youth climate change

“We should take care of what is precious to us"

Eighth graders reflect on the state of the planet.

HOUSTON — This week EHN is publishing letters from eighth grade students at YES Prep Northbrook Middle School in the Houston-area neighborhood of Spring Branch, Texas.


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

youth climate change

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

youth climate change

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

youth environmental

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

youth climate change

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

youth climate change

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

Two scientists in lab coats look at a computer screen displaying a colorful image from a molecular microscope.
Credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr

Federal health data removals leave scientists scrambling

Researchers are racing to preserve critical federal health data as the Trump administration removes online access to key government databases, raising fears about future disruptions.

Margaret Manto reports for Notus.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
A group of young, diverse scientists work in a laboratory.
Credit: NIH Image Gallery/Flickr

Trump’s funding cuts threaten the backbone of U.S. research

Trump’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cut targets “indirect costs,” the behind-the-scenes expenses that keep labs running, sparking a fierce backlash from universities and scientists who say it will cripple American innovation.

Carolyn Y. Johnson, Susan Svrluga, and Joel Achenbach report for The Washington Post.

Keep reading...Show less
Fire department personnel wearing protective gear walk along a street with the burned rubble of former homes.
Credit: CAL FIRE_Official/Flickr

Climate disasters are pushing society’s most vulnerable to the brink

The Los Angeles fires claimed 29 lives, most of them elderly, highlighting the deadly risks climate-intensified disasters pose to older adults.

Sarah Kaplan and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux report for The Washington Post.

Keep reading...Show less
Looking down on a city in the desert with mountains in the background.

Arizona’s developers fight water limits in a dark-money showdown

A dark-money-backed lawsuit is challenging Arizona’s groundbreaking limits on development in areas with rapidly disappearing groundwater, a move that could reshape water policy across the Southwest.

Katya Schwenk reports for The Lever.

Keep reading...Show less
A man in t-shirt and shorts digs in the sand next to a sign that says "sea turtle nest."

Major U.S. nature report in jeopardy due to Trump administration shutdown

Scientists were blindsided when the Trump administration killed a first-of-its-kind U.S. nature assessment, but key experts say they’ll finish it without government support.

Catrin Einhorn reports for The New York Times.

Keep reading...Show less
aerial photography of grass field with blue solar panels and a road.

Clean energy growth shattered records in 2024, but political uncertainty looms

Clean energy installations in the U.S. surged 47% last year, driven by tax credits and falling costs, but future growth faces challenges from the Trump administration’s policies.

Akielly Hu reports for Canary Media.

Keep reading...Show less
Donald Trump smiling at a campaign event

Trump defies court orders, continues to block climate funding

President Donald Trump has halted billions in Biden-era climate and infrastructure funds, despite court rulings ordering their release.

Jake Bittle reports for Grist.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

People  sitting in an outdoors table working on a big sign.

Op-ed: Why funding for the environmental justice movement must be anti-racist

We must prioritize minority-serving institutions, BIPOC-led organizations and researchers to lead environmental justice efforts.

joe biden

Biden finalizes long-awaited hydrogen tax credits ahead of Trump presidency

Responses to the new rules have been mixed, and environmental advocates worry that Trump could undermine them.

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice logo

LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

The leadership team talks about what they’ve learned — and what lies ahead.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.