By: Kay Kim

Sunscreens help protect our skin from harmful UV rays; by using sunscreen, we reduce the risk of sunburns, skin cancer, and ageing. However, these amazing inventions used to protect ourselves can potentially harm us. Most sunscreens contain oxybenzone which is a harmful chemical known to destroy our ecosystem. Currently, there are more than 3500 skincare products that contain oxybenzone itself. That’s not all, other harmful chemicals such as OD-PABA, nano-Titanium dioxide, nano-Zinc oxide, Benzophenone-8, Benzophenone-1, Octinoxate, and Octocrylene can be found in some sunscreens. When people shower or swim while wearing sunscreen, the chemicals in sunscreen become exposed to the environment and contaminate our waters.

By: Akilah De Souza

The year is 2021, and a growing number of people are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Many of them are turning to veganism, but why? What is the correlation between veganism and a reduced carbon footprint? For starters, a vegan diet has been linked to the reduction of deforestation and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

By: Kai McLaughlin

​In late 2019, Jane Fonda was an award-winning actress and activist living in Los Angeles surrounded by the spoils of her years of work in the film and television industry. She was also paralyzed by fear of the broad-ranging effects of climate change, and as a seasoned activist who protested the Vietnam War, she wanted to do something but found herself at a loss. Despite her connections and resources, the problem was enormous and multi-faceted, so what could she do? In her newest book What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action, Jane takes the reader along with her on her journey to figure out exactly what she could do; specifically, how she used her experience as an activist, her drive, her resources, and her connections to take action on climate change when so many seemed resigned to apathy.

By: Sabrina Yang, Paleesa Kapoor, Kevin Lau, Shraddha Subash & Dorismar Cuevas

How do you think climate change is fueling the especially severe polar vortex in the South and Midwest?