the United Nations Development Programme to teach students about the case of the Maldives, an island nation that is struggling to cope with rising sea levels.

Ocean Dead Zones (Grades 9-12)

Can the ocean run out of oxygen? That's the question this lesson by HHMI BioInteractive answers. It has students analyze a published scientific figure from a study on low-oxygen areas in the ocean known as dead zones.

Check out this Ted-Ed video to show students how a healthy marine ecosystem functions and what creates the lethal conditions that lead to dead zones.

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"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." - Rachel Carson Earth Day is a great opportunity to engage students in service projects, whether through tree planting or a community clean-up.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students’ progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Our Planet, Our Home┃ An Earth Day Perspective