We Need To Do More for the Environment
How do the streets of your local area look? For many people, their streets have garbage everywhere. For some others, they take action for the environment. This is the reason why pollution is still such a big problem today. It causes diseases, kills animals, and greatly contaminates the environment and air around us. While there are many people doing many things for the environment, the vast majority aren’t doing much for the well-being of our environment.
Environmental issues have existed forever, and that is a fact. However, the way we deal with it is where everyone differs. Many people put lots of effort into caring for the environment, but the people who don’t act to solve pollution significantly outnumber them. Throughout the years, pollution rates have been surging. This challenge cannot be overcome without the combined effort of everyone, and increased rates of pollution demonstrate it.
Pollution hasn’t always been like this. Production in plastics and other products has skyrocketed MASSIVELY over the past few years. According to oceangeneration.org, “Up to 422 million tonnes of plastic is being produced annually.” Now compare this to the amount decades ago. In 1950, plastic production only reached 2 million tonnes. This not only impacted pollution, but also affected the amount of plastic that was going into our bodies. Microplastics enter our bodies every year, and harm us and the environment.
Take Availa Johnson, a passionate 9-year-old in Florida who is determined to solve plastic pollution in creative ways. It started with her simply picking up plastic waste on the beach, but she is leaning more into influencing people and talking about plastic pollution awareness. Availa states, “I am starting an art class soon and planning on pitching my plastic fashion idea…” Many other people are taking action like Availa, and they are making an effort to solve pollution and protect the environment.
However, many people live in a place where they don’t do things to care for their environment. This is evident even in the air we breathe! The WHO (World Health Organization) states that 99% of the global population breathe air that is dangerous to us. Furthermore, many people aren’t willing to put in the effort to properly throw out trash, causing many different pollution-related problems, such as streets being overfilled with trash, beaches flooded with waste, and oceans all around the world being filled with garbage.
Some people believe that there is no point in helping the environment, since so many people aren’t making an effort to help. However, this is not the case. Small actions can drastically help your neighborhood or even your house, even if it doesn’t help the entire world. Simple things like recycling, taking time to separate garbage into the correct categories, and even using reusable bags can make a big impact on the environment around you. Moreover, the actions you take impact the people around you, helping spread awareness.
Ultimately, it is up to us as a community to help our environment. Many people are already helping our environment. Although the vast majority aren’t doing much for the well-being of our environment, if we work together with the people around us and put in the effort to solve pollution, we will be able to solve this issue.
Sources:
https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2022-billions-of-people-still-breathe-unhealthy-air-new-who-data