When I was 18 years old I volunteered to be part of a group that went to India. Some of our activities included planting and watering trees, and cleaning up trash from the local villages. It was than that I saw what pollution was doing to our planet. There was plastic on top of plastic. Old packages of plastic from food and other sundries, a signal that modernization had reached this region. Although many things about westernization are grand, pollution is a painful by product. When I ventured out to the coast, the beach had plastic on the ground. I wondered if this was a recent problem. I know that in the village of Auroville, where I was staying, many of the products sold in the stores were environmentally sound and did not use a lot of packaging. Too bad people couldn't use that as an example more often. I've seen birds mingling with the plastic, probably wondering where this eerie alien form came from. Something that wasn't palatable to eat, and more and more of it seemed to float into the ocean.
I now see that various companies are going to start making products out of plastic that they find in the sea. I believe Adidas is making shoes of trash. I think this is a very good idea moving forth. Why not make new things out of old contents? We have plenty of plastic on this earth, and definitely don't need to manufacture any more. I'm hoping for new trends that will lessen the amount of global trash. The birds will be happier and we will be too. What is the emotion that you feel when you witness a plastic bag floating on the sea? It's one of discomfort. Yet there are thousands of miles of landmasses full of plastic. When are we going to learn? It's time to listen to the birds. Listen to the trees. Listen to the ocean. What do they want? They want us to stop producing plastic. It's time to start supporting the effort of corporations like Adidas who have decided to become part of the solution instead of the problem.
I bought a wallet made of trash once, and it lasted me a long time. Now I have one made of hemp, and it feels like I'll have it for years. This is the kind of sustainability that needs to be encouraged. I'm not claiming to be perfect, but moving forward, I am committing myself to buying less, or close to no plastic. Let's all try to take action and build a world that our grandchildren will be happy to live in. And pelicans can fly freer. The ocean will smile upon us once again. After all, seahorses were not meant to swim with q tips. Everybody dreams of a world where pollution is not such an issue. And some day, I believe we will solve it and look back to 2018 and say "what were we thinking?" Thank you for listening.
Jeremy.
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#PlanetorPlastic- An early awareness of pollution.
AdventureWhen I was 18, and working in India. I witnessed pollution on the land and the sea. Now I am aware that this pollution exists everywhere. But people are beginning to make a change.
