By Derek Meng, age 10, California.

Glaciers melting, polar bears dying

Sea levels rising, floods occurring

Fire’s spreading, lightning’s striking

Tornadoes and tsunamis ruining houses and killing

More and more natural disasters happening

Virus spreading, people dying

Have you ever thought about who has caused this trouble?

You might say it’s nature, but do you think of us

and our broken relationship with nature?

Carbon dioxide coming out of cars

Trees going down

Thousands of dead, unwanted fish thrown overboard

Tons of unused food discarded

These are few examples of what’s happening in our world

Then how can we help nature?

If you have thought, “How can we help Earth?”

Then here are some things we can do:

Reuse, reduce, recycle

Use reusable bags

Use reusable bottles

Plant trees

Pick up trash

Save electricity by turning off lights

Use renewable energy

These are a few ways we can help

Have you ever thought what a beautiful world it would be

If we could make Earth—our home—clean?

“I am Chinese and I live in California. I am bilingual—I speak both Chinese and English fluently, I can also read and write these two languages.

My Global Warming poem was inspired by climate change. I want people to know that our world may soon be inhabitable if we do not change our ways. 

My vision of the future is the past combined with the present, all the trees should be restored to extract all that extra carbon dioxide [from the atmosphere], our houses should be ecosystem-friendly, and every vehicle should run on electricity. This is because of what I think is important, which is the world, the environment, and my family.”

—Derek Meng, age 10, California.