Earth Week is a fantastic opportunity to rethink our environmental impact, both on the individual level and on a larger scale. Do we really need to keep the water running while brushing our teeth? Why not compost? How do we get renewable energy to be both a priority and a reality?  At times it may seem unfathomable that one individual can have any impact on the Earth’s environment (for good or bad), but the science proves otherwise. We’ve put together a playlist of TED-Ed Lessons that will get you thinking about the things you can do as an individual to keep our planet happy and healthy.

First off, did you know that you can recycle your cooking oil instead of just pouring it down the drain? This TED-Ed Lesson shows that repurposing things we usually see as waste, like cooking grease, and using it for something else, like biodiesel, is just one way to think more carefully about the recycling opportunities that are all around us.

Being environmentally-conscious on the local level can directly impact the global level. Changes that might seem isolated or small, like picking trash out of your neighborhood rivers, can actually help to keep our enormous oceans pollution-free. This TED-Ed Lesson reminds us that, although the ocean is very large, it isn’t indestructible.

Nearly one-third of our food ends up in the trash can. This TED-Ed Lesson provides hope in the form of worms, which naturally convert organic waste into fertilizer. It also details the steps we can all take to vermicompost at home — and explains why it makes good business sense to do so.

Now bear with us on this one…but did you know that entomophagy, the practice of eating bugs, could actually help the planet? You may feel icky about munching on insects, but they feed about 2 billion people each day, and this TED-Ed Lesson explores how eating them might hold promise for food security and the environment.

How are you going to contribute this Earth Week? Continue the conversation on the TED-Ed Community page. >>