Living in the environment

By: Ethan K.

As I watched my kids play in the backyard today, I could not help thinking about living in the environment. What do I mean by this? Well, everyday we face choices that either help or harm this planet. When you roll out of bed, you begin to leave your environmental footprint. Do you choose to treat our planet with respect or do you help to "trash it"?

I ask these questions because there are people who claim to respect our planet, but they toss cigarette butts out of the window of their car, drop trash in the park, pour solvent down their drain, and many other actions which harm our environment. Living in the environment should make us think about the environment as our home. Do we throw cigarette butts on the floor of our home? Would we throw trash on our living room floor? I know that this is common sense but why do we do these things with no care? What am I showing my kids if I teach them that as long as it isn't our backyard, you can throw your trash on the ground. Not only does what we teach our children matter, but what kind of environment will be left to them? Will pollution be more widespread? Will lakes and rivers smell and turn dark with pollution and chemicals?

We have to do better as individuals if we expect to do better as a nation. Every nation needs to do their part in order to do better as a planet. Are we living in the environment as caretakers or just messy transients? We all need to look around at our environmental footprint and decide to do better. We deserve it, and our kids do too!