Turning Green(Home Run Edition)

Chapter 1: Green's the New Pink

“Green is the new pink.” That’s a pretty catchy phrase, isn’t it?

It means that caring about the environment is a growing trend. From movie stars to the family next door, it seems like everyone is “going green.”

What does it mean to be green? Well, green is the color that stands for environmentalism (caring about the Earth). Living green means understanding that your actions have an effect on the environment. You try to live your life in a way that does as little damage as possible to the Earth. The simple choices all of us make every day are a big part of that.

Going green is a really important job: We have to save the world! Our planet is in great danger. Our air, our water, and our land are all threatened. And not only is the Earth at risk, but every one of us is also personally under attack. Many of the products we use and the foods we eat are harmful to us and the environment.

So, are you living green? There are a lot of questions you can ask yourself to help figure it out. Do you use products that are made with all-natural ingredients? Do you often ride in gas-guzzling cars? Do you eat organic foods? Do you recycle as much as possible? Do you leave lights on when you are not using them? Do you wear makeup that is harmful to the environment—and even your own face?

Most of us have mixed answers to these questions—some good, some bad. The trick is acting on your answers. You can make some simple, but possibly world-saving, changes in your own life. From morning until night, you make hundreds of choices that affect the environment. We all do. Together, if we make the right choices, we can make a big difference.

Former vice president Al Gore started talking about global warming a few years ago. At the time, many people didn’t want to listen. (Global warming is a fancy way of saying that our planet is heating up.) The title of Mr. Gore’s documentary on global warming sums up the situation well: “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Sure, it’s easier to believe that there is no problem. Or that someone else will take care of it. But the inconvenient truth is that global warming, and other environmental issues, affect all of us. After all, there is only one planet Earth.

The reason that global warming is happening is because of a process known as the “greenhouse effect.” This natural phenomenon gets its name from the way a greenhouse works. (A greenhouse is a glass building plants are grown in.)

Have you ever sat in a car with the windows rolled up on a sunny day? It gets hot pretty fast, right? Well, that’s how a greenhouse works, too. Heat from the sun passes through the glass. It warms up the ground inside the greenhouse (or the seats inside your car). This heats up the air above it. The warm air is trapped inside, keeping the greenhouse warm enough to grow plants all year long.

The greenhouse effect that’s happening to our planet is a similar process. Certain gases in our atmosphere trap energy from the sun, called radiation. (These gases act like the glass in a greenhouse, and we call them greenhouse gases. They include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.)

This energy from the sun is what warms the Earth. So having some amount of these gases is actually good for the Earth’s temperature. If these gases weren’t there at all, the sun’s radiation would bounce off the Earth. Then, the Earth would be too cold for us to live on.

But now, we have way too much of these gases in our atmosphere. Why? Well, over the last several hundred years, humans have begun to build things that produce these gases. Cars, airplanes, power plants, and factories all give off greenhouse gases.

And that’s not all. There are also more of us humans now. That means more cars to drive us around and more factories to make all the stuff we need. So, those extra greenhouse gases are trapping a lot more of the sun’s radiation. As a result, our planet is heating up: global warming.

Global warming affects more than just the temperatures around us. It can also change weather patterns. For example, warmer ocean water tends to produce bigger storms. (Think about the powerful hurricanes that have recently hit the United States, like Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.)

Our oceans are at the center of other scary climate trends as well. In recent years, as oceans have become warmer, water levels have risen. This may be because, as the water warms due to global warming, the ice near the North and South Poles begins to melt. This adds more water to the ocean. These deposits of ice, which are called the polar ice caps, are huge. When chunks of them start to melt and collapse into the ocean, they can quickly disappear. Think of an ice cube in a glass of water. It will melt a lot faster if there are fewer ice cubes around it.

In 2002, a giant chunk of ice (about 1,300 square miles in size) collapsed into the ocean. Some scientists fear that if warming continues, more of these giant chunks of ice will break off and melt into the ocean. If they do, many coastal areas around the world will be flooded. Millions of people living in coastal areas could lose their homes. Or worse—entire cities could be destroyed.

Some of the side effects of rising temperatures are harder to see. That’s because they are occurring below the surface of the ocean. Global warming is causing the destruction of thousands of miles of coral reefs, and we must protect them.

Coral reefs have often been called “tropical rainforests of the ocean.” That’s because of the great number of plant and animal species they support. Reefs protect our shorelines, and are a key part of our oceans’ food chain. In one year (1998), 16 percent of the world’s reefs were lost! Can you imagine if we lose our reefs and beaches altogether? What would the side effects be on the rest of nature?

Despite the scary trends, there is some good news. We can help the coral reefs recover. We can stop the Earth from warming. We can help keep storms from growing stronger. We can take control of the chemicals we put into our bodies, our water, and our air. In other words, we can save our planet if we each do our part!

There is no simple fix. It took the whole world to get us into this mess. And it will take every one of us to get us out. We’ve spent the last few hundred years turning the world into a polluted mess. Now we have to spend the next few hundred turning it green again.

Millions of individuals have begun to do their part. Environmental groups have worked hard to spread the word. There are thousands of initiatives being put into effect by governments and organizations all over the world. They include recycling projects, clean-air acts, and many other small steps toward saving planet Earth.

The Kyoto Protocol was the first real effort to begin reducing the production of greenhouse gases on a global scale. Since 1997, 182 countries have agreed to the protocol. They have promised to monitor and reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. (The United States has not yet agreed to the protocol.)

Celebrities have also become involved in the green movement. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the celebrities leading the way. He produced the documentary “The 11th Hour.” And he has also encouraged celebrities to skip the limousines at the Oscars and arrive in hybrid cars instead.

GREEN INFO: Hybrid cars use about half the gas regular cars do. Plus, they spit out 89 percent fewer harmful emissions. So when you drive a hybrid, fewer greenhouse gases are going into our atmosphere. Of course, when you walk or ride a bike, NO harmful chemicals are emitted!

Cameron Diaz and Chevy Chase were just two of the celebrities that joined in. Sheryl Crow went a step further. She actually toured the country in a bus that was powered by vegetable oil. Fuel made from vegetable oils is called “biodiesel.” It can be made from leftover oil from fast food restaurants like McDonald’s. Crow thought her eco-friendly bus was fun to ride in ... even though she said it smelled like french fries the entire way!

Other celebrities like George Clooney, Ed Norton, Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, and Tom Hanks are going green, too. They do their part to raise money and awareness for the green movement.

Sure, these are small steps. But when you multiply these small steps several billion times, they really add up. To turn the world green again, millions and millions of non-politicians and non-celebrities will have to do their part as well.

In the following pages, you’ll read about how young people can make a huge difference in saving the planet. For 17-year-old Jessica Assaf, becoming an active part of the green movement was personal and unexpected. After learning about some questionable practices in the makeup industry, she stood up for herself … and for planet Earth.