Our Earth: Clean Air Campaign

clean air campaign

by Zoë Mowry

When school began in person last fall, I was very excited to see my friends and teachers again in person and explore new projects.

Our teachers told us our school was entering a competition to help make our community more sustainable.

It was called the Earthwin competition, and whichever team in our school had the most inspiring idea would win funding for their project.

Everyone in my class set to work brainstorming ideas for projects. Groups tried to get solar panels on our school's roof, to replace our paper towel dispensers with hand dryers, to hire a dishwasher so that we could go back to using reusable plates and silverware, and much more. I racked my brain trying to think of something to do for my project. Eventually, I came up with the idea of a clean air campaign.

I noticed that when parents wait to pick up or drop off their kids, they leave their cars idling. This is very bad for our air quality, climate change, and kids' lungs. I heard that other schools in our area installed no-idling signs, and I decided to try to do the same thing at our school.

I quickly got to work researching idling and filming a video. By the end of that week, I submitted my video to Earthwin. So many other kids from my school had submitted videos, I was pretty sure I was not going to win. Over the next few weeks, I almost forgot about the project. So when my teacher came and told me that I had won the funding for my project, I was very surprised and happy!

I drafted a letter to the parents of our school, letting them know about my project and asking them to turn off their cars while they waited for their kids. I recruited some of my friends from school to help with my project.

Together, we made a video--that you can watch at the end of this article--about idling, then put a QR code on the letter so parents could watch the video and learn about idling. One of our teachers helped us with all this, and she ordered signs for us to install in our school’s drop off and pick up areas.

Our school had a drive-through coffee and breakfast gathering, so my friends and I printed out copies of our letter and arrived early to share our campaign. We handed the letters out to parents and held up our signs, asking people not to idle their cars.

The campaign was pretty effective, and many of the parents turned off their cars. We're working on installing our signs, and hoping to move our campaign to other schools as well to spread awareness about idling.

You can help keep our air healthy by teaching others about idling and telling your friends and family not to idle their cars! Every small thing adds up to a greener, healthier future.

Facts about car and truck idling

* Idling is when a gas or diesel-powered engine is running but the car is not moving.

* Every gallon of gas a car burns produces more than 20 pounds of greenhouse gasses, which contribute to climate change.

* A single vehicle dropping off and picking up kids at one school puts 3 pounds of greenhouse gasses into the air per month.

* It's more fuel-efficient to turn off your car when you stop for more than 10 seconds. The average American car idles an estimated 5 to 10 minutes per day.

* Idling has negative impacts on kids' health because our lungs haven’t fully developed yet and we are shorter, so we are closer to the tailpipes emitting carbon dioxide.

Click below to watch our video.

Zoë, 12, OR loves playing soccer, running, practicing her fiddle, and exploring outdoors with her family. In her spare time Zoë likes to read, hang out with her friends, and play board games with her older brother.

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