Alexandra Zissu - Earth Squad: 50 People Who Are Saving the Planet

The following pages contain the amazing stories of fifty inspiring people from all walks of life, from all over the world, who have many different kinds of jobs. They are doctors and protestors and politicians, scientists and ship captains and activists, journalists and actors and farmers, artists and singers and architects. These global citizens range from young to oldand some of them lived before you were even born. They all have one thing in common: they have devoted their lives to loving and protecting our shared home, the wondrous and beautiful planet earth. As you read about them and their work, you may find yourself feeling inspired to join the Earth Squad. Great! Thats why there are suggested actions on every pagereal things you can do to make a difference right away. Protecting the earth takes all of us. Consider this your invitation!

Throughout the book, youll see some words in bold . These are important environmental termstheir definitions are in the Glossary , in case you dont already know what they mean!

BIODIVERSITY

The huge variety of life on earth is biodiversity. Its a broad term, encompassing every living thing on our planet, even bacteria. As our environment changes for various reasons, including the climate crisis, we are losing its biodiversity as certain plants and animals are going extinct. But the word can be used more narrowly, too. When we cut down trees in a specific forest, you lose the biodiversity of the plants and animals that lived in that particular place.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLIMATE CRISIS

A change in climate means that average conditions of things like temperature or the amount of rain or snow in a specific regiona city or a state or even a countryhave shifted over time. Scientists have been observing that the temperature at the earths surface is currently warming. Over the past few decades, they have recorded the warmest seasons and years ever. This change is now being called a crisis because it is causing melting glaciers, sea level rise, and loss of biodiversity, including what humans rely on for foodall things that will make the earth an increasingly difficult place to inhabit.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Research has shown that certain people, including communities of color, are more likely to experience the effects of climate change than others. Often the people most affected are the least responsible for causing the problem. This is unfair. Rich countries are more responsible for the climate crisispeople who live in them use more resources, fly in airplanes more often, drive their cars more, and so onand yet poor developing countries are suffering more from the climate crisis. Climate justice means addressing the climate crisis and trying to even out whats unbalanced or unfair in terms of human rights at the same time.

CONTAMINATION

There are many ways humans pollute the environment. When we spray chemicals like pesticides on our crops, they make their way into our waterways. When those chemicals get into our water, they polluteor contaminateit and the animals and plants that live in it. That is just one kind of contamination. We contaminate the air when we burn certain fossil fuels. We contaminate the water when plastic bottles and garbage end up in our oceans. And so on.

DEFORESTATION

When humans cut down large areas of trees to use the land for something else, thats deforestation. Cutting down trees to clear land for whatever reasonlogging, construction, cattle ranching, farming, mining, agriculturehas a huge negative impact on wildlife, soil, water, air, and the people who live near and depend on the forest. Large-scale deforestation of the worlds biggest rain forests has been linked to the climate crisis.

ECO-FOOTPRINT OR ECO-IMPACT

This term refers to how much something you buy or usefrom your jeans to your familys carharms or helps the earth. Every single thing on earth, including you, has an impact on the environment. Something like an organic carrot has positive eco-impact, or very little footprint, while taking an airplane to a far-away destination has negative eco-impact, or bigger footprint.

FOSSIL FUEL

Petroleum, coal, and natural gas are all fossil fuels. Theyre actually the remains of plants and animals that lived a long time ago. But just because theyre natural does not mean they are good for us to use. Taking fossil fuels out of the earth then refining and transporting them for consumer use is an all-around eco-unfriendly process. Burning fossil fuels creates air pollution (which is bad for your health) and carbon pollution (which contributes to climate change). To slow the climate crisis, we must move away from global dependence on fossil fuels and adopt cleaner energy sources that constantly renew themselves, like solar and wind power.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOS) AND GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) FOOD

These terms refer to plants that get artificially changed in laboratories as well as their resulting crops (things like vegetables, wheat, and fruit). These changesor modificationsare done to make seeds and plants resistant to disease, insects, or viruses to increase the amounts of crops that can be grown. An example of genetic modification would be taking genes from bacteria, viruses, insects, or even chickens, and inserting them into a potato plant to make it stronger. Typical GM foods include corn and soy, both of which are ingredients in a wide variety of packaged foods like chips and breakfast cereal. Though some safety research has been conducted, theres still a lot of concern in the scientific and food communities about the health and environmental effects of GM food, which is why the USDA doesnt allow them to be labeled organic. Many other countries have banned genetically modified foods entirely because of safety questions.

GREENHOUSE GASES, THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT, AND GLOBAL WARMING

Have you ever been in a greenhouse in a plant nursery or store? Its always nice and warm in there. Think of the earth like a giant greenhouse. There are certain gases in the air, called greenhouse gases, that trap energy from the sun, and these help warm the earths surface. This is called the greenhouse effect. Some of the gases trapping heat are water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide. The earth actually needs the greenhouse effect; it makes it warm enough for humans to live here! But now certain things we are doing, like driving cars and burning coal at factories, have drastically increased the amount of greenhouse gases on earth, making it warmer than it should be. This added heat is why there has been a rise in temperature at the earths surfacethis is global warming, and it is triggering our climate crisis.