OPINION
BY ANTHONETTE MAYNARD, Freshman
BLYTHEWOOD-- According to the World Health Organization pollution is one of the biggest global killers, affecting over 100 million people.
Pollution is also one of the most ignored concepts in the modern world, according to Conserve Energy Future (CEF), which is a company that tries to educate more people about pollution and saving the earth.
Though there are numerous pollution laws that are enacted, many people choose not to follow them, completely disregarding the effect it may have on our Earth in the long run.
“We have to change people’s attitudes and that is super difficult. I think one of the best ways to change people’s attitudes is the advertising market. If we were to advertise on television using celebrities for example, it might help to change people’s attitudes,” Mark Dyer geography teacher at Blythewood High School said.
Over 14 billion pounds of garbage is dumped into the ocean every year, not including the major oil spills that affect thousands of sea animals.
If pollution laws are not taken more seriously, the human race is going nowhere but down.
“If we don’t change our direction, we’ll end up where we’re headed,” Dr. Jonathan G. Koomey stated in an article on the effects of pollution which was published on New York Times.
According to CEF, approximately 55 percent of 220 million tons of waste generated each year in the United States ends up in one of the over 3,500 landfills.
The numbers are only increasing and will not change unless something is done to alterate people’s attitudes and actions.
“We live in a mass consumption economy, and our economy is driven by our consumption of things and the consumption of things generates our waste, and we have to find a way to manage this waste so that we don't live in a world as pictured in the movie “Wall-e” where our world is nothing but a landfill,” Dyer said.
Why Pollution Laws need to be strictened
According to CEF, littering has an economic, legal and environmental impact in the form of spending millions of dollars in cleaning up litter.
Though there are large fines for littering, thousands of people still get away with it every day.
Litter on the ground degrades natural areas and kills plants and animals. By not disposing of waste properly, you are putting innocent animals in danger. All it takes is for a pet to choke on a piece of plastic or a bird getting caught up in a soda can holder. Yet people still do it. Why?
People litter due to laziness, followed by the lack of consequences for their actions, or the lack of places to put trash are a few of many reasons to why people litter.
Pollution laws need to be taken more seriously if people want to continue to live in a world where they don’t have to worry about clean air or safe drinking water for the rest of their life.
This is a topic that everyone should take seriously because our world is all that we have, and it shows how far the human race has come, but it won’t matter 100 years from now if we don’t take pollution laws more seriously.
Fixing our mistakes
A way to start turning things around would be by educating the ones who determine our future, our youth.
Though this concept may seem simple, it really is not.
Not only will it be hard to get kids and teens to listen and break away from bad habits; such as leaving lights on and sticking gum underneath desks, we also have to get them to change their habits and attitudes as well as take action.
“Educational programs in schools could also be beneficial, but students only pay so much attention in school.They'd rather listen to lebron james than mark Dyer,” Dyer said.
According to CEF more than 3 million kids under the age of 5 die every year due to environmental factors like pollution.
Nobody wants to worry about whether their children are going to die young due to pollution. If we continue on the path we are on, everyone is going to have to.
If we can’t control certain things such as Americans buying more than 29 million bottles of water every year, with only 13 percent of the bottles are recycled, then our world is in trouble.
If we don't try harder to lower the number of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste to be dumped into U.S waters, then we are doomed.
We have to come together and follow these laws that are given to us for a reason. If we do not start to listen and obey these rules, there won’t be a future for us to save. Humans will become an endangered species and there will be nothing we can do if don't change our ways starting now.
