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Climate Change

'90s kids were asked to do 'simple things' to save the Earth. Gen Z is thinking bigger

Recycle. Plant a tree. Turn the lights out.

When the book "50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth" published in 1990, children were taught small ways to have a positive environmental impact and offset others' negative impacts.

Selling more than 1 million copies with over half a million in its first year, it became a staple in classrooms and kicked off conversations around how to practice sustainability every day. 

Today, many kids are thinking a bit bigger.

Some tens of thousands of children are leaving their classrooms on Friday to demand systematic actions to address a growing climate crisis as youth-driven, grassroots organizations coordinated demonstrations and young activists testified on Capitol Hill this week.

While simple individual level actions are beneficial and can in part help address global climate change, advocates and scientists agree massive changes are needed to adequately prevent climate change's destruction.

How to save the Earth, in 1990

Broken up into sections like "Guarding Our Buried Treasures," "Protecting Animals" and "Spending Energy Wisely," the book was a sort of "how-to" guide to get children interested in and thinking about concrete environmental action.

The book offered practical advice on how to recycle effectively, reduce water use and avoid pollution and get others involved in the action.

"When you're in a toy store, and you see something you like, check out how well it's made. Is it cheap plastic that will break and get tossed out right away? Or is it made to last," the book says.

"If you go food shopping with your family, buy eggs in cardboard, not Styrofoam cartoons. (Then reuse the cartons for art projects)," another section advises.

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"Use beeswax crayons. They aren't made from oil. ... Paint and draw on recycled paper," another reads.

"These are all good things to do," says J. Timmons Roberts, the Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies at Brown University. "They are all worthwhile things to do, but the big ones really are not here."

'Simple things' to do to combat climate change in 2019

In the same year the children's book was released, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also released its first report on climate change, its impacts and how humans could respond.

Scientists had known for decades at the time about the processes of global climate change, but have since developed a deeper understanding and issued more dire warnings.

"As climate science and the Earth’s climate have continued to evolve over recent decades, increasing evidence of anthropogenic influences on climate change has been found. Correspondingly, the IPCC has made increasingly more definitive statements about human impacts on climate," a panel of experts wrote in an IPCC paper on the history of climate science.

A 2009 revised version of the popular children's book that offered practical tips on ways to reduce your impact on the environment.

Accordingly, the advice given even to children on how to address climate change has been updated.

In 2009, a revised version – "The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth" – suggests updated practices to combat environmental harm, including cutting down on plastic bottles, protecting wetlands and using solar power.

Other acts that can still have a big impact include changing habits around travel and housing, Roberts says.

Urging parents to buy an efficient electric car and reduce the number of flights taken each year or not bringing 10 different appliances to college are still practical steps teens can take to reduce their impact on climate change, Roberts says.

The way children are influencing others to act has also changed. The revised version of the book removed the chapter "Write to World Leaders."

"Twenty years ago that may have been something to do, but now you have to get in the face of the leaders," Roberts said.

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Some children have also taken more personal approaches. Canadian Emma Lim, 18, launched the "#NoFutureNoChildren" movement this week, a pledge not to have children until governments take serious action against climate change.

"I am giving up my chance of having a family because I will only have children if I know I can keep them safe," she says on her website. "It breaks my heart, but I created this pledge because I know I am not alone. ... We’ve read the science, and now we’re pleading with our government."

By Friday morning, more than 1,500 kids had signed on.

Youth climate leaders call for 'new era'

While individual actions can positively affect the environment, especially when done collectively, most of the youth activists striking Friday want broader, urgent action.

Because younger generations will be the ones that see climate change's effects, many have called for actions like dramatic increases to renewable resources to produce the country's energy and scaling back reliance on fossil fuels.

Roberts also says that in some cases, systematic changes are necessary for the individual level changes to take place.

Policies that incentivize auto makers to invest in electric cars or that fund infrastructure improvements to public transport are needed to facilitate the individual act of buying an efficient electric car or taking the subway more often, he says.

Roberts praised recent youth movements on climate change because of their focus on bigger picture issues

"This generation is different. They feel the sense of urgency and they have a different political strategy," he said. "The rest of us (need to) lead, follow or get out of the way, and in this case I think we need to follow and really provide them a livable future, which means some very big changes right now."

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Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs and Climate Crisis committees on Wednesday, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, submitted a recent IPCC report on the impacts of global warming at 1.5°C as her formal testimony.

Greta Thunberg attends the joint House Foreign Affairs and House Climate Crisis committees hearing at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

"I don't want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists. I want you unite behind science. And then I want you to take real action," she told U.S. lawmakers.

Jamie Margolin, 17, who co-founded the youth-led Zero Hour movement on environmental action, told lawmakers that, "the only thing that will save us is a whole new era." 

"The most frustrating thing is that the U.S. government can't even begin to imagine the massive political shift that has to happen in order for us to solve this issue. The politics just hasn't been invented yet," she said before the committees. 

"Solving the climate crisis goes against everything that our country was unfortunately built on: colonialism, slavery and natural resource extraction," she added. "This is why the youth are calling for a new era altogether."

Contributing: Elizabeth Weise and John Bacon. Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller

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