b' environmentneed to remember is that every single action matters.She shares three ways to address the problem:Talk about climate change openly and explain your concerns. Get others to care about it.Describe how climate change affects you personally. For instance, you might tell someone how its hot in your classroom for more of the school year.Talk with others about what you can do together to help stop climate change.Theres something else you can do: Encourage people to vote.You dont have to be of voting age to have an impact, she says. Theres a lot of youth energy around driving out the vote Taking action to stop climate change in support of climate-friendly policies.By Healthy Trailblazer Journal 8A staffThese changes can affect peoples health: The DePaul Catholic School Hotter temperatures can be stressful for the heart and make it harder to breathe. Icebergs are melting. Forests are burning.More warm days mean longer growing Sea levels are rising. seasons for plants. The pollen they release can worsen allergies and asthma for These are the worrisome signs that thepeople who suffer from those conditions,FUN Earths climate is changing.Rachel Valletta, an environmentalDr. Valletta says. FACTSscientist who previously worked at TheThe Earths climate has changed in Franklin Institute, a sciencethe past due to naturalOne way to tell whether you are museum in Philadelphia, saysfactors, she says. But thein the Arctic or the Antarctic is by kids can do something toforces changing it todayspotting the animals that live there. make a positive difference.come overwhelmingly fromPolar bears live in the Arctic and And it is simple: Talk aboutpeople. A lot of carbonpenguins live in the Antarctic.climate change. dioxide and other gases are being released into Dr. Rachel VallettaHow is anybody going tothe atmosphere from cars, factories, and other man-know that you care aboutRachel Vallettamade sources, she says.SAYclimate changeand careEnvironmental Scientistabout doing somethingThese gases make theWHAT?about itif you dont talk about it? sheEarths atmosphere warmer.asks. The warmer temperatures will affectClimate change describes For starters, you can explain to peoplepeoples lives in many ways, Dr. Vallettaa change in the average what it is and what causes it. Climatesays. Some crops that are used to coolerconditionssuch as temperature change means that average temperaturesclimates wont grow well in the heat. Theyand rainfallin a region over are rising around the world and thatmight not be able to flourish or producea long period of time. NASA patterns of precipitation, like rainfall, areas much food as they could under coolerscientists have observed Earths shifting, Dr. Valletta says. Some places areconditions, she says. That means in thesurface is warming, and many getting drier, and some places are gettingNortheast we are going to need to change,of the warmest years on record wetter. to adapt to warmer temperatures, heavierhave happened in the past 20 rainfall, and maybe even change the typesyears.In Philadelphia, for instance,of crops we use, she says. temperatures are increasing and wereNational Aeronautics and Space having more rain in a shorter period ofThinking about the changing environmentAdministration (NASA)time, she says. can make people anxious, Dr. Valletta says. So the most important thing you 4B Y K I D S , F O R K I D S | S p r i n g 2 0 2 3 Page 4 illustration by Victoria Adegboyega, 7th grade, La Salle Academy Healthy News'