Reduce the Harm:
Get the Message Out to Others
Problem: People who are comfortable with their posessions and lifestyles often do not take in to consideration the connections they have to Earth's life sustaining processes. Consuming beyond what we need ends up harming Earth's systems, Earth's people, and Earth's biodiversity of species beyond humans. Citizens of the United States consume at a rate higher than any people on our planet. It takes 9.7 hectares of land (100 meters by 100 meters) resources to sustain a person's lifestyle in America. If everybody on Earth consumed at this rate, it would take 5 planets to sustain us for just a few generations. If all 6.7 billion people were given equal resources, each person would get less than 2 hectares of land to sustain them. Crunching the numbers easily shows that our future will be bleak if we do not make changes.
Solution: Get the message out to the public that the environment matters, that we can each make changes that add up to major gains toward solving environmental crises.
Community Exemplars:  Mr. Pitts' AP Environmental Science Students 2007-8 as reported by Karyn
It is important that the public understands that the phrase "global warming" does not mean "inescapable destruction". There is definitely hope for the world and the effects of global warming can be greatly decreased if we take the right steps. My brother decided to hold a demonstration to get the point across. Katie made our awesome shirts that gave easy ways to lessen the impact we have on the earth. Examples include shorter showers, recycling, and carpooling. I made brochures to hand out to walkers and bikers as well as the occasional interested driver. These also included simple changes that could help the earth and save some money! Various volunteers made the signs and we agreed on a date.
Standing in the hot sun on a street corner with signs wasn't exactly how we imagined ourselves enjoying a Friday afternoon, but we had fun with our positive messages. A few of us crossed the street to liven things up a bit and we kept a tally of all the cars that honked for our sign: "Honk if you care." The count was 323 drivers that responded with a positive honk. It was nice to see people taking an interest in our message of hope. It felt great that a group of high schoolers cared enough about the Earth to spread the news, even if it meant standing in the sun for around 2 hours. Having hope is the first step toward fighting this crisis. Check out this site for ways to take the second step: getting involved!
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