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“We should take care of what is precious to us"
English educators Cassandra Harper and Yvette Howard incorporated the environment into a series of lessons in December last year. Each student conducted their own research to begin drafting letters to EHN about their concerns or hopes. EHN reporter Cami Ferrell visited their classrooms to share information about her personal reporting experiences in Houston.
The collection of letters, some of which were lightly edited, do not represent the opinions of YES Prep Northbrook or EHN, but are offered here as a peek into the minds of children and their relationship with environmental issues. You can see the first set of letters here.
Gissel Leiva Salgado
Many wonder where our future is headed; some imagine flying cars or living on new planets, but we might never be able to get there if we continue to live the way we are. Many people aren't aware of how damaging climate change is for our environment and health. This letter aims to inform people why they should worry about climate change and try to help however they can.
One issue that many people don’t realize is one of the major causes of climate change: the overuse of fossil fuels and refineries. Using fossil fuels causes greenhouse gasses to rise into the atmosphere, making it hotter on Earth. Refineries also release harmful gasses that can cause many illnesses due to the bad air quality they create, and they can also cause the people working in them to develop health issues.
In the Spring Branch area, the majority of people are Hispanic and have jobs that require them to work outside. Climate change can affect them more because of their jobs since they have to spend hours upon hours working outside in extremely high temperatures. This can cause heat-related illnesses. Many people don’t understand the feeling of having to worry about the health of someone you care for because of the effects of climate change.
Many of us imagine the future getting better as we advance in technology and medicine, but we forget the negative things we ignore. We ignore how the air quality gets worse and the water becomes more filled with harmful plastics. Our decisions as a whole affect the world around us in major and minor ways. Because of our decisions future generations may never be able to see and experience things we did like seeing certain plants, places or animals. We all need to work together to improve the state of our planet if we want even a slight chance of getting back what we’ve ruined.
- Gissel Leiva Salgado
Gavin Rodriguez
We should take care of what is precious to us. This includes our environment. With the current climate crisis, we are abusing the Earth. Every summer breaks new heat records and the winters are colder than ever, which is not normal. I am writing to you to convince all people to act against climate change in any way possible.
The issue here in Houston is that we are experiencing a rise in extreme weather. Specifically, this affects me and my community by leaving it an unsafe, unhealthy environment to live in. For example, just over a month ago, a fire broke out in the Spring Branch area. That fire could have been detrimental to Houston and caused many deaths. Although this wasn’t the case, people had to deal with breathing problems, inhaling that dangerous smoke. If this keeps up, it will cause significant problems in the community such as: health concerns, environmental problems, and the deaths of many.
The public must know about climate change because they are the people who can stop climate change. We as citizens can help with this issue by cutting down the use of cars, and other exhaust-based vehicles since the smog from these vehicles plays a major role in the air pollution that sits within the world today. We can do this by taking public transportation, walking to places more often, and riding bicycles to our destinations.
People can also reach out to the government to act on climate change, like petitions, or a letter, like I am writing now. To those who read my message, I thank you for your time and your consideration of my opinion.
- Gavin Rodriguez
Gaddiel Romero
People have started to feel the change, how hot it has been getting and the natural disasters that have been occurring. The purpose of today’s letter is to address this issue that has been happening all over the world, but no one seems to want to take the time to talk about it, and mostly only protest about it. Climate change has started to occur due to the mistakes that we as humans have been creating and have chosen to neglect until now. Now more than ever, if we still want to have some of the things that we have, the animals, the buildings, and even the health that we have or the life expectancy that we have now we need to desperately make a change.
As for how people are getting affected by climate change, it can take a toll on your emotional health because it can cause you to feel hopeless, hateful, and other emotions due to how people work or interact with these changes. Climate change can affect many communities, such as Latino communities, because it has been proven by studies that Latinos have more jobs that involve being in the sun. This is bad because if climate change keeps occurring, then the life expectancy for the Latino community will drop.
Now, this letter is to get you, the people, the readers, to do something about this. To make changes, we need to try to do fewer things that are harming our world such as burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. These are only some examples of the many things that we do daily that harm our planet. If we still want to live here and the other generations to come, then now is the time to make a change.
- Gaddiel Romero
Fernanda Barrientos
To address climate change, it is important that we put in more effort to inform others who do not speak our language about the harm climate change does to our health. To my readers, I want you to understand that one way that environmental activists can help with this is by trying to translate or write in different languages so that people who do not speak or understand the (original) language can get the same amount of information on this matter.
(In some communities) few people speak English, meaning that they do not get any or enough information about their health. This issue affects my community because many people are getting severe sicknesses and do not know why, due to not enough resources written in their native language. For example, a while ago there was a fire in front of my apartment complex and many people did not know about it, causing children to go to school inhaling all the smoke. This made me feel upset because as I stated before only a few people knew about it, and there were people living inside the woods that were not aware of the fire. This impacted my community because the smoke was still lingering a while after the fire had been put out and that was all we were inhaling for almost two weeks.
- Fernanda Barrientos
Jakeline Cebrian
For a very long time, people have been talking about how climate change is becoming more prominent, yet nothing is being done. Generally, people either don’t care enough about it or just aren’t informed enough. My community, my family, me, we all are surrounded by oil and petroleum refineries and fires with unknown causes, yet it’s not like we are currently dying because of it, is it? I mean most people think that they won’t live long enough to see a true effect. They think that we will eventually leave this world and it will no longer be our problem. But then whose problem is it going to be? Eventually, someone will have to come up with something to fix a huge problem that could have been stopped before. A huge problem they didn’t even cause. Why should the people after us have to deal with something that they didn’t cause just because the true culprits didn’t do anything and now, they are gone? I understand that in our lifetime nothing extremely significant might happen, but what about the kids? What about the kids of our kids? Do they not deserve to live in a world where they don’t have to constantly worry about the side effects of just living?
Climate change might seem very intimidating but even the simplest of changes can have a significant effect. Simply eating more plant-based foods will mean less greenhouse gas emissions, and less land needed so not as many trees will die. However, it is important that the government also takes action. They should easily be able to come up with something as simple as being stricter when it comes to flaring —the burning of gasses— and venting —the release of gasses. They could also continue to support scientists such as the ones studying more about geoengineering or the ones who are restlessly trying to find and use recent technology to prevent further damage.
In the end, although climate change is unfortunately irreversible as of right now, there is still the option of not letting it get any further.
- Jakeline Cebrian
Credit: Fateme Alaie/Unsplash
Earth Day reflections from the next generation
English educators Cassandra Harper and Yvette Howard incorporated the environment into a series of lessons in December last year. Each student conducted their own research to begin drafting letters to EHN about their concerns or hopes. EHN reporter Cami Ferrell visited their classrooms to share information about her personal reporting experiences in Houston.
The collection of letters, some of which were lightly edited, do not represent the opinions of YES Prep Northbrook or EHN, but are offered here as a peek into the minds of children and their relationship with environmental issues.
Mario Ramos
Is climate change really an issue? Some people might think not, so I am writing to discuss my
opinion on climate change and why we should do more to prevent it. The purpose of this letter is to call attention to the effect that climate change and pollution has on minority communities. I would like to discuss this issue because climate change is having a major effect on minority communities, specifically the Hispanic community, and as a Hispanic (person), that makes this a personal issue.
Refineries are usually built around minority communities. Now normally you wouldn’t think that this is a bad thing, right? Well, unfortunately, it is very much a problem. You see, refineries, specifically ones that work with crude oil, tend to release emissions. Some emissions are discharges of harmful chemicals released into the air, especially from the production of gas.Communities that have refineries built around or close to them, tend to see more illnesses related to gas emissions. Early death, heart attacks, respiratory disorders, stroke and asthma, are all illnesses that are commonly found in communities close to refineries.
Fifth Ward, a neighborhood in Houston, has a history of cancer clusters because of the water being contaminated by toxic waste left over from wood treatment operations.* I have a family that lives in Fifth Ward, and it might just be me but I don’t like the idea of my family getting cancer from the water.
If you live in Houston, you know that the heat is no joke. My dad works in the labor field, as do many other Hispanic people, and they spend hours a day working in the intense heat. I am disappointed. I am Hispanic and I don’t want my people to suffer these diseases and cancers just because we as humans can’t take care of the environment. And this can be personal to any other person of color because, unfortunately, minorities aren’t offered desk jobs away from the heat, or make enough.
Student longing for winter
During the 2010s, my age was only a digit. That one digit in my age made me feel a sense of joy for almost anything winter related.
It was second grade, and I could barely sleep because of all the excitement that I had bundled up in me. It was going to snow the very next morning. As soon as I wake up to go to school, I immediately go outside. The snow softly falling into my hands, it felt like I was in a movie. I was so excited that I even started to eat some of the snow. I felt so joyful for just tiny little frozen water crystals. It felt like it was really December, the December I’ve always wanted to explore and experience, the December that brought me happiness for a kid so young.
But where did that go?
Years passed after the snow of second grade, and it barely ever came back. I wanted it to come back. It has only been at least 3 years since it snowed here, and the joy from that was only temporary, it only lasted for that one day. I’m still waiting for it. 3 years and I’m starting to lose hope for it to come back.
Why isn’t it coming back to me and everyone else?
Greenhouse gas emissions trap the heat around our atmosphere, not letting even a single snowflake fall. I’m starting to think that I might even wait 5 years just for at least a few snowflakes.
It’s gone now.
The winter that I have always wanted.
Katherine Gomez
I want to express my worry about climate change. In today's time it has been the hottest it has ever been and will continue to be. The Arctic is melting which is causing change around the world. In February 2021, Texas was hit by a cold wave that had 700 deaths and cost billions in economic damage. There was a fire in Spring Branch Texas that burnt for days. During this time ash fell from the sky for days and people were concerned for their health as they could not escape it, even inside. This should not happen again.
This issue keeps on happening, but people continue to ignore climate change and it has gotten worse over the years. People expect climate change to disappear or be taken care of. There are people around the globe who are affected, my own community is having to deal with this. My hope is thin for our future generations because of our carelessness now, unless we start caring.
We can start by bicycling to get around places and save more energy or use less than necessary at our homes. Then comes bigger steps where we must adapt by turning to renewable energy. There are new developments of batteries that store renewable energy and capture carbon dioxide from power plants to either store underground or turn into valuable products like gasoline. This is our future. It will make a change for the better.
The actions we take now are our future, so we can pretend climate change is not an issue or take a stand now. Generations of kids– and mine- are in your hands. It might seem difficult or even inevitable, but it is not. Even the miniscule of actions, like writing a letter, is worth everything.
Jose Sotomayor
We all have heard of problems like: violence and inflation, but a problem that I haven't heard talked about much is climate change. As a resident of Houston, Texas I am really concerned how people don't really know about this dangerous situation the planet is facing. I live in a city where the air quality is horrible because of all the gasses being freed into the area from the refineries surrounding the city. Most people think we are safe from climate change, but we aren't because it is slowly affecting our health. Which is why I'm writing this letter to inform you about the dangers of climate change and how we can solve them.
Another thing to think about is that Texas has a lot of diversity when it comes to natural areas as it has a coast, canyons, and flat grasslands; reading this you may think of a beautiful place full of animals and nature; however, that's not the case. In the nearby city of Galveston there is one of most touristic beaches in Texas, but because all the factories and refineries around the water have become extremely dirty and the sand has a lot of trash from people around the city.
It may seem like we are too late, but we aren't, thanks to the technology we are developing scientists have found new ways to make things we all use. For example, electric cars are a new way to help the planet as it doesn't burn fuel that liberates smoke which is one of the major causes of climate change. All these things show that we as a community can make a big impact on the environment and that we still have hope to fix the damage we have caused.
It's sad seeing how human pollution and abuse of resources is affecting the Earth rapidly, it's sad thinking that our future generations will face the consequences of our actions if we don't stop living the way we do now. The Earth is heating up and multiple disasters are coming with it, but it is still not too late. What people don't realize is that we as normal people can make a significant change.
Hector Guerrero
The Earth is a beautiful place, but we are ruining it with issues that are unspoken. If climate change goes unspoken for too long, we are going to do more damage than we have already done. We could at least try to keep it from worsening
Climate change is a huge problem. If we do not try to prevent it everyone could be at risk. People who work outdoors are more likely to get ill from the temperature. In Houston, this affects my Latino community because they mostly do outdoor jobs. Factories and refineries are adding to the problem of climate change, they produce (emissions) that get trapped in the atmosphere that heat the earth. This is going to impact the future of many kids who will grow up in a world where the heat can be unbearable. Climate change is affecting the weather around us; back in 2021, there was snow that was not supposed to be in this city. Because we were not prepared for snow, many people lost their lives because of climate change.
Climate change also fuels natural disasters and they become more dangerous. As a result, there will be more deaths and injured people in the hospital. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. It affects not only the environment, but also human health, economies, and communities. The evidence is clear: our planet is warming at an alarming rate, with grave consequences. Climate change will also affect animal lives and could cause animals to go extinct.From more frequent and severe natural disasters to food and water shortages, the impacts of climate change are already being felt around the world.
We all must address this issue. We can start by making simple changes in our lives like using renewable energy, planting more trees, and cleaning up plastics and trash. This can cause damage to our economy and the environment around us. Switching to renewable sources would not only be more beneficial, but it will also slow climate change and provide more options that do not emit gas. Furthermore, fossil fuels are limited unlike renewable energy that can be used multiple times.
As a student growing up, I do not want to get an outside job in the future and have an elevated risk of getting ill because of climate change that we caused in the past. We must all act to stop climate change before it gets worse, and humanity could cease to be productive.
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