Code for the Environment: Raise Awareness + Learn to Code

Whether you’re looking for productive ways to learn code, finding new coding projects, or ways to raise awareness of the environment this project idea combines all of the above.

Why Code an Activist Website

You can code a website focused on the issues within the environment and how to combat them. By doing so you’d be dedicating a section of the internet for people to learn about the environment, to learn ways to combat the issues, and spread more awareness. By coding this, you yourself may also learn on the way, I know I did (both about the environment and about coding).

Environmental Issues Website

Climate Change is undoubtedly the challenge of our lifetime and one that should be continuously fought. Let’s go over an example of an environmental issues website coded from scratch. You can learn and experience here: Environmental Issues Are Real in Every Moment

Check out the code here: Website code using replit.

Here’s a summary of the page content:

Home

• World counts: see the numbers for youself
• Why we ignore: a little self reflection
• Keep up to date: climate news by LA Daily

Issue

• Facts from earth.org
• Find out how you contribute: ecological footprint calculator

Take Action

• Sustainable diet
  • less meat (not necessarily more expensive)
  • buy bulk, less plastic packaging, & use reusable grocery bags
  • buy the imperfect produce
  • put leftovers to use
• Voice
  • communicate with representatives
  • ask for policy changes
  • vote
• Adopt better habits
  • shorter showers – make a short playlist
  • turn off the lights when leaving the room
  • don’t leave the water running when brushing your teeth
  • run water cold
  • check the weather before car wash
  • pick up trash when you see it
  • rethink your transportation: bike, walk, carpool

• Recycle
  • while well-known you might be in need of a refresher
• More
  • energy-efficient appliances
  • think of what you throw away daily – reusable version of everything
  • sustainable labels for groceries

As you can see the structure of the website is simple, but it gets the message across. It’s a fun project where you can be as creative as you want and express activism. So where to start?

Interested in more technology and environmental intersections? Look at Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability

How to Start

First you need a place to code your project. The one above was done through replit, but there are many more platforms out there.

You can also do it through an organization. Girls Who Code is a great nonprofit where you can learn to code for free through projects and support.

Of course, you don’t actually need to completely code your own website if all you’re looking for is a webpage in relation to helping the environment. But if the goal is to learn to code and create meaningful projects this is a start.

Then you learn the three large website creation languages below and code away.

Some Basics

• To code a website you use HTML, CSS, and Javascript all intertwined
• 1. HTML: the core of a web browser is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) using concepts such as tags to display content on the internet
• 2. CSS: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is, as it states, used to style a webpage such as the coloring, fonts, and margins. see here
• 3. JavaScript (JS): primarily used for the interactive side for web content such as buttons

Earth Appreciation Gallery

Plus, you can take gorgeous nature photography for your environmental webpage. All of the images below were taken with simply an iPhone.

If you don’t want to take your own photos though, there are many websites that offer free images you can use for your webpage. My favorites are Unsplash, Burst, and Pixabay.

Concluding Environmental Notes

A disturbing part of the content surrounding climate change is the floating facts. To ensure you get the best information, focus on the right sources. Perhaps take a look at Responding to Climate Change by NASA. Ensure your website includes scientifically backed up information and reliable sources.

Whether you’re an engineer, business person, farmer, or quite frankly anyone else, it is our responsibility to put the environment as a qualifying factor in decision making and in changing the further.

Sometimes doing day-to-day changes feels minimal, and contacting government officials is too extreme, so look in between. There are MANY businesses, whether that be start-ups or local organizations, that already have feet through the doorway. We can support them – such as renewable energy businesses – who are on the edge of the change already.

We can use the valuable time we have and implement the environment into it. For example, if you are coding a website to learn, coding it about environmental issues.

Want to read more ethical implications in tech? Check out Artificial Intelligence Bias

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