Schools sign up to help planet
More than 1,000 schools across the UK have signed up to Let’s Go Zero, a campaign with the aim of helping schools become carbon neutral by 2030. Carbon neutral means tting do n carbon emissions to zero o out in other ways. Carbon emissions are gases such a carbon dioxide (CO2) that a released into the atmosphe where they make climate change (long-term change weather patterns) worse.
Emissions are caused b sorts of human activities, s burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) to make energy, cutting down forests and some types of farming. Becoming carbon neutral involves cutting the amount of carbon emissions a school prod ces as ell as balancing those that aking some carbon out of sphere. e Let’s Go Zero project aims w how small changes can e a big difference. These t include thinking carefully t energy use, cutting , growing food closer to t’s eaten and walking or school where possible. Ways of balancing out the carbon emissions that a school still makes include planting trees and plants that absorb CO2 as they grow.
Ysgol Bro Dinefwr Secondary School in Wales has promised to run entirely on emissions-free renewable energy (such as wind and solar power) within the next three years. At Down High School in Northern Ireland, the students are looking after their own bees, which can help to pollinate flowers and crops that produce food. Other schools have projects to cut food waste by weighing it after each meal to calculate how much is not being eaten. Some put the waste into a biodigester – a system that can turn it into fertiliser to put on the garden to help plants grow. Have a look at letsgozero.org to find out ways your school can get involved, and talk to a teacher about signing up.