Half of the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal-burning power plants, which emit 2.5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. No other source in the U.S. emits that much. Coal pollutes the air and water when it's mined, transported and burned, causing illnesses like asthma. Coal is dirty, plain and simple.(1)

Automobiles are the second largest producer of CO2, releasing 1.5 billion tons annually.[2] Oceans and forests absorb some of the CO2, but they can't absorb it all. The CO2 we emit now stays in the atmosphere for over a hundred years, threatening not only our generation, but the next too.

Video games, t-shirts and to-go cups all require fossil fuels to make, transport, and get from the shelf to you. Our landfills are overcrowded and yet we keep buying more stuff. The U.S. makes up 5% of the world's population, but uses 30% of the world's resources and creates 30% of its waste. Gross. (3)

Every four seconds, a football field of tropical rainforest is cut down. 80% of the world's original forests are now gone. About? of global CO2 emissions are from cutting down the forests. Healthy trees are natural carbon "sinks," they absorb carbon from the atmosphere. When trees are cut down they actually emit carbon into the atmosphere.

Unless a farm is organic, forests were leveled to provide land for cows to graze, corn was grown with mega fertilizers and diesel powered tractors, and refrigerated trucks drove hundreds of miles to get the meat to the restaurant. The meat industry alone is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all transportation put together. (4)

In the last 40 years, the global population increased 86 percent. There are now nearly 7 billion people on the planet! Many of us use more energy than ever before. It's really no surprise that in those same 40 years, worldwide emissions from fossil fuels increased 107%. By 2040, the population could reach 9 billion or more. What will the planet look like then?

We tolerate the pollution of our water and air, and threats to our health all for our addiction to fossil fuels. But, we're profiting from it, right? Well, some of us are. A few people from the oil and gas companies profit big time while the rest of us have to deal with the consequences.

The average global temperatures could be about 9 degrees higher in 2100 than in 2000. That's equivalent to the difference in climate between New York and Mississippi! [2} The last ten years, 2000 to 2010, were the hottest ever recorded[1] and the months of 2010 were the hottest 12 months in a row of any in history.

As the world warms, ice caps and glaciers melt, which is happening literally before our eyes. Average temperatures in the Arctic are rising twice as fast as anywhere else, and the Arctic ice cap is melting faster than any model predicted. The North Pole could be completely ice-free by 2040.[3] The melting causes early snowmelt and droughts, meaning dramatic water shortages in the American West. (4).

As icecaps melt, sea levels rise. One hundred million people live within three feet of mean sea level. If Greenland were to melt completely, (which according to scientists, it's entirely possible within the next century), sea levels would rise 23 feet, consuming New York city, much of Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, and all of the islands in the South Pacific. (5)

Some species are already losing their homes and food sources as a result of climate change - like the polar bears, for example. Scientists say two-thirds of all polar bears could disappear by 2050. They're not the only living things in danger. If we do nothing, over HALF of ALL species will be extinct within a century.

The warmer the climate, the more evaporation of water: drought results. This means large-scale food and water shortages. This is bad news for all farms, from Africa to California, which depend on water and healthy soils.

There is so much excess carbon in the ocean the chemical makeup is changing, becoming more acidic and threatening the lives of sea creatures and entire coral reefs "bleach" and die. If CO2 emissions continue rising at their current levels, scientists warn, most regions of the ocean would be totally uninhabitable to coral reefs by 2050. (6)

When it is hotter, there is more water vapor, which creates more extreme storms. Hurricane Katrina, crazy floods in Pakistan, droughts and wildfires in Australia, devastating droughts in Russia and huge blizzards all across the U.S. and other extreme weather events used to happen only every hundred years are now happening regularly (7).

Insects like mosquitos thrive and reproduce in warm, wet weather. Mosquitos spread infectious diseases from person to person - like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. If we do nothing, the number of people globally at risk from malaria could increase by 220 million - 400 million over the next 100 years. (8)

Incandescent light bulbs waste tons of energy. So switch them out! If you replaced all of your light bulbs with LEDs or compact fluorescents, it could be the same as taking 300,000 cars off the road for a year, keeping 700 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere over the bulb's lifetime.[1] It's that easy!

If everyone recycled just one large Sunday newspaper, together we could save 75,000 trees. First try to reduce your consumption or reuse what you already own. Then recycle whatever else you can. Think on it: if every American began to recycle 50% more of their waste paper, plastic, and metal, we could reduce our country's CO2 emissions by 105 metric tons a year.[2]

You can reduce your CO2 emissions by a pound each mile you walk or bike instead of drive. Skip a day of driving each week, and you'll cut your emissions by 400 pounds a year. If you're going too far to walk or bike, try carpooling or taking public transportation. If everyone carpooled just twice a week, the US could reduce 75 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.[2]

This one's simple: just quit the bottle! Americans buy more plastic water bottles than any other nation in the world - the 29 billion bottles a year we drink require 17 million barrels of oil to make, enough oil to fuel one million cars for a year! Say no to plastic bags too. Our country produces about 100 million plastic bags a year, many of which end up in the ocean, harming birds, whales, sea turtles, and other wildlife.[3]

Our homes and schools can be powered by solar or wind. It's an expense, but students are raising money to install units all the time. Get your parents or schools to invest in a renewable energy project or pressure your utilities company to get more of their electricity from renewable energy.

The clothes drier is the second biggest household energy hog. Instead, hang out your clothes to dry on a line or a rack. If every American used a clothesline instead of their household drier, we could shut down several power plants.

Ever tasted a fresh tomato? It's a lot different from one that sat for a week in a truck or an airplane before it arrived on your plate. Growing your own not only cuts down on the billions of gallons of gas used to transport food, but it also produces veggies and fruit that taste a whole lot better. So, plant a garden!

..to avoid meat. Eating vegetarian, local and organic food is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions. Organic foods actually help to reduce carbon emissions because organic farmers treat the dirt with respect, which helps to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Trees suck up carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and keep it there until they die. A tree that grows in the temperate zone can remove and store 700 - 7,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. (4) Planting trees and restoring forests, as well as preventing deforestation is one of the most important things we can do to restore balance to the planet.

Make a pledge to reduce your use of fossil fuels by about 5% every year. That's the best way to pressure our governments, our city councils, our school districts, local corporations and our families to commit to a 5% reduction plan as well.

Today's youth are tomorrow's leaders. But we don't need to wait till we grow up to come up with new solutions. We are some of the smartest, most creative people alive. And we think outside of the box. What kind of new technologies will decrease our reliance on fossil fuels? What will you invent?

Become a leader in your community by empowering your friends and peers across the country to become leaders of the world. Sign up to lead an iMatter march. Organizing a march is just the first step. Apply to be part of our iMatter Youth Activists program. As a youth activist you will be called upon throughout the year to organize various actions.