By Annalies “Anni” Messner, Wylie Elementary School, Dexter, Michigan

Climate change is bad for the Earth because it makes the surfacewarmer, it can kill plants by drying them out, and most of all, it’s caused by humans!!!

One reason climate change is bad for the Earth is that it makes Earth’s crust (the part we live on) warmer.

One time I was playing outside with my brother when I suddenly felt hot.

“Does it seem hotter out here?” I asked my brother.

“Not that much”, he answered.

I went inside for some water and told my mom, “It felt hotter outside than usual. Has the temperature risen yet?”

“I don’t think so, but I’ll check,” answered my mom.

So my mom checked the temperature, and earlier in the day, it had been 60 degrees, but now it was 71 degrees, which was very suspicious. 

I thought,” Maybe it’s global warming.” 

Sometimes you go outside on a nice day and then go back inside to get something, and when you go back outside, it’s warmer than when you first went out.

In the future, if global warming gets worse, we might have hotter summer days and maybe even no winter!

Another reason climate change is bad for the Earth is because it can destroy plants by drying them out.

An example of this is that one time I was taking a walk on the boardwalk in my town, when I noticed a dried flower on the side of the path. To a lot of people, it would probably be just a dried-out flower to the side of the path, but to me, it was an act of climate change. And it made it more like climate change because it wasn’t that hot outside.

Another example of this is that sometimes someone will plant a garden in the summer, and later in the summer, it will get even warmer because of climate change.

Although climate change is bad for the earth because it makes the surface warmer and because it can destroy plants by drying them out, climate change is bad for the earth especially because it’s caused by humans!!!

An example of this is that when humans burn fossil fuels, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which then makes the surface warmer, killing plants.

Another example of this is that when humans burn fossil fuels, they release carbon dioxide as well as methane and nitrous oxide. Then, when the carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide get into the atmosphere, it makes the surface warmer than it would have been with only the carbon dioxide.

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Planet Detroit partnered with the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition and teachers across Michigan to recruit these youth voices on how climate change affects kids’ lives. Here are their stories.

By: Annalies Mesner, 4th Grade

Teacher: Anouk Weiss, Wylie Elementary, Dexter

Subject: Climate Change

Theme: Climate Change Resilience and Action

Type: Written Reflection, Audio