Let’s get inspired by reading about the following four young people.

At 12, her family moved to Northern California. Soon after, the Camp Fire started. “It was one of the largest fires in California history,” Reshma, now 17, said. Her school was about 200 miles south of the fire. But students had to wear masks because of the smoke, which made her create away to use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict forest fires.

On his10th birthday, he learned that every year 15 billion batteries are thrown out. They harm the environment. Nihal’s organization, Recycle My Battery, provides recycling boxes for batteries. It has a team of 250 student volunteers around the world. In the past three years, they’ve helped recycle over 260,000 batteries. “My biggest goal is to bring the 15 billion batteries being thrown away each year worldwide to zero,” the 14-year-old boy says.

Miles, now 10, is in the business of saving oceans. Learning sharks were in trouble, he persuaded his mom to help him start a non-profit organization called Kids Saving Oceans, whose website sells T-shirts and hats made out of recycled plastic found in the ocean. Some $40,000 so far has been donated to organizations that support clean waterways.

Mia, 18, is the chair of the sustainability committee (可持续发展委员会) at the Kinkaid School, in Houston, Texas. The committee recently met its goal of getting rid of plastic water bottles from the school dining center. Now Mia wants to make the school campus greener. Her ideas included installing (安装) solar panels and LED light bulbs and recycling materials from the old gym.

For millions of years, sea turtles (海龟) have been making the great journey from Costa Rican beaches to the ocean.

Female sea turtles come to shore to nest (筑巢) on the same beach where they were born. Scientists are not sure how sea turtles remember where they were born, but they believe that sea turtles can use the Earth’s magnetic field (磁场) to help them find their way back. Mother sea turtles usually nest every two to three years, but they might lay two or three nests in one year.

Unlike most animals, the temperature inside the nest determines whether the turtles will be male or female. Warmer nests produce more female turtles. It can take from six weeks to two months for baby turtles to appear from the nest. Once they sense cooler nighttime temperatures, they will begin their perilous journey towards the sea. The little turtles’ journey to the ocean isn’t a leisurely walk on the beach. In fact,on some beaches, only 10 percent of them make it to the ocean.

Natural hunters are not the only threat to sea turtles. Humans and their activities have also severely reduced the number of sea turtles in the oceans. Fishing activities, boat traffic, artificial (人工的) lighting, and pollution are making the trip from beach to ocean difficult. Due to a variety of these threats, six out of seven sea turtle species worldwide are considered endangered or threatened.

While sea turtles may face several threats to their survival, there are many opportunities for humans to help them. For example, avoid fishing in waters that are known to have sea turtles. If you do accidentally hook (钓) a turtle, do not remove the hook. Instead, call local wildlife authorities to help with removal. Lights draw baby turtles away from the ocean. Turn off your lights at night when you are near a sea turtle nesting area. Another way to help sea turtles is to reduce your plastic use. Plastic litter is among the number one causes of deaths of sea turtles. Last, get involved with sea turtle protection efforts.

My sister Alice and I have been trying to get people to stop dropping cigarette butts (烟头) for seven years. One day, we were walking in our hometown and saw hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground. They made the town look so ugly that we decided to start a group to make people stop dropping butts. We called it “No Butts About It”.

At first, we drew pictures with “The Earth is not your ashtray (烟灰缸)” written on them. We put the pictures around our boomtown--in parks, by beaches, and along roads. We wanted to make people understand that dropping butts hurts the environment. Most smokers don’t think that dropping butts hurts the Earth. But it does, and all rubbish does!

Later, we wrote to companies and asked them for money to help us. We used the money to buy ashtrays to give to smokers. We wanted smokers to carry the ashtrays with them so they didn’t have to drop butts.

At the moment, we are trying to get cigarette companies to put an ashtray in each pack of cigarettes. Some companies want to do it. Many people have started to join our group since it began. Today there are 45 other “No Butts About It” groups in America

Now there are even groups in England, Australia, and India! Many newspapers have written about my sister and me over the last seven years. And we have won many prizes for what we have done. But we are not interested in prizes. We just want to make the Earth a better an cleaner place for animals, plants and people.

One day, it will be.