There is no age limit to taking action on behalf of the planet. Testament to that fact is 70-year-old Pat Smith, who is fighting to put an end to the plastic waste which is polluting beaches and destroying marine life in Cornwall, England.
Each year, over 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans. For the past 50 years, global plastic consumption has risen by a factor of 20.
One million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, but less than 10% of this plastic is correctly recycled. In Britain, there are over 3,000 pieces of waste per kilometer of beach. The county of Cornwall was one of the first regions to declare a state of climate emergency.
Local protagonist
At 70 years of age, Smith has singlehandedly arranged for the removal of plastic waste from 52 Cornish beaches in the space of a year! Setting up The Final Straw association in Charlestown, on Cornwall's south coast, she organizes groups of volunteers to clean up the beaches.
At the same time, the association is campaigning with local entrepreneurs to rid Cornwall of single-use plastic. Over 200 businesses have already joined the movement, and it is Smith's dream to ban plastic straws.
An object that is commonplace in contemporary culture, it has become a major ecological scourge. Indeed, single-use plastic straw cannot be recycled as it is too small. The European Union is set to ban its use by 2021.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Caring for the environment is not new.
When I was a kid, I discovered that people of my grandfather's generation had a habit of picking up trash and fixing things in their communities and on public lands. Cleaning up was just part of their routine.
When one went to a campsite, to a beach or other location, people would do a little cleaning as part of excursion.
People who went on hikes would regularly engage in trail building.
People used to call this type of behaviour civics.
The government pulled civics from schools in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Baby Boom Generation was trained to whine but never act. New think tells us that the people were put on earth to whine. The government uses the collective whining to justify social programs.
Anyway, prior to the 1960s, it was common to see people out cleaning up areas thinking that such activity was their civic duty. I think that the de-emphasis of civics was a big loss for the world.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
We all should keep clean our surroundings and help the environment