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My Climate Story By Kennedy Brooks - Video

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My Climate Story By Kennedy Brooks - Video

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Desertification is when groundwater around a desert deteriorates, which causes the withering of plants which creates a resource sapped dune. This has been most present in the largest desert of the world, The Sahara which has grown 10% in the last century, this puts many Africans and animals at serious risk. Another example is UAE, 80% of its land is desert and its deserts are approaching the vital resources that the people, and the country need.

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More detailed explanation of climate change.

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Saving the earth isn’t easy, but not impossible! Climate change is a serious thing, and it's happening now! So, why should I care about taking action? Well, climate change effects things everywhere. Like air pollution, there are things like cigarettes (which are super bad for your health,) and big vehicles, cars, trucks, etc that spread smoke everywhere! Each time I take a walk, there's always that one moment when I have to smell that bad scent of smoke. If that happens almost every time I talk a walk, imagine how much pollution releases into the air every hour? What if we couldn’t use earth anymore just because of the air that we breathe?

What are other negative impacts of climate change that effects communities?

There's water pollution, sea animals might die because of it

Food storage might decrease because of droughts, depleted water, lower snowpacks, etc

Increased costs for food, if things like medicine become more rare, some people might not have the money to afford it. Or it could just be hard to find.

Violence with each other, if we don’t have enough necessary stuff, we might fight for it

These all are pretty bad, right? But what if in the future it becomes way worse. Like more trash in the oceans, more smoke in the air. The world gets more complicated every day. The earth is already in a bad situation. So, how can we make it stop? Protests, peaceful ones. We don't want to harm, it will make peoples ideas about climate action worse. We need to come up with ideas to convince people that climate change is real, and it is happening now. And we need to form a team that is capable of working together.

My hope for the future is that we can find eco-friendly solutions for work that would hurt the earth.

Farewell reader!
-Emilie C.

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My name is Lucia Martin-McCann. I’m in the Environmental Charter School’s Green Team, and in 6th grade. I care about climate change because it hurts animals and plants. So many animal species have gone extinct and are endangered because of it! I hate to think that humans are the reason many habitats have been destroyed, and many animals have suffered. But if it is our fault, then it is up to us to fix it.

I see climate change everywhere. It hurts me to see litter around my neighborhood and in the woods. Once, I was on a walk in the forest. I climbed off the trail and found a really nice place- a little clearing next to a steep hill, with trees hanging down in, making it like a room. The sunlight shining through the leaves made the place green all over. It was the perfect spot, except for one thing- it was covered in trash. Plastic bottles on the ground, bags hung on tree branches, even confetti on the ground. Somebody must’ve had a party there. It angered me so much that people could leave all this here and just… leave. It made my heart hurt. But it made me want to help stop this.

Still, as a kid, it feels harder to speak up. My parents can’t find time to look for protests I can participate in, and I don’t know many other ways to make myself heard. So I joined the Green Team. I hope that it will help me see the future I wish for.

The future I see is a world with more forests and animals, with sun and wind powering electronics and lights. I see a future with little plastic, and that being reused. I wish for a future where no one litters, and the smell of pollution is gone from the air. I know it won’t be easy, and it will need a lot of help from lots of people. But I believe that we can get there. We can make the world better, and fix what climate change has broken.

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My vid :)

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Hi! My name is Naya Ibrahim and I am from the Environmental Charter School (ECS) and I am here to talk to you about climate change. A couple reasons that I care about climate change is the health of animals and people. Because of climate change, there are more wildfires and lots of snow storms which can kill people and harm animals and their habitats. What concerns me is that peoples’ homes get destroyed and their safety is in danger. People who lose their homes might not have enough money to rebuild them.

I am grateful that people are starting to care about climate change, but a big challenge we will face is that adults don’t always take kids seriously. We can overcome this challenge educating people and getting them to sign petitions. My vision for the future is to change people's minds and educate them about what is happening. Changes that I want to make are to walk or bike more instead of using vehicles. Will most likely do this with my friends and my family. I am doing this for everyone so they can live a bright future to look forward to.

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Hello my name is Juanae Hatten and I am a 6th grader at Environmental Charter School and I care about Climate change because I care about people's homes and animals and I want to help them. I learned about Climate Change when I was 2nd grade. Here is my Climate story: My Climate Story, I care about climate change because the fires that happen are hurting people's homes and they are hurting the trees and they are hurting lots of animals' habitats. When the families and animals lose their homes it takes them time to find a new one and sometimes it even takes months. The times when I felt inspired were when I was at my old school because in social studies and science we did a green team and it was super fun. These emotions connect to why I care about climate change because I care about people’s homes and the animals' homes because they are losing their homes and the people are dying and the animals population is going down more and more every year and it is super sad. My biggest challenges as a young person fighting for climate change are seeing people’s houses getting burnt down by forest fires. Another challenge is that animals habitats are getting burnt down and their population is going down. I might overcome these challenges by helping people find homes and getting them back on their feet. My vision for the future is to help the forest fires, help the number of forest fires to go down, and I will do it with my friends or a climate change group. I am doing it for people’s homes and animals habitats.

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This agreement states a goal to lower world temp rise from dangerous levels it states a goal to lower expected temp rise from 2.4 C by 2050 to 1.5 C by 2050. However this has not gone to plan in fact, its actually gotten worse the expected temp rise has gone up, rather then down. This has made a dangerous situation become worse. Even the promise to lower emissions will still get us to a dangerous 2.7 C rise. The Paris agreement is clearly not enough, more action is needed. Another fact is that at this current rate by 2050 CO2 levels will reach 685 PPM (Parts per million)  Which will cause drastic changes. If the earth warms 4C more it will cause oceans to rise 0.5 - 1 meters, deleting many homes and land. It will also cause huge natural disasters and floods. More action is needed to create a better future for everyone and thing on Earth. - Aidan G

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Hello, I'm Ingrid Lund, I'm in 6th grade, at The Environmental Charter School. I’ve been faced with the challenge of Climate change. I learned what it was when I was in about 3rd grade. I learned how it was affecting our environment, and how there was only 7 years to have to stand up!

For the past decades, climate change has gone up a lot! It's been destroying our environment! And you know who’s doing it. Us, Humans! We are burning fossil fuels! And when that happens it warms up our environment, which makes the sea levels rise and more wildfires!

All of this stuff happening is making me worried, scared, and mad! Knowing that it was us humans destroying our environment! But right now, I'm asking myself, Am I going to have a future? Are my Grandkids going to have a future? I don't know!? But if we stop burning fossil fuels and destroying our environment, we could make a change to the future. WE could stand up with otherers!

And by doing that, we can tell people to stop! We need to tell people to be better! Be better at controlling themselves! And if we all work together we can stop it! We can make a difference for our future! We can make our life better!

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Hello, I am Sofia Rossi of the ECS Green team and a 6th grader from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I first learned  about climate change in the 2nd grade, which is the second year I was at ECS. I felt so mad that it's humans who are primarily causing climate change and causing the deaths and maybe extinction for so many other species. I also felt so depressed that this was the state our world was in and continues to be in. I felt that I needed to do something about climate change. More animals die every day because of climate change. More streams and ponds dry up, more people struggle from illnesses caused by bad air. My vision is to have animals, and people  live without struggling against climate change. I want to preserve the natural environment for the generations to come so that they can experience nature in the same way I do. We need to take action organize climate strikes and bring attention to climate change.

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My name is Kennedy Brooks. I’m in 6th grade and I go to the Environmental Charter School. I learned about Climate Change when I was in 4th grade. I learned that we only had about 7 years left to save Earth. My home. I started to panic. What will happen then? What will happen to my family? What will happen to my future? Later I learned that young people like me were actually doing something about it. They were speaking out. They were standing up for Earth and the futures of children all around the world. Like mine. It was moments like those, when I knew I could do something too. I care about Climate change because everyone is being affected. People who are young, old, poor, of all colors are at risk. Their health is at risk! And it’s not just people. It’s animals. It’s plants. And everything in between. This isn’t ok. It’s depressing to think about. But the fact that I can do something, the fact that we can do something, it makes me motivated. It gives me hope. Because we can always achieve something more, when we work together. When we stand up for what we believe in, together. I intend to take action. I intend to inform others about the situation we’re in. I intend to organize strikes and protests to help this cause. People have told us that we are too young, too small to make a difference in such a big world. To put it in simple words, they’re wrong. Even if it takes the rest of my life, I will at least try. I will try to save the lives of millions. I will try to save our home. I will try to save the futures of so many, yet to be born into our crumbling world. But we can do something. I’ve learned that throughout my journey. We can protest. We can help people learn. We can help stop this from happening. And it’s not too late either.

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My Name is Evy Bard, I'm in 6th grade and I go to the Environmental Charter school.

One time a person I know said that we only have 15 years to save earth. I started hyperventilating, and my palms were sweating. Then I learned that we have only about 5. That stiffened my resolve, I want to save our earth, and I want other people to help too.

I haven't experienced a big change in climate or weather. I have lived with the concept of climate change my whole life, so there might have been vast changes that have happened slowly so I didn't notice.  Big storms have started to increase, droughts have been replaced by floods. Each time it snows I go out in it and look up at the sky, thinking “will this be the last time I see snow?” I want to take action, and I want the future generations to experience the joy I feel when walking in the woods, or when I look up at a sunny summer sky.

I know that we can help stop climate change if we all pitch in and work together, and when you have doubts think about my future, think about your children and your grandchildren, and please take action.

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My Climate Story:  I am Aidan Graham, a 6th grade student and member of the ECS climate action team. I have seen Pennsylvanian winters get shorter and shorter with more unpredictable weather and snow has been more of a rarity every year. While ice caps melt it raises the sea and destroys natural habitats. With each inch of sea level rise more land is lost, more people die and chemicals are added to water which makes it less drinkable and more dangerous. Warmer weather also spells more natural disasters, which cause more damage to people's homes, injuries and death become more frequent as many people are forced to migrate or face the oncoming natural disasters and sea rise. This is unacceptable, the rich and most of the government just keep making money while people die or have their homes destroyed, sacrificing people and their wellbeing just to make money, that is absolutely disgusting. There is a way however, protesting and voting are good ways to get what we want, we need to stop this now before it becomes too late. If we don’t we could face the planet becoming uninhabitable or barely habitable. As a specie of life on a planet it our duty to take care of our planet and right now we aren't.

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Teaching kindergarten and first grade science for nearly a decade afforded me a window into the wonder and joyful connection that our youngest learners share with the natural world. Knowing, as an adult, the realities of what generations before them have done and continue to do to that natural world inspires the work I do today. I've shifted my career to focus on educating primarily middle and high school students on the science and local realities of climate change. My ultimate goal is to support them in becoming the change-makers in their communities that will get us back on track- towards a future where our most vulnerable communities such as persons of color and children are treated with the respect they are owed. The bodies, hearts, and minds of our community members are just as much a part of the environment as trees and water. We must own, cultivate, and grow our connection to one another and to the earth. We must work towards a just and livable future for all. I seek to continually build that future and learn alongside the youth I have the privilege of working with  in the Pittsburgh region every day.