Summary of my action
For this term, me and 2 other classmates are planning on focusing on cleaning up our local environments and picking up garbage. We are going to simply start by planning which specific areas we want to focus on, and wether we want to focus on one specific place or expand and divide our time. I think lots of planning is required for this project in general, because we also need to schedule our availability, how the weather is, and regulations and rules about the park itself. Some supplies we might require are garbage tongs, buckets for garbage collection, gloves, proper clothing, etc.
Everything is complicated
Some complexities can include bad weather, improper equipment, and scheduling conflicts. However, I think what might be a bigger conflict is our action not contributing enough. By that, I don’t mean that the effort we put in isn’t as much as we can; I mean that people might continue to litter despite seeing a cleaner park area, they might even call it a waste of time. And I think that is an even bigger problem than the climate of our environment. I believe more people need to care about the state of the Earth and how we are not heading in the right direction right now. In the next few years, a lot of factors will permanently change the Earth, and not for the better. Although, it seems like nobody is concerned enough about it to make any effective changes; which isn’t to take away from the fact some people are putting real efforts, but what really matters is the scale of these people it needs to be at a much higher scale.
Sustainability
I think the sustainability of picking up garbage is pretty evident, but to be more specific, it helps prevent further pollution from entering the ecosystem, it protects wildlife from consuming harmful elements, and it helps reduce greenhouse gases from entering the environment. The plastics being burned and release many toxins into the air we breathe everyday, many animals can mistake bright-coloured garbage as food and consume it not realizing that it can kill them, the process of recycling all of this material leads to more energy consumption and greenhouse gasses entering our environment.
Opportunity
One way we can ensure this action provides opportunity is that we also raise awareness for others who might not realize it, wether that just be telling family and friends or putting up some posters locally at places like the library ad community centres. Maybe we can get more than just the three of us involved and set up weekly times where we get a group together and clean up local parks together wether that’s just BC or even nationally or globally. That would have real positive effects.
Expert
I was inspired by Jane Goodall because all of her work for nature and trying to advocate for it is truly amazing. She did this during a time where it wasn’t common and even looked down on for. But, she was a brave woman who wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in, and it turned out she didn’t just believe in it, she was also right. In addition, her determination to just study and go further in what she loved to do is so inspiring. Many people doubted the goal of her research on chimpanzees, but now, she’s known as one of the most prominent anthropologists.
