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Welcome back! Got any second semester resolutions? Totes gonna write up notes after every lecture, go for daily runs, make it to every 8am, not pass out from drinking, spend less on chocolate? How about … be a little more green? I don’t mean stock up on buds, I mean little things like not driving everywhere, buying things not encased in eight layers of plastic, checking out the Farmer’s Market now and again. Why should you care? Well …

Snow in autumn? Huh, where’s that global warming when you need it, amirite?! Bit of a misnomer really, because what we are facing is climate change – exactly the sort of thing that causes snow at weird times. As well as that crazy ass storm over the break. And, you know, Australian weather.

The debate about whether it is happening is over – 97 per cent of scientific papers agree climate change is a thing. The question now is: what are we going to do about it?

I could talk biofuels and electric cars, but solar-powered planes are way cooler! Well, one in particular. HB-SIA is entirely solar powered, and travelled 15,000km nonstop – about the length of NZ. Remember that joke about the Irishman and the solar-powered torch? Yeah, not so funny now – the plane had enough energy from the sun to keep going all night long. Rad. Their next mission is to fly around the world!

Okay, so maybe building a solar-powered plane would be a bit tricky to do between classes, but what about a phone charger? Yep, it looks pretty doable too – you do need to get hold of stuff like a soldering iron, but all up parts only cost about $30! Basically, hook up a couple of mini solar panels to AA batteries and connect that to a USB port. Plug your phone in and you’re good to go! There are some pretty detailed instructions online, although the practicality of solar power in Dunedin is questionable …

Don’t know anyone with a soldering iron? There are endless other ways to be green. Need some inspiration? Wellington Zoo has just become the world’s first certified carbon neutral zoo! Now, before you run off to tell all your friends this incredibly exciting news, consider this: this is a zoo, in Wellington, which has tropical animals that like to be warm. There are animals with very specific diets. There is a fully functional animal hospital, and a separate heated “sick room” big enough for a giraffe.

Now I understand not everyone has a back yard big enough for a closed-loop compost/vege garden system and rainwater tanks. “Gosh Elsie, can’t you think of any easier things, like switching off lights and shit?” Well do that too, but why not get amongst Generation Zero? They’re a bunch of pretty great people that are all about making NZ a better place for everyone. If you sign up they’ll keep you up-to-date with all the things they’re doing, and how you can help. There’s even a sweet speaking tour about to start, and yes, it is free. They’re coming to do a talk here next Monday (15 July) – sign up and get yourself educated! Because, you know, one day we’ll run out of liquid dinosaur so we might as well be ahead of the game.

Or we could all just become photosynthetic, like the Elysia cholorotics. It’s a sea slug that steals chloroplasts from algae and stores them in its skin cells! Chloroplasts are the mini-organs inside plant and algae cells that use the sun’s rays to make energy from water, which is cool enough on its own. And on top of that, the slug is pretty much a fusion of plant and animal. That’s two branches of evolution touching, just the tips. Instead of eating, it just sunbathes all day, sweet lifestyle! Considering we can now print organs in 3D (another story for another day) the possibilities are kind of endless. Just imagine, an extra layer of skin and you’d never have to pay food bills again. Going green could get more literal one day. That’s science, bitches!

generationzero.org.nz/whatstheholdup