I saw a boy my age throw a soda can to the street. And this happened this morning in a bus to Panama city.
When I saw him do this I just felt like standing up and yelling "why did you do that when you could have waited to throw it in a trash can?"
These things happen so fast that you don't even have time to stop the person from doing anything. By the time you react it's already too late.
I really dislike it when people do that. I mean, didn't he see how much trash was already accumulated by the side of the road? Did he have to add one more to the pile? Really? Oh wait, of course he saw that! But he probably thought "there's so much trash already. One more, one less. It doesn't make a difference so I'm just gonna throw this."
It's really disappointing to see people do that. It's hard to expect people, who won't even care about that, to care for bigger, social problems.
Before I cared for anything else I always cared for the environment. I remember how I once went to the Farallon beach to my friend's house. When I saw how dirty the beach was, even close by El Decameron, I started picking up everything. It worried me how much trash was around and that the water level was going to rise and drag all that somewhere else in the middle of the sea or to an island. An old man from around there even helped us by taking care of the trash we had already picked up (which was A LOT and we had only covered a small distance). We spent an hour or so cleaning the beach, but it felt so much better afterward because we could enjoy the beach and not be disgusted and worried.
It's sad how nasty most our beaches look. How much trash you can see among the trees. I am sure that if I pass by your house you wouldn't want me to throw anything in to your yard. The same way happens for all the bottles and beer rings on the beach. We're contaminating and affecting many animals too. But this isn't just about taking care of the animals and their habitats. It's about us being supposedly the intelligent specie and not acting like one because we don't care. We're destructive and we don't appreciate what we have until it's gone or until something tragic happens. How come animals seem to be more respectful than us? We're so intelligent and for what? To only bring us all down? A small and bad action such as throwing trash everywhere can lead to bigger issues so how about we switch that destructive mindset into one that's more helpful!
I believe education plays a huge role in this. That's why in a science project for school I decided to write a kid's story to try to explain to little kids about the environment and how important it is to take care of it. It was a story about a plastic spoon who by accident ended up in a trash and had this journey through all these places until he ended up in the ocean and years later he found the little boy who was his friend but now he was a grown up man. He was a sailor. It sounds like a silly story, but for kids it worked and they loved the story and understood the message. My partner (who is a great artist) made the drawings and painted them for the book. It was a success. And you know why else I chose that as my project? Because it's a bit hard to make a grown up person care for the environment when it's pretty much the last thing in their daily list of things to care about. But for those of us who care, we need to plant a seed in our children, have them care since they're little, and you'll see how that does magic for the next generation. They will appreciate things and life so much more when you teach them good morals and principles.
It all starts with the education given at home. Remember that.
When I saw him do this I just felt like standing up and yelling "why did you do that when you could have waited to throw it in a trash can?"
These things happen so fast that you don't even have time to stop the person from doing anything. By the time you react it's already too late.
I really dislike it when people do that. I mean, didn't he see how much trash was already accumulated by the side of the road? Did he have to add one more to the pile? Really? Oh wait, of course he saw that! But he probably thought "there's so much trash already. One more, one less. It doesn't make a difference so I'm just gonna throw this."
It's really disappointing to see people do that. It's hard to expect people, who won't even care about that, to care for bigger, social problems.
Before I cared for anything else I always cared for the environment. I remember how I once went to the Farallon beach to my friend's house. When I saw how dirty the beach was, even close by El Decameron, I started picking up everything. It worried me how much trash was around and that the water level was going to rise and drag all that somewhere else in the middle of the sea or to an island. An old man from around there even helped us by taking care of the trash we had already picked up (which was A LOT and we had only covered a small distance). We spent an hour or so cleaning the beach, but it felt so much better afterward because we could enjoy the beach and not be disgusted and worried.
It's sad how nasty most our beaches look. How much trash you can see among the trees. I am sure that if I pass by your house you wouldn't want me to throw anything in to your yard. The same way happens for all the bottles and beer rings on the beach. We're contaminating and affecting many animals too. But this isn't just about taking care of the animals and their habitats. It's about us being supposedly the intelligent specie and not acting like one because we don't care. We're destructive and we don't appreciate what we have until it's gone or until something tragic happens. How come animals seem to be more respectful than us? We're so intelligent and for what? To only bring us all down? A small and bad action such as throwing trash everywhere can lead to bigger issues so how about we switch that destructive mindset into one that's more helpful!
I believe education plays a huge role in this. That's why in a science project for school I decided to write a kid's story to try to explain to little kids about the environment and how important it is to take care of it. It was a story about a plastic spoon who by accident ended up in a trash and had this journey through all these places until he ended up in the ocean and years later he found the little boy who was his friend but now he was a grown up man. He was a sailor. It sounds like a silly story, but for kids it worked and they loved the story and understood the message. My partner (who is a great artist) made the drawings and painted them for the book. It was a success. And you know why else I chose that as my project? Because it's a bit hard to make a grown up person care for the environment when it's pretty much the last thing in their daily list of things to care about. But for those of us who care, we need to plant a seed in our children, have them care since they're little, and you'll see how that does magic for the next generation. They will appreciate things and life so much more when you teach them good morals and principles.
It all starts with the education given at home. Remember that.