I found out that e-bikes are one of the best solutions for urban passenger transportation, but they are not as green as they seem when you add up the carbon emissions created by producing the bike, recharging it, and disposing of batteries. Also, I learned that high-speed rail would work best in places like the Northeast, where there are enough passengers that the carbon/environmental costs of building the railway would be displaced by the amount of CO2 saved by passengers not using airplanes and "dirtier" methods of transportation. 10 million passengers is the number needed to displace these costs, and it is unclear if high-speed rail would be as beneficial as it first seems in places such as California, where a high-speed rail is proposed, but receives much less passengers than in the Northeast corridor.

I'm concerned with the destruction of forests because it is a simple solution to our problem but, as forests are increasingly destroyed, we are not only destroying a solution, we are making the problem much worse. I'm also concerned about how everything will spiral out of control because everything is interconnected, hurting ecosystems, animals, and people.

To me, a sustainable community means one where we give back in equal amounts to what we take or where energy is never wasted.  The methane digester concept used the energy of food waste to produce usable energy for human/ industrial use.  The byproducts can then be used as fertilizer to create new food energy.  Great concept!  I think people's mentality needs to change to understand that our earth is not producing traditional forms of energy at the same rate that humans are using them....and that this energy is not an infinite resource!

Buy products that don't use palm oil or pulp, which is in way more and varied products than you'd think. I can also advocate for my school to use less paper or buy it from an organization that produces it sustainably (if that is even possible).

Although I do not eat chocolate or cocoa often, I was surprised how much it drives deforestation. I also didn't realize how bad palm oil is and how many names it can be disguised as. It also goes beyond food- palm oil is found in a multitude of other products, such as soaps and cleaning and self-care products. To decrease my negative impact, I can make sure any products I buy with palm oil or cocoa in them are certified sustainable by the Rainforest Alliance, and I can avoid these products as much as possible.

Taking action on climate change is important because we only have one planet to live on.  It provides for us, so we should provide back to it.  Simple as that.  It is also important not to leave our problems to future generations to solve.

Although there are many issues with the way we are affecting the planet, one of the largest is how dependent we have become on plastics. In the United States alone, we produce over 30 million tons of plastic waste per year, and just 10% of that is recycled. There is little government action to try to improve this within our country, and large corporations continue to pollute our oceans and landfills with plastic. 

Many of my followers were most shocked by the fact that every year a girl goes to school can increase her future income by 10%. Personally, I found this as well as "Just Married: 39,000 girls under the age of 18 every day" to be the most shocking and horrifying of the statistics that I shared. You can view the rest at https://www.care.org/work/features/empower-her-through-education.