Going green

Megha Neelapu, an eighth grader at The Post Oak School, wants to teach others how to lessen global warming.

I have a strong passion for fighting global warming, which I think is the biggest and most urgent world issue of the 21st century. I became aware of this problem about two years ago when I read a newspaper article about the smog in China and how emissions from fossil fuels lead to the catastrophic effects of global warming. I learned that man-made global warming is already worsening droughts, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, wildfires and food shortages all over the world, including Texas. I was horrified by this and vowed to do my part in mitigating it.

To begin with, I tried to see how I could reduce my family’s emissions. About 80 percent of the emissions from our daily activities come from usage of electricity and cars. So, I convinced my parents to switch to an electric car and change our electricity plan to 100 percent wind energy. Many people think that green energy is more expensive than conventional energy; however, this is not necessarily true. In many places, especially in Texas, wind energy is cheaper than conventional energy. Therefore, by just making a phone call, we reduced our carbon footprint by about 50 percent and saved money.

I realized that it was not enough to reduce emissions just at my home. At the beginning of seventh grade, I gave a presentation to my middle school about global warming, and started a club called Cool Down. Our mission is to raise awareness about global warming at our school, encourage people to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions at home, and find solutions to lower our school’s carbon footprint. Our club gave presentations to elementary students, prepared and distributed brochures at our Field Day, and is currently working on a proposal for our school to go green and save money. I also gave TEDxYouth talks on global warming, did a summer internship on global warming at the University of Houston, and am in the process of starting a non-governmental organization to promote clean energy and green technologies.

I am happy to share my knowledge and help students at other schools to start similar programs. If we act together, we can stop global warming.

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