Climate change and global warming has affected every state in the Unites States. There are more people talking about it how big of a problem this is. Climate change has affected the way we live and act. There’s been more articles, news stories, and conversations about this. 

Omaha had a climate change strike/rally on September 20th and September 27th. There is the third annual Nebraska Youth Climate Summit at the Nebraska Innovation Campus on October 4th, 2019 (nebraskansforsolar.org). On the September 20th rally, more than 300 people met in front of Omaha’s City Hall. On the same day, the rally in Lincoln had more than 500 people come.  

It’s not just climate change that has been hurting us; but pollution has too. There are 4.2 million deaths every year as a result to outdoor air pollution (World Health Organization). The Ozone in the environment is beginning to become damaged to the point where it can’t even regenerate itself. There has been solutions to some of these problems, but the only downside is that most of the solutions are more expensive than most of our lives now. More companies have started producing healthier products for the environment. 

Tesla is an electric car manufacturer. Tesla’s cheapest car costs about $39,000 (tesla.com). Along with that, a driver would need to find a place to charge it.  The nearest Tesla store to Omaha is in Kansas City, Kansas, and there’s two there. More cities and areas are installing places for drivers to charge their Teslas, but they aren’t as common as gas stations. There are 21 chargers in Omaha. Eight of the chargers are at car dealerships. 

Another solution is solar panels. Solar panels eliminate the use of electricity made by non-renewable resources. It would cost about $10,000 to install solar panel on a house in Omaha. While it’s costing that much, it would be saving the household owner about $500 per year. The electricity that is used by majority, sends emissions into the atmosphere that hurts the environment. Replacing the current method with solar panels would produce, “clean, and emission-free electricity,” (Solar Energy Industries Association).  

Reusing water bottles and plastic containers are a more common way to help the environment. 60 million water bottles are thrown away each day (Container Recycling Institute). There have been many more water bottle brands that have come out like Hydro Flask, Zak, Contigo, and Yeti that have helped the number of single use plastic decrease. More public areas such as schools, companies, offices, and recreational areas have installed water fountains that fill up water bottles based off of a motion sensor.