Tunza Book: Ting and the Possible Futures

Jambo!

Today I wanted to tell you about a book that shows what pollution does to the Earth and how to prevent it. It's called Ting and the Possible Futures. It's about a girl named Ting who has a transporter that lets her travel in time to see the future.  First she travels 50 years into the future and sets the scenario to 'Business as usual'.  When she gets there she meets the science teacher Maria.  Maria told Ting to put on a breathing mask and Ting asked why it's so dirty and dry.  Maria told her that the climate changed so dramatically because people didn't take care of the environment.  The biggest problem was that everyone burned more coal and oil and cut down more trees instead of only using solar and wind power plants.  Next Ting asked to go out to the coast.  The site that she saw breath-taking.  It was very different from fifty years back.  All of the shops and houses that were near the ocean were now under water.  This happened because it got so hot that the ice caps at West Antarctica and Greenland melted so the sea level rose.   Because of that many people called "climate refugees" moved inland.  Next they drove to what was a busy market town.  She remembered buying fruits and vegetables there.  It used to be green fields and forests with many animals in them but now it was like a desert.  Drought came to the farmlands.  It was covered by a city of shacks and tents made by refugees from the coast and people from dried up farms.  

After that Ting set the transporter to "Best Care."  When she arrived at her school everything was clean and there was a big garden.  The buildings had solar panels and there were wind turbines.  Again Ting met the science teacher Maria.  She told Ting this happened because the people decided to become "carbon neutral."  Buy doing this they got energy from the sun, wind and water.  They insulated buildings so they used less electricity for heating and cooling the building and used florescent light bulbs.  There were many trees, planted because they soak up the carbon dioxide in the air. The biggest change was that they stopped using coal and oil because they polluted the air and would run out, unlike wind and sunlight.  Most of the people walked or biked, or used public transportation to get around.  Changing the types of energy made many "green jobs" which not only helped the environment but helped the economy.  Factories that were shut down could come back to life making solar panels and wind turbines.  

Finally Ting went back in time to tell everyone at her school how to be carbon neutral.  For example, if everyone in the world planted a tree it would make a huge difference.  I would recommend this book to everyone because it shows tips on how to be carbon neutral and keep the environment clean.  To see more got to the TUNZA web site link:

http://www.unep.org/tunza/children