Throughout history, students have been the driving force in social change. Now more than ever is the time for students across the country to become global warming activists and join the movement. On this page you will find tips for stopping global warming that your class or school can do today. You don’t have to do everything, but we all need to do something! Get started in your school and keep us posted with results. Has your Mayor joined the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement? If not, have your students write to the Mayor encouraging him/her to take local action to reduce your cities carbon emissions. Try to set up a class meeting at City Hall. Encourage administrators to make watching An Inconvenient Truth and Too Hot Not to Handle required viewing, the way it already is in Sweden and Norway, and make Stop Global Warming: The Solution is You! required reading at your school. Start a campaign to replace all light bulbs in your school with compact fluorescents. Have students work with local businesses to get them donated or hold a bake sale, etc. to raise money to buy them. Set a goal and calculate the emissions saved. Start a no idling rule in the carpool lane at your school. Make sure your class has recycling bins for paper and plastics. Run a student contest to design custom recycling bins, like the one shown here from the Windward School in Los Angeles. Encourage administrators to only purchase post consumer recycled paper products (including toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, etc.) at your school. Set a goal to increase it. Make a rule that all multi-page documents are run double-sided. Keep looking for ways to eliminate paper. Take the issue of global warming to PTA meetings to educate the parents on the urgency of this issue. Have your school set lights and air conditioners on efficiency timers. Reduce use of juice boxes, water bottles, plastic bags, etc. in your cafeteria, in your lunch box and at school parties. Have a tree planting day at your school. Plant trees that are local to your area that will reduce carbon dioxide and create clean air to breathe. Have your utility company come do an energy audit on the school. Find out what year your school’s oil burning furnace was put in. If it is over 5 years old, a new one would substantially reduce carbon emissions. Plan a fundraiser to help pay for it. Find a news article on our site about global warming and email it to five people. Start a global warming club at your school and set goals to curb your school’s energy use. Choose global warming as a topic for your next science, English, or social studies report. Run for student government on a global warming platform. Challenge another school to match what you are doing to curb global warming emissions. Institute “Good Citizen” premium parking spaces for teachers, parents and students that drive hybrid cars. Have all students conduct their own personal energy audit to figure out their daily carbon footprint and set goals to reduce it. Celebrate the student who reduces their emissions the most at the end of the school year. Look into the food, waste and packaging purchases of your cafeteria. Make carpooling a priority. Do a survey and measure what is already being done to set goals to improve it. Announce the progress at the final school assembly. Keep up-to-date on global warming related news.
Encourage Your Mayor to Take Action
Watch An Inconvenient Truth
Replace School Lightbulbs
No Idling!
Recycle
Cut Back on Paper
Educate Your Parents
Use Timers
No Waste at School Meals and Events
Plant Trees
Conduct a School Energy Audit
Replace Oil Burning Furnaces
Spread the News
Start a Club
Research and Report
Speak Out
Reward the Use of Hybrids
Audit Student Energy Use
Review School’s Purchases
Carpool
Stay Informed
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