In this week’s podcast episode, I interviewed my youngest daughter Eliza about why kids should care about being eco-friendly. The reason why we decided to do this podcast is because she has been learning a lot about greenhouse gasses and the environment at school. She’s in a magnet school program focused on community, social studies, and science and how they are all intertwined together. I thought the things she was learning were pretty awesome and great to share. While we often talk about toxin-free living here on the podcast, we also know that living a green and eco-friendly lifestyle really goes hand in hand with that.
Why Kids Should Care About Climate Change and the Environment with Simple Tips On How to Be More Eco-Friendly
Megan: So Eliza, welcome! So we thought that you should come on the podcast to talk about why kids should care about global warming, right? So what are the major reasons why? Well, maybe we should talk about what global warming is first.
Eliza: Okay, so global global warming is what it sounds like, the globe warming is because of greenhouse gasses, like CO2.
Megan: And nitrous oxide, methane and fluorinated gasses. But really, carbon dioxide is the biggest problem, right?
Eliza: So carbon dioxide is a gas and it's good. So it's like if it goes too high, that's bad. If it goes too low, it's also bad. But like in the middle is good because we need it both ways. Global warming happens mainly because of fossil fuels, which are like, what we use for energy and all those things
Megan: Coal, oil and gas. And carbon dioxide has actually been stored in the ground for many, many years….
Eliza: And people are now trying to dig it up, which is not good, because that makes more fossil fuels.
Megan: Right, yeah, the carbon dioxide is released into the air during the digging.
Eliza: And when the carbon dioxide burns, it releases into the atmosphere. And that's not good. Because, like I said, if there's too much, it creates an imbalance.
Megan: And we'll talk in just a minute about what that is doing to the earth. But another source of greenhouse gasses is also agriculture. Right? So having a lot of animals, they actually release greenhouse gasses into the air through methane, which is when they pass gas. It's true. Isn't that weird? But these cows and agriculture that basically fart, there's so many cows in the world that they are releasing this methane gas into, into the earth. It's pretty gross, right?
Eliza: Yeah. And also, when animals or plants or trees die, for example, when trees burn, they release carbon. So when, for example, forest fires happen. Um, it's terrible the ecosystem, because there's habitats and all that stuff, but also because of the carbon dioxide going into the air.
Megan: And another cause of climate change is deforestation. And that's when we're cutting down forests and chopping down trees to use the timber for fuel or for paper towels and so many different things. So we do know, though, that fossil fuels are one of the biggest culprits. And so we're going to talk most about that today. So what are some of the reasons why we should care about climate change?
Eliza: So it can impact animals.
Megan: Yeah. So like, what happens?
Eliza: For example, the polar bears where they're living, it's starting to get warmer, because of all the fossil fuels. And their habitats and their homes are melting. So they can't really live. So they kind of are dying, just because we want to drive to our friend's house or something.
Megan: And also, what's happening is, the ocean is becoming more acidic. And I found a statistic about this. It said that the ocean is 26% more acidic today than it was in 1990 and when the ocean becomes more acidic, again, it impacts the animals in the ocean, but it also impacts our coral reefs. And so there could be a future when our children cannot experience the beauty of the coral reefs that are so magnificent and unique to our world. They're just going to be basically bleached out and gone and not really there. And if you think about it affecting the coral reefs, then you can think about how much it's impacting the fish and the animals that live in the ocean.
Eliza: Another thing, clean air is always very nice, because, you know, in the summertime when it gets all smoky, and because of all the trees burning, which again releases carbon, that could in future, that is what our air could smell like on a normal basis.
Megan: And that impacts our health because we breathe the air into our lungs. And so if you suffer from asthma or any sort of lung related health problems, it's going to be worse because the air is not going to be as clean. Another thing that we thought about about why you should care is that it affects everybody, right? No matter where you live, no matter what your age. Well, some kids and adults, older adults are probably more impacted by climate change. But we are all affected by climate change, no matter where we live. And it also is going to impact future generations in a big way.
oh, I forgot about one more thing. Another reason why we should care about climate change is flooding and extreme weather? So when we have this climate change happening…
Eliza: is that you have flash floods or something because it's usually like super hot or something. And then there's usually flash floods or…
Megan: …hurricanes and more forest fires. So it's impacting our lives in a big way, even if you may not really think it's impacting you today, it's going to be more impactful in the future, but it does still impact us today.
Eliza: So a few things you can do to help climate change and global warming and all those things. You can use less water. So using less water is important because it's just a good way to save energy. And it's also helpful because it's just going down the drain.
Megan: Because when we turn on the tap, and water comes out, for us to drink or for us to use for cleaning or whatever, it has to be cleaned. And so that takes a lot of energy. So what are some ways that you can use less water?
Eliza: Using the water that comes out right away instead of letting it warm up.
Megan: You also can just get a better water heater. So the water doesn't take so long to heat up if it's a more efficient water heater. Take shorter showers, use a shorter wash cycle in your washer.
Eliza: Also use the dishwasher instead of just washing dishes by hand because that saves a lot more water.
Megan: Also, what about watering your lawn? So you could choose to not water your lawn.
Eliza: And not use fertilizer. Because, for example, if it rains, the fertilizer goes down to the drains and gets in the water, and for example, salmon will get hurt by those by those chemicals that are in the water.
Another thing was saving energy. You can turn off lights when you're in a room, I guess, could not be on screens help?
Megan: Yeah, sure. Anything you do, just think about reducing the amount of energy you're using.
Eliza: Eating organic can help because of the pesticides, which is what we were talking about. Because if animals eat food that has pesticides on them, they could die and we could possibly get hurt too. Another thing is to eat less meat. Like I said, when animals die, for example, cows, they release carbon and eating less meat could help that.
Megan: Well, if there's fewer cows being used for the consumption of meat, then there's going to be less methane in the environment. So it's gonna be fewer greenhouse gasses.
Eliza: Another thing is supporting local businesses. So where we live, we usually send out lots of trees and stuff, which again, usually goes to China and that can be not good because of the burning fossil fuels going all the way to China on that boat.
Megan: So if you've bought something from China, for example, it's being produced in China, and it also has to travel all the way to where you live and that uses a lot of fossil fuels.
Eliza: Another thing is cleaning up. So I like to do this a lot with the program that my mom said I was in. We usually clean up by actually we'll talk about this a little later but clean up you can Do you see trash that is really harmful to animals because they can eat it. There's these chemicals, I can't remember what they're called, but chemicals attached to those plastics or other things like that.
Megan: PFAS are often found in food wrappers.
Eliza: Animals think, Oh, this is yummy. This is food, I can eat this. And so what it does is when they eat it, it stays in their stomach, and they don't digest it. And so it makes them starve because they think they ate but they're full because there's food in there. Not real food that’s nourishing their body, so they die because they're starved to death.
Megan: So clean up trash. What else?
Eliza: You can volunteer. Going back to what I said, this is a big group. Planting trees is another thing my program likes to do. I've probably planted about 100 plants or so this year, which is in fact impactful because it provides habitat for animals and all those things.
Megan: Also the trees help break down the carbon that is in the environment. So planting trees is really a helpful way to fight back against greenhouse gasses.
Eliza: Adding on to plants, not only about climate change is they actually help your health. So when you're mad or something and you go for a walk, studies have shown that you feel better because you're around plants and trees, which is really interesting. Another thing for kids out there is telling your parents, because lots of people don't know how big of an impact this is. So letting people know…
Megan: and sharing why it's important to turn off the faucet for example, or turn off the lights, those sorts of little things you can do to save energy. It's important to share that with your parents or grandparents or friends.
Eliza: That's, I mean, a big thing. It's not small that you can do. Volunteer and help your community. It's easy. Volunteering can help because for example, planting trees, which like we said is very important, or cleaning up and all those things are important.
Megan: It helps your community. When there's more community members that are caring about the environment, it just makes a bigger difference. Also, there are not a lot of resources or funds that are put towards the environment. And so we all need to help out together and volunteer our time so that we can make a bigger difference for the environment.
Eliza: You can carpool, walk, bike, with people or friends. Cars burn lots and lots of carbon and fossil fuels, which does not help. So a cool fact that I actually recently learned is we went to the car museum in Tacoma Washington recently, and we figured out that electric cars are very good, and they're better than fossil fuels. But it depends on where you get your energy. So like where we live, we have clean energy, and we get it from clean places. But in other places, like people may be doing good by using an electric car, but it could also still be bad because they're using energy from fossil fuels or not as good sources.
Megan: Often you can ask your energy company if they have an option for a cleaner energy that you can purchase for your home. So that is another thing to consider.
Eliza: Walking and biking is really important because I mean you're just burning your sweat you're not burning fossil fuels or anything like that.
Let's see, that is a lot of things. If you haven't heard of this either, it's pretty common. So um, the three R's which are reduce, reuse, recycle. I think there's one more but I can't remember what it is. Reducing plastic or things like that can help.
Megan: Because there won't be as much plastic in the environment or there won't be waste which has to be cleaned up. Like if you think about the trash, like just even using less trash is good because then if you think about the amount of the trash a person has to come and pick up the trash, so if they can take fewer trips, they're going to be using less fossil fuels. Not to mention the breaking down of trash affects the methane in our environment as well.
Eliza: Reuse. So if we, sometimes get the plastic bags, because they're helpful, but reusing those bags is also important because you're having plastic, but you're reusing it, and then you're throwing it away, or you're recycling afterwards. And also recycling, like we just said, that can be important.
Megan: It takes the plastic and or the, the tin or whatever it is, and reuses it for something else versus it just going into the trash can. But reducing is really important, because the fewer things you buy, the less you will have to recycle.
Eliza: Less plastic is important. So like using containers, like we have those containers that hold food that are like the Snapware. That brand is good.
Megan: So instead of using a single-use plastic, like a Ziploc bag, you can use that as a container to use over and over and over again, or a water bottle.
Eliza: For example, my Hydroflask. I use that every single day. And it's way better. It's way more important. It's less wasteful than getting a new plastic water bottle every single day. Also, if you liked this podcast, you can learn more, and you can inform yourself. So if you heard some things you're confused about please research into that. So you know exactly what you need to worry about and what you can do to help.
Megan: Yeah, a good way to do that is just to type in Google why should I care about greenhouse gasses? Or why should I care about global warming? Or what can kids do to help global warming, and they'll come up with lots of ideas. Well, thank you, Eliza. That was very informative. And I hope that you guys share this with your kids or share it with your grandkids. So what else do you have to say?
Eliza: Thank you for listening. And yeah, I hope you share and learn and teach about this big topic in our world.
I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about making eco-friendly choices from a kids perspective.
