Ellen Britt - A Teenage Foodie who Explores Dinner, Dessert and Salad Ideas
Ellen Britt Goes Green
I am taking a small departure from cooking to talk about the importance of Going Green. After all our food depends on the delicate balance of our planet. I have a passion for helping to protect and hopefully restore the environment we still have remaining. Everyday we lose a little of what we have as global warming is affecting our beautiful earth at an unprecedented rate.
Tree Planting Helps to Reduce Climate Change
Depending on the size and type a mature tree can provide oxygen for up to 18 people.
Did you know that trees are able to purify the air around them because they can absorb harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides that pollute our air? The trees can turn those gases into the oxygen we need to survive.
Believe it or not trees can also help
Choose Paper Over Plastic
Think of all the advantages to using paper bags over plastic! Most importantly they are recyclable and biodegradable. Make sure to use them more than once. To help our environment they should be used at three times as they do take energy to make. Even more energy than to make a plastic bag. This means that the more you reuse your bag the better for the environment.
by Ellen
Even our beloved flamingos are under threat because of Global Warming. Did you know that flamingos depend on rainfall to mate? Due to global warming, there has been little to no rain as well as many droughts around the world which includes the areas where the flamingos live. Because the flamingos do not have the right weather conditions to mate the flamingos will not have many offspring in the years to come.
Global warming is also drying out the bodies of water where the flamingos live, and this affects the level of alkaline in the water. If the water becomes too acidic the flamingos will no longer be able to live in their natural habitat. Also, the creatures that live in the water and provide food for the flamingos will die. The only option is to relocate the flamingos to a new home so they will survive.
Along with heat new diseases are starting to evolve as heat is a breeding ground for bacteria. This is affecting the food sources eaten by flamingos which in turn is killing our colorful friends. So many reasons to intervene in order to protect our world. After all we are dependent on each other to maintain the delicate balance of life.
by Ellen Britt
For more information on Flamingoes, their environment and future check out the link below. They need our help!
Because the butterflies are an important part of the ecosystem, I thought it important to write about the butterflies and how climate change is affecting them. Did you know that the number of butterfly deaths around the world is rapidly increasing due the extreme weather conditions such as severe temperature drops and excessive rain? Climate change is affecting the cycle of flowers that need either higher or lower temperatures to bloom and this can result in the blooming of fewer flowers each year which in turn causes butterflies to die. Butterflies are also losing more and more of their homes due to deforestation. The most colorful butterflies no longer have a place to hide which makes them more at risk of being eaten by predators as they no longer have camouflage. As well they are losing their source of food. Help protect our beautiful pollinator friends.
By Ellen Britt
It’s me again Ellen Britt, but now writing on turtles as they have captured my interest. Did you know that turtles face a hard life from the time they are born to the time they die but now they face even more challenges with global warming? Because the sea levels are starting to rise, and we are facing more extreme storms than ever before the areas the sea turtles once called home are now disappearing. To make things worse they are now facing new predators that are having to move to colder waters as well as a loss of the coral reefs which supplies their food supply.
If this weren’t bad enough the sea turtles rely on certain temperatures on the sand and water to be able to reproduce. If the sand and water become warmer there will be less, and less male turtles born which means less baby turtles. It is predicated that we could see turtles become extinct due to global warming. To represent the hardships faced by turtles I have created the artwork below from a series of images. The factory in the background represents the pollution slowly destroying our planet, The scum and garbage on the water show human carelessness and how our dumping of chemicals can ruin what was once pristine water that provided both food and home and finally you can see trash on the beach carelessly dumped or strewn again marring our natural world. I did this artwork with the help of my mom who is teaching all about photoshop!!
Some the credits for elements in the artwork are from the following sites. I believe it is important recognize the work done by others.
Painting of water and Rocks by Wilhelm Steinfeld – Gebirgssee 1846 Oil on Canvas
Turtle – Raw Pixel – Public Domain Illustration by John Edward Gray (1800 – 1875)
Factory – Raw Pixel
Metal wheel in the background – photo taken by Ellen Britt
Pollution in the water – photo taken by Ellen Britt
by Ellen Britt