Planet Protectors

For many years now, the Earth’s average temperature has increased, and every year the temperature breaks the record for “hottest year on record”. This impact, called “climate change”, is the result of many changes in habitats and weather that negatively impacts the world and our lives. But we can help the Earth and improve the world around us.

Global Warming

Global warming is the well-named phenomenon for the global increase in the Earth’s temperature. Since the mid-1800s, the planet’s temperature has increased approximately 1°C. It does not sound like a lot, but an increase of one degree has caused a lot of changes around the globe for people, plants, animals, and habitats. The rise in temperature is due to the increase in human activity. This has led to an overwhelming number of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. The Earth has not been able to balance our continuous creation of heat-trapping gases.

Heat-trapping gases are the ones causing global warming. The three most common heat-trapping gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). These gases enter the atmosphere from vehicles, factories, mining, farming, buildings, and more. They trap heat in our atmosphere, so the more abundant the gases are, the hotter our planet becomes.

Think of Earth’s atmosphere like a blanket that surrounds the planet. When we burn fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to create energy, we add CO2 to this blanket, which is like thickening the blanket. The thicker a blanket gets; the more heat is trapped underneath and becomes more difficult to escape. The “blanket effect” leads to warming of the planet, which disrupts the climate.

Human Impact

There are approximately 8 billion people living on Earth. Humans have altered the planet more than any other living thing. We create trash, drive vehicles, build cities, raise livestock, and do many other activities that harm our planet. Our vehicles, factories, and cities burn fossil fuels to create energy, which releases more carbon dioxide. The creation of cities and farmlands leads to deforestation, removing the trees we need to remove and store the heat-trapping gases from our atmosphere. Many large agricultural farms use pesticides that produce CO2, and our global cattle farms emit over 200 billion pounds of methane gas each year. The plastic items and excess products we buy end up in landfills that continuously leak heat-trapping gases. Your daily actions may not seem impactful to our grand planet, but with 8 billion people doing these little harmful actions, our human impact has started to add up.

Let’s Save Earth!

So how do we save the Earth? There are many people that are working to reduce heat-trapping gases, develop renewable energy sources, create recycled products, do major trash cleanups, protect animals and plants, and more. Even the smallest actions can help. Here are just a few examples of things you can do at home or school to help Earth.

  1. Conserve water by turning off the sink when brushing your teeth and taking shorter showers so that others can use water for their basic needs too.
  2. Conserve energy by turning off lights when you are not using them and limit your screen time and use of electronics. This can help reduce the amount of pollution that our energy usage emits.
  3. Cut down on waste by creating a compost bin and not using single-use plastics. Compost is great for cutting down heat-trapping gases and making our soil and plants healthy.
  4. Go green and plant a tree or grow other plants at home. Plants help remove heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere and growing food at home lessens the amount of food we buy from all around the world.
  5. Recycle products rather than throwing everything away. This helps reduce the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills.

Activity – The Carbon Journey

This game will demonstrate the carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide flows through our ecosystem constantly either being released or absorbed. Each item in the carbon journey game, besides the atmosphere, can be defined as either a carbon sink or a carbon source. The sources, like factories, create carbon dioxide while the carbon sinks, like a forest, store carbon dioxide by absorbing it from the atmosphere. You will become a carbon atom and journey through 6 different parts of the carbon cycle to learn about the most common places where carbon is stored or released.

Materials: placemats, 6 paper dice, tape, beads in 6 different colors, and pipe cleaner or string.

  1. Print out the placemats and paper dice from the additional resources at the bottom of the lesson. Create the 6-sided dice by folding and taping the sides together.
  2. Set up each station around the room with a placement, dice, and a bowl with a handful of beads that correspond to each station.
  3. Make sure to tie a knot or fold one end of the pipe cleaner to get your bracelet started.
  4. Child(ren) may start at a station of their choice. At each station, they will roll the dice and follow the directions on the side it landed on. They will either stay at that station or move to another.
  5. They will add the station’s-colored bead onto their bracelet every time they roll the die. If they stay at the same station for several rolls, make sure to add a bead for each time they roll the dice.
  6. Go through the stations until you have at least 12 beads on your bracelet. Discuss the journey that you made through the different parts of the ecosystem:
    1. Did you move a lot or stay at one station for a long time?
    2. How many times did you go to the atmosphere station? Why is this important in understanding the heat-trapping blanket idea?
  7. Play another round and compare your bracelets to see the different routes that carbon can take on Earth.

Nature Exploration

Walk around your neighborhood and pick up trash to help clean the Earth. While on your walk, take some time to appreciate the world around you and brainstorm more ideas on how you can improve your home, your neighborhood, or even your city.

For an indoor exploration, discover your family’s carbon footprint by filling out this quiz. See if there is anything you can change to lower your carbon emissions or challenge yourself to do one of the five options above in your household for a week or more.

Books & Resources

How Bad Are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee
What a Waste: Trash, Recycling, and Protecting Our Planet by Jess French
Old Enough to Save the Planet by Loll Kirby
Climate Challenge!
The Carbon Journey Materials