Teen Blog

The Environment

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Teen Blog posts on the Environment

Climate Change and Global Warming

The earth is heating up fast! Many people believe this is largely due to Greenhouse Gas emissions from humans and their activities. We can see the weather patterns changing around us and more wild storms and crazy weather events are occuring all over the world. Humans, animals, plants, bugs and entire ecosystems are affected by climate change and global warming. Even the stability of human institutions and the economy are affected.

Search the library catalogue for more books on Climate Change or Global Warming.

Our library databases are full of interesting information that you can access from your home (you will need to put in your library card number):

Energy

With the world population getting larger and larger there is a greater demand on the earth for energy. New Zealand alone has doubled its energy use every 22 years over the last century and that amount is predicted to increase … faster. There are three things we can do about this: Change our habits so we use less energy; change our technology so it uses energy more efficiently; and we can look at where and how our energy is made.

A lot of our energy is generated using fossil fuels which release greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels are not renewable, that means we have a finite amount of them and they will run out. Many countries are looking at ways to make sustainable energy. New Zealand already makes electricity using water power which is renewable, but we are also investigating other renewable sources like solar, wind, tidal, and biomass.

Transport is one of the biggest ways we use energy and emit greenhouse gases, so it is also one of the areas where we can look at changing our habits.

Check out our databases to see what we have on energy:

Sustainability

Sustainability is about meeting the needs of those of us living today, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. That means we need to think ahead and think about how our actions today will effect the world of tomorrow. Will there be enough clean water and air for our great-great-grandchildren? Will there be enough food? And enough energy?

Conservation and Biodiversity

The idea of protecting and living in harmony our environment has been around for a long time. Life has evolved to be extremely intricate and diverse, and interacts in a very complex manner. Everything depends on everything else for survival. Humans are part of this system, and there are many of us trying to make use of the resources our environment provides. It is necessary for us to look at how we can conserve these other aspects of our environment, from birds, to trees, to seas, to entire ecosystems. Some of these are in danger due to natural causes, but many have been effected by human agriculture, pollution, cities, and migration.

  • Kids Conservation Club - A great site made for kids all about conservation in New Zealand
  • Forest and Bird - Forest and Bird is an organisation dedicated to the conservation of our plants and animals in New Zealand
  • Biodiversity.govt.nz - A government site dedicated to explaining every aspect of biodiversity and how you can help.
  • Convention on Biological Diversity - A good explanation of biodiversity.
  • Up The Creek - A fun interactive way to learn about biodiversity for kids.
  • Terranature - A beautiful site looking a New Zealand’s environmental history and current conservation issues.
  • Karori Wildlife Sanctuary - All you ever wanted to know about Wellington’s amazing urban sanctuary.
  • Te Ara: Marine Conservation - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Te Ara, looks at marine conservation.
  • Penguin conservation - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Te Ara, looks at the conservation efforts made for penguins.
  • Kapiti and Mana Islands - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Te Ara, looks at the history of Kapiti and Mana island conservation sanctuaries.
  • New Zealand Birds - Everything you ever wanted or needed to know about New Zealand birds.

Try looking up conservation on our databases:

Waste

Humans are making more and more things, but at the moment that means we are making more and more waste. We are running out of space to put the world’s garbage, and we are running out of resources to make our things out of. We need to start looking at making less garbage. We can do this by buying less, recycling more, and buying things with less packaging.

  • Garbage Games - A whole lot of games to see how much you know about dealing with your rubbish.
  • Recycle - Another quiz testing your knowledge on recylcing.
  • Recycle Zone - A fun site full of interactive games on recycling and rubbish.

Try our library databases to see what we have online about waste and the environment:

Water

We use water to make electricity, to drink, to water our plants, irrigate our farms, and clean. And we are not the only ones using water. Animals and plants rely on water to survive too. The problem is we are making our water more and more polluted, and using it for more and more things. We need to learn how to use water sparingly, without making it polluted.

Try our library databases to find out about water and the environment:

Interactive Stuff

Work out your Environmental Impact, your Water Use, your Emissions, and Play Some Games

Getting Involved

What can you do?

The best thing you can do to help the environment is to change your own habits. Look at the pages below and use the calculators above to see what areas of your life you can make a change in.

How do you get to school? What do you do with your organic rubbish? How much energy do you use? How long do you spend in the shower? Or do you take a bath? These are all questions you could be asking yourself.

Have you ever thought about the food you buy? Food that is grown locally has used less energy to get to you, so try and buy locally if you can. Also check out the Red Fish Guide to see what fish has least impact on the environment to eat.

Or you could browse the virtual supermarket shelves online to see which companies are GE Free with the Greenpeace GE Food Guide.

Future Careers

A Future helping the earth?

Are you trying to decide what you can do when you leave school? What if you had a career that helped to make a better world? There are heaps of courses around the country that focus on conservation, the environment and its resources. Check these pages out and see if any of them are for you!