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| Environmental Science Students Patrick Donovan and Cody Maillet |
Students must collect a certain sum of "eco-points" in the class. These are awarded for contributing something meaningful to the environment. To collect their class points, some students have decided to help clean up the community of Blackville.
This is meaningful for many reasons, as it is not only a way to ensure lots of "eco-points," but also improve the appearance of our community and clean up the environment. The money earned from the bottles and cans found in the ditches will also contribute to other Environmental Science class projects.
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| Environmental Science Students Avery Hallihan and Jurina Stannius |
The recycling effort should not only exist in one classroom of our school. It should become much more prominent, as the effects of pollution are devastating worldwide. More than 35 billion plastic bottles are thrown away every year, and it takes over 450 years for each to decompose. Only about 25% of the plastic produced in the U.S. is recycled, this means that there are enough plastic bottles thrown away each year to circle the earth 4 times.
With so much pollution in their ecosystems, many species are endangered, and face serious consequences for our behaviour. The coral reef is dying, many species of birds have become mutated by chemicals and plastic which have been incorporated into their diets, and many frogs are beginning to disappear as a result of global warming.
All hope is not lost, however, due to the ripple effect. This theory states that, like ripples in water, the wave of reaction in relation to an event continues to expand outwardly, affecting more and more people all the time. I believe that if the students at Blackville school are continually educated about recycling, and become actively involved in environmental issues and effort, this will become more than just a school effort, but will affect how people live their lives everyday.
With so much pollution in their ecosystems, many species are endangered, and face serious consequences for our behaviour. The coral reef is dying, many species of birds have become mutated by chemicals and plastic which have been incorporated into their diets, and many frogs are beginning to disappear as a result of global warming.
All hope is not lost, however, due to the ripple effect. This theory states that, like ripples in water, the wave of reaction in relation to an event continues to expand outwardly, affecting more and more people all the time. I believe that if the students at Blackville school are continually educated about recycling, and become actively involved in environmental issues and effort, this will become more than just a school effort, but will affect how people live their lives everyday.
The efforts of the Environmental Science class have the potential to create a ripple effect that will hopefully make staff and students pause and consider the effects of our actions, and what each of us can do it protect and respect our environment.
By Julia Curtis
Photos by Laura Colford
