What teenagers think we should do to take care of the planet
If you gave teenagers five minutes to come up with a list of ways to help the planet, how many do you think they could write down? And what would they say?
Well, in the case of the youth group I talked to a few weeks ago, the answer is 25, and their ideas had quite a lot of insight. I divided the group into teams of four and used a stopwatch on my phone to see which group could come up with the longest list in five minutes.
We cheered for the winning group, and here is their list.
Public transportation
Recycle
Plant trees and plants
Cleaner energy
Change eating habits (meat)
Plastic bags (less)
No littering
Composting
Carpooling
Buying less
Bicycling
Thrifting
Donating to conservation
Leave no trace
Reuse things
Limit shopping
No plastic bottles
Grow own food
Self sustaining
Sufficient energy source
No pesticides
Plant for pollination
Buying local
Upcycle
Not bad, huh?
The other groups also had great ideas, and one of them even included little drawings. Here are a few of the suggestions the other groups came up with.
Inform the public more
Open mindedness
Respect habitats
Shorter showers
Use less disposable items like paper plates and plastic
Support more solar panels
Buy from organic sources
Vote for clean energy initiatives
Electric vehicles
Help save the bees
Turn off lights
Clean up the streams and waterways
When I did the same kind of contest with adults, I added a second step where I asked them to pick two activities that they would like to start doing or do more of. If you had to pick two items from the lists the teenagers came up with, what would those be?