If you’ve been paying attention to scientific reports, international news, or even our local weather patterns, you know that we have a serious climate problem.

As the planet heats up from greenhouse gas pollution, trapping heat like a blanket around the Earth, it causes the soil to dry up in some places – causing drought. The excess moisture absorbed from land and oceans is then deposited elsewhere, causing floods. The pollution also causes the oceans to acidify, when excess carbon dioxide is absorbed by the water and transformed into carbonic acid. The ocean hasn’t become completely acid, but it’s moving in that direction, threatening shellfish (whose shells have difficulty forming) and other sensitive marine life, like corals.

The crisis seems too big for any one person to impact, but if many of us work together to reduce the amount of carbon pollution we produce, we can make a significant difference in the bigger picture.

Here in Santa Clarita, one action we can take – and many of us do – is participating in the city’s food waste recycling program. The program was started a little over a year ago, and simply requires that we collect our food scraps, bag them, and put them in a green/organics waste bin each week. From there........

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