Our planet, adorned with beautiful sights, such as high mountains, long rivers, and blue oceans, will not live forever. For example, an enormous asteroid can knock into our atmosphere and leave our entire Earth in a devastating condition where no life will be able to survive - similar to when dinosaurs were exterminated due to a meteorite impact about 65 million years ago; or a volcanic eruption can occur that spits out so much ash that it’ll cause a new ice age to begin, due to the Sun not being able to get into our atmosphere. Even the Sun will die some day but before that, the Sun will expand into a red supergiant star so big that it’ll swallow Mercury, Jupiter, and perhaps the Earth. Earth will not live forever - it is impossible to determine if the universe will even live forever.

There are various ways in which the earth can pass away, or in which human life on earth can easily get exterminated, and it’s a miracle that we’re still living on to this day. However, a devastating meteorite impact or volcanic eruption will not happen in hundreds or thousands of years and by then we will hopefully have the technology to prevent this. This means we’ve got a long time of potential life on Earth - meaningful intelligent life that can observe and enjoy the beauty of our extraordinary planet in this magnificent universe. 

Sadly, we are only speeding up the time for our destruction. One of the most devastating short-term events that we are facing is major climate change. In only 7 years, we will hit a tipping point when there’s no regrets, and can’t turn back time to save our planet. 7 years. We can't let millions and billions of years of potential life shrink down to a century - or perhaps only a few decades! Because, without life, space is nothing but a big mathematical structure² without any purpose whatsoever. We need to take care of our earth. These are not mere predictions like the Armageddon or robots destroying human life. According to NASA, global warming is “the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere." There’s a multitude of evidence from decades that show the severe impact of global warming and climate change, which has been a process even before the first insects walked Earth. Carbon dioxide levels, global temperature, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, extreme events and so much more - all are consequences and evidence of global warming and climate change's existence³. Although several data charts and scientific information prove the existence of this long-term change, people continue to undermine the argument.

But as Tony A. Gaskins Jr. said:

“You can give a person knowledge, but you can’t make them think. Some people want to remain fools, only because the truth requires change”.

In other words, you cannot argue with people who are burying their heads in the sand and claim that climate change is false. Therefore, it’s hopeless and a waste of time trying to convince these people - and we've created our solution considering that point. Instead, we should focus on great innovations and solutions; solutions that make it more advantageous not only for the future of our Earth, but for ourselves and future generations. We should strive to benefit the world economically and socially, so that even those who don’t believe in climate change, still choose the better options if yet only for a private profit. Therefore, we constructed the quote, “Innovations and solutions, for a better and more sustainable world!” This became our inspiration, and so we brainstormed.

However, we faced one crucial problem. We discovered the NASA Hackathon challenge only 24 hours before the deadline when we created our team and by then we were only 3 members. Though, as a human being, as a girl, nothing is impossible. We kept brainstorming ideas until we found out the area we wanted to innovate a solution in: Bioengineering. 

Needless to say, it was a fun educational experience that provided us with useful skills for the future. A total of 5 girls from the 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures program, living in different countries, and communicating for the first time, became a team and somehow created a variety of solutions in the field of bioengineering for a more sustainable planet for future generations.

Throughout our project, we utilized resources and data from NASA because the organization is a reliable source with valid and interesting scientific information. Specifically, the data charts on climate change and global warming were beneficial to our project. To add on, we used the information regarding the usage and development of bioengineering and its technologies for future exploration of space.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wzTUziggNBNoKdhAVtxQ9IWiI1f3ZUHjXP4TRJ71fEw/edit#slide=id.p

While working for this challenge we have got an idea of how we can utilize renewable resources. Something we all need (or use, but often also need) on a daily basis, is electricity and lighting. However, even small light-globes emit carbon dioxide - a gas that is a major villain regarding the global warming. According to estimated suggests made back in 2012, almost half of our carbon footprint is due to electricity and 17% is due to lighting alone1. And according to basic assumptions, 0,7 kg of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy consumed2; and as the USA alone, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA)3, used about 216 kWh of energy, residential and commercial sectors combined, only for lighting, this becomes a lot. So, we came up with a solution of using salty water that is abundant on our earth, instead of using batteries that cause water pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. By shaking the water refill the torch lights up. This torch could be cheaply bought so there won't people who can’t afford it.

Regarding the solution of GMO, mostly GM foods, and bioengineering, there are every GM food has their own gene that's inserted in different ways. So if GM foods are safe, can only be said case-to-case. Because, of course, like everything, there are risks with experiment with genes and food. For example, you have to consider allergenicity, the procedure of gene transfer*** and outcrossing. However, with a good regulations regarding GM foods, of both government and WHO and other non-conventional institutions, these foods would cause no harm but only in good ways develop our farming and food production that benefits us both economically, socially and regarding the environment and climate.

However, we cannot accomplish any form of change without action. We all have to act, regardless age. But as we claimed before, you cannot change the mind or convince those who won't believe in climate change. However, there are some people we need to convince - for survival.

First above; the politicians. They are the ones who make the rules; the laws. They are the ones who can change the mind and behavior of their citizens, and of other politicians. They are the ones who can make the real change. It's the very prior number 1. Second above; our children. Our children are the future. Children are full of hope, faith and great visions of a better world for the future. Even the smallest soul can stride for humanity. However, as a human being alone, you cannot do much, but together, we can accomplish anything, everything, whatever, forever. Therefore, we also need help of our elder generation. Even though you lack faith, hope or a vision of a better world for the future, even though you don't believe in climate change, even though you consider all of this as bullshit, we still need you to act. Please, for the sake of your children, for our grand children and for the sake of the potential millions of generations thence; do something. It's not that hard, you just have to listen - and act. Go and ride your bike, instead of your car; go vegan, instead of eating meat; change your behavior, instead of remaining still. Or, you could also use new innovations: Electric driven cars, biofuels and meat-substitute - it's all for real. Perhaps you could even be part of creating new, even better, innovations and solutions, that makes it even easier making better decisions not only for our planet, environment and climate, but perhaps also for benefitting social and economical standards in different parts of the world. We can all do something, it's just a question of will.

But however, we do understand it's hard to take action. Regardless crisis, it's hard to go from react to act, because it's very hard to realize the seriousness of any big crisis - at least without ending up in a state of deep melancholy and feeling of hopelessness.Therefore we do fully understand that it's also hard to realize the crisis and actuality of Climate change, as it's literally one of the biggest crisis our generation will ever have to face. However; nothing gets better of drowning in melancholy and sadness, nor by bury your head in the sand and naively wait for all to resolve itself. The only thing that matters is action, as well as knowledge and consistency. Educate yourself, educate others, act, and do everything in your power, based on your own conditions, to shape a slightly better world and slightly better future. For the sake of the future of Earth!

¹"The Bioengineering Branch is developing the next generation of life support systems to enable humans to live in space for extended periods of time with minimal resupply.”, from https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/bioengineering-branch

*https://www.ecologic.eu/7979 “on the one hand, GM crops can increase export revenues; on the other hand, developing countries' resulting dependency on Western biotechnology companies could grow and threaten local farmers, especially smaller ones. Moreover, GMOs are leading to a reduction in biodiversity”

²Theory from 'Our Mathematical Universe' by Max Tegmark

³https://climate.nasa.gov/

**https://www.who.int/foodsafety/areas_work/food-technology/faq-genetically-modified-food/en/ "Resistance against insects is achieved by incorporating into the food plant the gene for toxin production from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This toxin is currently used as a conventional insecticide in agriculture and is safe for human consumption. GM crops that inherently produce this toxin have been shown to require lower quantities of insecticides in specific situations, e.g. where pest pressure is high. Virus resistance is achieved through the introduction of a gene from certain viruses which cause disease in plants. Virus resistance makes plants less susceptible to diseases caused by such viruses, resulting in higher crop yields."

***"Gene transfer from GM foods to cells of the body or to bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract would cause concern if the transferred genetic material adversely affects human health. This would be particularly relevant if antibiotic resistance genes, used as markers when creating GMOs, were to be transferred. Although the probability of transfer is low, the use of gene transfer technology that does not involve antibiotic resistance genes is encouraged."

Demonstrate your solution:

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=99&t=3

1 http://www.apo-tokyo.org/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012_Sep-Oct_p4-5.pdf : "Estimates suggest that almost half of our carbon footprint is due to electricity and 17% is due to lighting alone."

http://www.countdownyourcarbon.org/our-assumptions.html