(Photo: Jasmine and her friends from Palm Middle School in Lemon Grove share their thoughts on global warming. Beth Accomando/KPBS .)
The debate over global warming has provided considerable information for people to consider. But for students in elementary and middle school, the information may be trickling down in bits and pieces. KPBS’ Beth Accomando sat down with a group of middle school students in Lemon Grove to get their thoughts on global warming.
Music playing, montage of names : Hi I’m Jon Gomez... Emily Hedges... Chris Moore... Dungdow My... Daymien DeLeon... Ive Jeffries... Christopher Mora-Rico... Jasmine Rosadillo...
Music, lyrics : Global warming, the cry is out. The earth is getting hotter, without a doubt...
It’s Friday afternoon at Palm Middle School. Students are hanging out at the afterschool anime and manga club. Their thoughts are straying to their upcoming spring break. But some students were willing to consider what global warming means to them.
Gomez : My grandma once said that in Chile, she was talking about global warming, and she said that sheep are dying.
Mora-Rico : When people pollute and stuff, and a layer of carbon, it goes around the world, and then when the sun is out it makes less of the heat go out and it makes all the stuff melt.
Rosadillo : The ozone layer might thin out all the way and then like, we’re all gonna melt.
Jeffries : It’s melting our ice caps and flooding waters and stuff so, like, the water is starting to come up more and we’ll all probably end up under water.
My : In the future we’re all going to be like mermaids. Well not literally, but we’re all gonna be like, under water.
The idea that water levels could rise worries Dungdow My. But the uncertainty of what global warming might entail can stir the imaginations of students like Emily Hedges.
Hedges : When I was in fifth grade we would look in a book and there were all the layers of the atmosphere, and it said there was a hole. Maybe things from outer space would drop through the hole. It kind of scares me.
Daymien : I think that my children’s, children’s, children’s children deserve to live.
Ive : I don’t want to know that when I die my kids or grandkids will be living under water.
Mora-Rico : I saw a show on TV called Last Days on Earth and the very first, the number one on the list, was that global warming would probably be the thing to end the world the fastest. And that made me think that, that’s crazy. Why do they pollute so much if it could kill themselves?
Music, Lyrics : Global warming is coming, baby, and it’s gonna get you...
In the face of such global problems, some students feel overwhelmed, but others think no gesture is too small.
Hedges : I could throw ice cubes into the air it would make it very cold.
Moore : We use a lot of water every day to try and stop it ahead of time.
Gomez : Well first we need to get rid of pollution. That’s the first step. And then I think we should try and do something about gas.
Rosadillo : And maybe try to not drive around as much.
Moore : I would say try to make more electric cars.
Rosadillo : I think they already made electric cars and I think that they should make everyone stop using the regular ones. And like for people who can’t afford it give them one free electric car.
Gomez : Have a program where like five minutes of the day in school everybody goes around and picks up trash.
Moore : Make a group, try and get to the congress, try to get to anyone important that can help us, start out small, end up big.
Mora-Rico : Try to get people informed on it. Like help them know what it is.
Gomez : I guess that’s it because we can’t do nothing about the gas. The scientists have to do that. What I think scientists should use is salt water because we have so much of that. They should come up with a way that salt water can be used as gas for a car.
Maybe if adults started letting their imaginations run free, they might be able to come up with some innovative solutions to a problem that is likely to prove more pressing for the generation of children growing up today. And students like Chris Moore might be just up to that challenge.
Moore : Live everyday, try to accomplish things so I can do something about it.
We heard from Jon Gomez, Christopher Mora-Rico, Jasmine Rosadillo, Ive Jeffries, Dungdow My, Emily Hedges, Chris Moore, and Daymien DeLeon.
For KPBS, I’m Beth Accomando.
(Beth Accomando will have more comments from students and adults as she looks to the role TV and movies have played in developing our awareness of global warming issues.)
