Do you think you are doing enough to protect the environment?

Most people are not doing enough to protect the environment. Because if everybody were protecting the environment, a story about a specific person protecting the environment would not be so newsworthy.

People’s everyday lives are affecting the environment. When you go to the store to buy food, then you will use a plastic bag to bring the food back or take a plastic bottle to work or school. You may drive a car to school or work every day. People need energy to have light, electricity, and water. And there are many new buildings built every day. Those normal activities cause deforestation, water pollution, air pollution, and sound pollution.

For example, when you use plastic bags or bottles, after each time you use it, you will throw it away. The plastic will have two choices, one is to be buried underground, and dissolved by the bacteria in the soil. Or the other one is to throw in to the ocean. The plastic bag that is being thrown into the ocean becomes the food for animals in the ocean, like turtles. They eat jellyfish, but plastic bags are too similar to jellyfish. On the other side, according to WWF Australia, the decomposition of one piece of plastic needs 20 to 500 years but producing one plastic bag just takes a minute.

Some people might say that we need to use plastic bags and bottles every day, and we need to drive cars every day. Those are the basics of our life. We can’t get rid of it. But you can use a canvas bag when you are buying food; you can use reusable water bottles. Then, the plastic products will be produced less. If plastic producers don’t have people that need to use plastic, then the factory will not produce plastic. People need to use plastic every day, so the factory will produce more plastic for people to use.

Air pollution is one of the most common ways people hurt the environment through the exhaust from their cars. People can take the bus to work, and take the school bus to school. If there’s about 30 seats on a bus, then there can be less than 29 cars on the road if people take the bus. As a result, the air will become clearer to breathe in. Also, there will be less traffic on the road.

Because of the greed of humans, the source of life on Earth had been destroyed over time. More and more buildings have been built; more trees have been cut down. More and more trash has been thrown into the ocean; more animal’s homes have been destroyed. People are inventing the weapon that can destroy the whole Earth. Maybe we should just put down the technology, and go to the forest, mountains, seaside to have a walk, feel the wind blow on our face, breath in the fresh air, and listen to the birds instead of the noises of city.

Our ancestors lived in harmony with nature; humans come from nature but now we are destroying our first home.

“People often regard the environment around them as a free commodity, squandering it at will without knowing how to cherish it.”

— Gan Haman U.S.