You Can Save The Earth

Everyday I see litter and I see people polluting. Just last week when I took my dog for a walk at the boardwalk in Collingwood, there was a lady in her car with it running when I arrived. I took my dog all around the boardwalk and through the park and when I got back to my car the lady was still in her car with it running! I couldn't believe it. I really wish I had said something to her like, "You know, Collingwood is an idle-free community," but I just couldn't muster up the courage to knock on her window. This was about a week ago and I'm still kicking myself for it. Too often on my walks I come across garbage and feel that I must pick it up, so most of the time I do. And if I pass a piece of garbage without picking it up I will feel guilty for the rest of the day as if I were the one who originally littered. This is how I felt about the lady in her car. I know it was not my fault that she was sitting there idling, but I feel guilty because I did not do my part to tell her to shut off her car. She must have been there for at least half an hour.

This is the year 2009! We have known of our pollution crisis for many, many years, so it just boggles my mind when I see people deliberately littering or purposely not shutting off their car. Yesterday, when I was at school another student dropped his pop can outside in the parking lot and stomped on it. I said to him, "I hope you're going to pick that up and recycle it." Unbelievably, he just looked at me as though I was less than him for even thinking that and just said something like, "Yeah right. I'm not picking up garbage." Attitudes like his are not going to save this planet. A friend I was with picked up the can and I recycled it. At least not everyone thinks the same way as him. It is very hard to get across to those types of people, but I have done it. Just by repeatedly recycling when possible, or throwing garbage in the trash, people start to do as I do. They can see that it is not hard and just takes a tiny little bit of effort and it eventually pays off. Parks start to look cleaner and more beautiful. Roads, as ugly as they may be, look a lot better when they are not edged with garbage.

I urge everyone - PLEASE do your part by not littering. And if you feel like doing something even more positive, all you have to do is if you see garbage on the ground, pick it up. It is as simple as that, and every little bit of effort helps.

Isn't this Earth beautiful? We can all do our part to keep it this way. =)

Everything is connected

I believe that everything on Earth is connected. What affects one person/animal/plant will affect another.

"It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Ties into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Climate change can affect human health directly (e.g., impacts of thermal stress, death/injury in floods and storms) and indirectly through changes in the ranges of disease vectors (e.g., mosquitoes), water-borne pathogens, water quality, air quality, and food availability and quality."

- World Health Organization

I have an example of how some peoples' actions can affect others' quality of life. In my book You Can Save the Earth: 7 Reasons Why & 7 Simple Ways published by Hatherleigh it says, "In the United States, 6 billion pounds of phosphorous and nitrogen fertilizers from Midwestern farms leach into the Mississippi and its tributaries every year, causing massive algae blooms. Bacteria consume the algae, depleting the oxygen in the water and literally suffocating all marine life. Then, this toxic soup flows down to the mouth of the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico, where it has created a "dead zone" that now measures almost 7500 square miles, an are nearly the size of New Jersey. American farm runoff has become an international environmental hazard." Knowing this kind of information really disturbs me. This situation is very overwhelming to think about, so to help myself and the environment step-by-step I can keep spreading my word and do what I can to minimize my carbon foot print.

"Soil is a resource, a living, breathing entity that, if treated properly, will maintain itself. It's our lifeline for survival. When it has finally depleted, the human population will disappear."

-Marjorie Harris

Media English

I wasn't very clear on my first blog what I really meant about my "message." I am in a grade 11 class in Collingwood, On called Media English. The course teaches understanding of how we interpret media, how the media want us to interpret their message, and how to determine the hidden messages beneath just what we see. Media includes all forms of text, such as books, magazine articles, magazine ads, and even this blog. Other media includes music videos, TV shows, movies, television commercials, news reports, newspapers, billboards, radio, and the list goes on and on.
I want my message to be very simple. And I do not want it to be a hidden underlying meaning that you have to search for. I want my message to be easy for everyone to understand, although it may take some convincing.
I believe that You Can Save The Earth. It all starts with one little person. Myself, all on my own, have taught friends to throw their garbage in the trash can, or (an easy one) put recyclables in recycling bins, and to use that Green Bin that we have all been provided with! It is easy to make these changes and the sooner you start the bigger difference you will make. I have a magazine, a National Geographic Green Guide issue from Winter 2009, which has an article called "Green Myths" by Paul McRandle and Mary Logan Barmeyer. One myth that many people believe (that I just can't understand that they'd believe it) is that "Recycling wastes more energy than it saves." Some may say that "More energy is used to send out recycling trucks all over the county just to pick up cans and bottles and plastic containers than is used to dispose of these items." Of course, this is false. According to a 2004 study published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, overall, the energy consumed to develop new products from raw materials is at least 10 times more than the energy used by recycling collection, the actual recycling, and the transportation of the recycled goods to retailers.
So, please recycle what can be recycled and we can all help, one by one, to clean up the earth.