Problems We Shouldn't Be Facing

I know a 6th grader who has some things to say, but doesn't have a LinkedIn profile yet. This is shared on her behalf.

Hi. My name is Macy. I am 11, and I live in Savannah, GA. I am not even old enough to drive, but the realization that the world is really being harmed has dawned on me. There is a big mess. Pollution. Global warming. Acid rain.  I could go on and maybe I should. Because every single thing that I just listed was caused by us. Or, at least affected.

For example, Global warming. Yes, global warming is happening no matter what we do, but a lot of global warming we (humans) are responsible for. Based on NASA’s studies, the temperature has risen for an average of 1℃ since 1880. That doesn't seem like much right? Well ⅔ of that rise has happened since 1975. As the NASA website puts it, “at a rate of 0.15-0.20 per decade.” All of the new cars, cellphones, fancier technology, factories, and more, created tons of greenhouse gasses. And I don't know for sure but  in my head, this is what the last generation is thinking;

“You know, I bet I could make some more money on this product I'm making if I don't bother about the pollution it causes."

I don't think they are thinking they will dump the responsibility of cleaning up the mess that they created on us kids, but that is what is happening. I read this article about a person who had an idea (that was actually being seriously considered!) To stop global warming, they would literally pump a chemical into the air, to stop the sun from shining as bright! I mean can you believe that?!

People in other countries have actually tried and are trying to help clean up the mess that people have made, but here we are America, not doing our part. And I’m not writing this article to make Americans look bad. I am writing it to help us realize that we have made a mistake. And here is our opportunity to fix it. 

What I find extra awful is that we (a very rich country compared to other countries) are going on buying useless plastic toys and creating a huge pile of garbage. And because we have the money, the garbage is not going in America. No. It's going to poorer countries. It's trashing their water. It's being dumped into rivers and oceans, filling the bodies of fish that we will then eat filling our bodies with trash. And, you know what they say, we are what we eat.

And I’m sorry. I don't mean to speak badly of people; this topic just really upsets me.

I mean, we build hundreds of roads in one town because it's more convenient to kill the earth a tiny bit more than take 5 extra minutes to get to work. I know it’s not the most fun thing to hear but it's true. There needs to be change. How can we fix this?

While we blow money on plastic toys that we will throw away in a day, we could be investing in the earth, cleaning up the mess that we’ve made, planting new trees. Maybe instead of spending our time and money on toys like “LOL dolls,” spend it on more important things like helping the people who need it, or picking up trash. I know not everyone is in charge of a business. For kids like me, you could try something like picking up trash that you know doesn't belong. Me and my mom go what we call “trash picking” once a week where we pick up litter off of streets that have a lot of it. We separate the recyclables and recycle them. And if you can't even do that, you could just make a bigger effort not to litter yourself. You could also tell your friends not to litter if you see them doing it.

Another thing that me and my mom do is have a compost pile. Everything that is organic such as banana peels, leftover spinach, and other greens/fruits that we don't eat go into a pile in our backyard. We mix the pile up with mulch and other browns and stir it up every time we go out there. And with all of this, after a couple weeks you get super healthy soil! You can plant other plants in the soil. (Which surprisingly doesn't stink.) Maybe you could even sell it, (market it as fresh soil ready to plant:)

Anyway you could even do things as simple as not printing something if you don't need to. I mean that's about as simple as it can get. You could even maybe put a little note at the bottom of your emails whenever you send one, “please consider the environment before you print this email.” Little things like that can eventually help bring the earth and environment back together, back up.

Something that I’ve learned from writing this is that it can be overwhelming to focus on the dramatic reality that we are facing. It's hard not to get stuck thinking “Oh my gosh! We are all going to burn in a pit of despair because of global warming!!!” We should think of ways to solve it and come up with ideas. We have to keep on hoping and doing things to make it better. So I hope reading this helps you be aware of the problems we are facing and being able to maybe come up with new solutions that could help. Thank you for giving your time to read what I have written. So.... goodbye.