The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Deyantae Newson

There is a theory based on the Mayan calendar that the Earth is coming to an end in 2012. There were similar concerns during Y2K. Instead of overreacting and being afraid, we should do what we can to help our Earth in the meantime.

When I first heard of these Doomsday theories, I was shocked because I thought Armageddon’s only occurred in movies. I admit I got a little scared when I heard these theories. Eventually, I realized that if they were true, there’s nothing I can do but live my life.

Instead of panicking over something unpredictable, I want to focus on preventing the world from getting any worse.

Look at the small pieces of pollution that we make everyday. Cars create pollution, we eat foods with chemicals, and we litter. What if the whole world littered? We would be living on top of trash.

Besides hurting our environment, we also harm our bodies. Soda has harmful chemicals in it. We should consume more water and invent healthier drinks.

I would rather focus my efforts on trying to do something beneficial for myself, my friends, and if possible my environment.

 Mobile apps are inherently green. Putting aside the environmental demands of manufacturing the devices that run them, apps themselves don’t use fuel or paper. But there are apps that go a step beyond all that and actually promote environmentally conscious awareness, attitudes, and behavior.

Apps are more than a hobby to me. They are what I do. I find enormous pleasure in the magic of a well-designed app coupled with the simplicity of a device you can carry in your pocket. I created apps during my time in grad school, I make them for a living now, and I have a collection of downloads that can rival even the most ardent app aficionados.

To create this list, I spent a month sifting through app stores, my own collection, and my friends’ collections, and I used as many as I could for as long as I could stand. So here you have five of my favorite green apps available today:

 1.  Transporter (iphone):

This Bay Area app lists all the public transportation within the city. You click on the train, bus, or other system you would like to take, then choose the line, pick the direction and it tells you when the next one will be at the closest stop to you. The app is efficient, handy, and usually spot-on for timing, which is very useful when out and about in the city. More often than not, you aren’t wanting to leave the comfort of your apartment, restaurant, or club just to sit on a bench, or in a seedy train station. This app eliminates guess-work and saes serious wait-time. 

The following was originally published on L.A. Youth.

When we talked to the Air Quality Management District about writing about air pollution, we wanted to know how teens could help reduce pollution. We were excited to learn that there’s a lot that teens can do. Driving less is the biggest thing you can do because exhaust from cars and other vehicles is responsible for more than half of the smog in our region. There are other steps you can take, too. Using less energy helps because some of the energy used to power electronics, turn on lights and heat water comes from air-polluting power plants. Another thing you can do is unplug TVs, computers and phone chargers when you’re not using them because electronics that are turned off but plugged in still use a little energy. So we challenged our staff to drive less and use less energy for one week. They all said that they think they can keep it up.

Quinten Harrison

On Monday I walked to school instead of driving. It was an epic fail. I was 20 minutes late to first period and got detention. After that I asked my mom if I could carpool with her. She said sure, but that I’d have to wake up earlier so she wouldn’t be late to work.

After school on Tuesday I took a shower. Usually, I take a 15-minute shower because I shower with the radio on and sing along. I wanted to limit my time to five minutes so I would save energy by using less hot water. I turned the radio off and my shower felt really short, but when I got out I looked at the clock—it had been 10 minutes.

By Thursday, I was finally getting the hang of turning off the lights when I left a room, but with the lights out, everything seemed so empty. When I was in the living room and the rest of the lights were off, I felt like the next victim in a horror film. Maybe the reason why most people leave the lights on is because we’re still afraid of the dark.

Although I didn’t meet my expectations, I changed habits and I feel good about it. If I reduce the energy I use, there will be less pollution and everyone benefits from that.
Quinten Harrison, 17, Marshall Fundamental HS (Pasadena)

The following originally aired on KQED-FM.

By: Caitlin Grey

In high school it was difficult to convince classmates that their environment was not just forests and mountains far away from Alameda, but that it was everything around them.

College I thought would be different. I hoped the tree-hugger jokes would decrease, maybe the rude comments would stop all together, and perhaps people would even willingly recycle. But sadly my expectations were completely wrong.

When I got to school at the University of Chicago, I immediately got involved with climate activism on campus. It didn’t take long before my new friends started making casual jokes about my environmental tendencies.

But this was nothing compared to the next wave of confrontation coming my way. I created a Facebook event for a national action. College students were making paper pinwheels and planting them on their campuses to attract local politicians’ attention to green energy. Then the pinwheels would be shipped to Washington DC.

Are you going green? I want to, but it’s hard because I don’t know where to start. I recycle, but I know that is not enough. Now, there are three apps that might help me.

GetGreen is an iPhone app that gives tips on how to become more environmentally friendly. For example, it suggests adding coffee grounds to your garden as fertilizer and not rinsing dishes before you load them in the dishwasher. According to GetGreen, this will save you an average of 6,500 gallons of water a year.

According to appstorehq.com, “Get Green covers everything from green workplaces to green Halloween celebrations. It even has tips on how to make your wedding more green!”

The app allows you to email tips to your friend, but it does not let you scroll back to previous tips.

San Francisco's new ordinance requiring residents and commercial building owners to compost goes into effect today. Since the new law was announced in June, the city has already increaded its composting by 25 percent -- a big step in reaching its goal of becoming a "zero waste" city by 2020.

But one stumbling block in these early days of mandatory composting may be the fact that a lot of people simply don't know what to throw in their new green bins and what to throw in the trash. Or, to put it another way, what rots and what does not rot?

That's where Youth Radio has stepped in. Caitlin Grey, the Merv Griffin of compost-themed entertainment, has prodcued the following video to help you sort through your waste stream.

By Erin Bailie

I shake my head in disgust every day in my school’s cafeteria.

Sure, I think the food is gross, but what really makes me angry is the way the food is served: on polystyrene trays. The used trays pile high in the trash cans by the end of my lunch – and they won’t decompose when they reach the landfill. Even worse, chemicals from the trays could seep into our food and may cause cancer.

My school is probably like most others – not very green.

Erin Bailie, Grady High School

(aired on WABE FM on May 9, 2009)