I'm sure we have all heard the saying, “what you don’t know won’t hurt you;” however, I am here to tell you that this is not the case at all. What you don’t know can, in fact, hurt you.

For example, several people live their daily lives without a thought in the world, where their environment is concerned. Personally, I am a strong advocate for doing things that will prolong the life of this planet for generations to come (hence the big long article about our environment). Sadly, I feel as though I am surrounded by a world who could not care less about their impact on the environment. I sit in restaurants and see people needlessly using napkins-those were once a beautiful tree. I sit in parks, and oftentimes I see people throw trash on the ground. The poor bird that mistakes the trash for food will surely suffer because a completely capable person was too lazy to walk 5 feet to a trash can. I see one of my best friends throw water bottles away, even though we have a FREE recycling service in our city. I watch these things happen and I think to myself, "Am I making a difference? Do my 40 recycled water bottles make up for the thousands that are thrown in the trash? Does my Brita filter make up for the thousands of water bottles that are bought daily? Does my determination to pick up trash anytime I see it actually matter?" The short answer is yes.You can save poor animals like this polar bear. (ever heard of global warming?)

I believe that the world in which I live in can only learn from its mistakes. The mistake of throwing a bag out of your moving car and it hitting the windshield…only to cause the person behind you to wreck. Throwing trash down and it ending up in the ocean, only to kill your favorite animal because it ate the trash thinking that it was food. These are the mistakes that this world is seeing. We are losing so many valuable things, and no one seems to bother to look up and notice. Facebook won’t help anyone breathe when the majority of the rainforest is cut down due to overconsumption of paper and wood products. Those few moments of inconvenience when deciding to recycle or not may save the future generations of children. That’s your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren… You are borrowing this earth from future generations. It only makes sense to me to take care of it.

I love this beautiful earth in which we all live. One of the best things about life is to walk outside and enjoy all of the green surrounding us. There are trees, flowers, grasses, and so much more. I would hate to see the day where this beautiful place is destroyed. Not only destroyed but destroyed by the very people that surround me. The people that surround you, reader. Maybe it is even you, reader, who doesn’t realize what is happening around you. This beautiful earth is hurting and it needs your help to get back on track. The smallest changes to a lifestyle can help the issues concerning our environment. We can fix the issues surrounding us, but only if we begin with the first step of becoming knowledgeable about what is going on.