When you take a walk outside, what do you see? Green grass, trees, plants and animals buzzing? Or smog, smoke, travel and litter? What would you like to see?

“I would like to see green, luscious grass, beautiful, tall trees, open fields, no litter on the ground and a clear, blue sky.” states 10-year-old Sana Larson.

“I would like to see clean greenery, birds, squirrels and other animals playing, rubbish in bins – not on the floor, clean oceans and less trees being cut down.” says 39-year-old Nora Stafford.

Taking care of our environment is important as a healthy environment is essential for a healthy life. Polluting the environment will cause contaminants and harmful toxins to cause respiratory diseases and certain cancers. Water pollution can also lead to diarrhoeal diseases and typhoid. Air pollution can increase the risk of premature mortality, asthma, heart attacks and many more harmful diseases and infections.

Furthermore, out environment supports biodiversity. Plants and animals live and thrive on clean natural resources in out environment. Biodiversity sustains ecosystem capacity. Each living organism has an important role to play in our environment. For example, a large number of plants mean humans have more crops. A healthy ecosystem ensures the environment can recover from a variety of natural disasters.

How to take care of our environment:

  • Use re-usable bags: Supermarkets charge for a new plastic bag to ensure that customers bring in a re-usable bag. This means that less plastic will be wasted.
  • Recycle: We all have a recycling bin to allow paper, card, plastics, glass bottles and jars, etc. this allows rubbish to be re-used, meaning that less of our recyclable rubbish end up in landfill sites.
  • Save electricity: Turning the lights off, TV or other appliances when you are not using them. Using energy-efficient lightbulbs will also reduce the amount of electricity you use.
  • Save water: Water is wasted very frequently. Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can same plenty of water.

Taking care of the environment is our responsibility. Following these simple ways will ensure that future generations can enjoy the liberties of our environment and ecosystem just as we have and the generations before us.

By Gursiman Ghataura