EarthTeam’s Youth Coalition kicked off our student-led Global Warming Campaign on October 29 at the Berkeley Public Library.  With our guests from the Rainforest Action Network, we developed some short-term action items that anybody could do at their schools, with their classes, or as part of an environmental club activity.

First, it’s important to educate yourself about Global Warming. This topic is all over the news lately. In order to begin a campaign against Global Warming, it’s important for you to know the latest news and research. Start by checking out some of these websites:

www.epa.gov/globalwarming

www.whrc.org/globalwarming/warmingearth.htm

www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming

www.stopglobalwarming.org

www.climatecrisis.net (Website for “An Inconvenient Truth”)

www.climatechange.ca.gov (California Global Warming Initiatives)

www.net.org/warming (Daily global warming press updates)

www.nrdc.org/globalwarming (Natural Resource Defense Council)

www.ucsusa.org/global_warming (Union of Concerned Scientists)

www.cleanair-coolplanet.org

www.energyaction.net (A GREAT site for youth to connect on Global Warming!)

www.ran.org  (Rainforest Action Network)

DriveNeutral, our guests on Dec. 3: www.driveneutral.org

The automobile industry is a huge consumer of fossil fuels; when these are burned and released into the atmosphere, they form the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Since high school students are the car-buyers of tomorrow, the auto industry cares what you think!  So here’s an idea: Collect signatures at your school of students who would like to buy a hybrid or alternate fuel vehicle as their first car.  Take these signatures to local automobile dealerships in your area and encourage them to lobby the auto makers to develop more environmentally-friendly cars.  OR, go a step further and send the signatures with a letter to the auto makers themselves, like Ford and GM.

Of course, there are many transportation choices available to us besides cars. So here’s something else to consider: Hold a lunchtime Transportation Summit at your school to discuss our dependence on cars.  Think about other means of transportation that produce less harmful greenhouse gases, like walking, bicycling, and public transportation. How could you encourage students at your school to give up their dependence on cars?

The incandescent lightbulbs we put in our lamps use lots of energy.  More energy means more fossil fuels burned, which leads to more greenhouse gases, which leads to – you guessed it! – Global Warming!  Start a campaign to get your school to replace all Regular lightbulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Go even further and campaign to get all your classmates to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs at home, too!

That’s enough action to keep us all busy for a month!  Of course, there’s one other thing that you can do: Join EarthTeam’s Youth Coalition Global Warming Campaign.  Our next meeting is Sunday, December 3 from 2:00-4:00 PM at the Berkeley Public Libraray. See the “Youth Coalition” page on this site for more information, or contact Faith Gong, EarthTeam’s Program Director, at faith@earthteam.net or 5100-704-4030.