Harrow International School Hong Kong, Year 9, Shanshan Sandra Lin

A few months ago I participated in ascience summer camp. The goal by the end of the camp was to produce a short film regarding a scientific topic of our choice. The video we produced was awarded the best video award, and we received a bonus.

As someone who has never gotten a bonus before, I didn't know what to spend it on. I thought about buying gifts for my friends or perhaps buying something for myself, like a new headset.

However, my mother had another idea that I never thought she'd bring up: Become a Zero-carbon citizen.

At first, I was a bit against the idea, mainly because I didn't know what a Zero-carbon citizen was. Then the next day when I had geography class, my teacher talked about this. At the same period of time, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Glasgow. Through the explanations provided by my teacher and reading about the conference, I learned how serious global warming is right now. Ice is slowly melting, causing sea levels to rise, putting coastal areas at risk. About 40% of the population lives in coastal cities. Weathers are getting more and more unstable, causing the number of natural disasters to rise around a factor of five compared to the last 50 years. I could go on about the consequences of global warming, but to sum it up, it was very serious, and I realized that.

So I decided to sign up.

Being a Zero-carbon citizen means that you will pay a certain amount of funds to take responsibility for your past carbon footprints. For me, I paid 2000 RMB to cancel out 7 tonnes of carbon. This means that I have taken responsibility for 7 tonnes of my carbon release.

So why did I become a Zero-carbon citizen? Being a Zero-carbon citizen contributes to the environment positively, and it does so by using the money that helps plant trees, clear trash on beaches and oceans, etc to cancel out your carbon release. China is in charge of around 30%of the world's total carbon release in 2020. This is very concerning as this makes China the country that has the largest carbon emitter. By being a Zero-carbon citizen, you help reduce the speed of global warming and the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This also means that the money you pay will not go to waste. The price is also fairly reasonable, 2000 RMB for7 tonnes of carbon, so that is about 0.0035 tonne of carbon every dollar.

Another reason is that this shows that you care about your carbon output and you are willing to take responsibility in it. Taking responsibility for your actions is always a good attribute to have.

Overall, I believe that being a Zero-carbon citizen is a good idea, considering the fact that the fund you have invested in will help the environment, and that you will now be a proud 'carbon-free' citizen. I personally do not have any regrets about signing up for this.

Except for the fact that my friends now complain about me not buying them food with the bonus.

However, that is not important. I encourage everyone who has the opportunity to sign up to give it a shot. Helping the environment and improving our lives is everyone's responsibility. If everyone does something, even a little bit, to help, we can slowly help the world restore its natural beauty.