By Gina Chieffo
“God blessed them saying: ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and all living things that move on the earth.” God gave the earth to us, but not without responsibility. We rule over all things, but we must remember that God made it for us and that we should respect the earth. This is why we need to stop hurting the earth in the ways we have been.
Lately, everyone is wrapped up in the issue of the economy and how we are to fix it. However, that doesn’t give us reason to just forget about the environment. Some people don’t believe in global warming. Well the truth is that pollution is building up and we need to
stop it.
There are many ways that we can conserve energy and stop pollution. One of the ways is to replace the light bulbs in your house with energy conserving ones. This not only helps with the environment, it uses less energy and therefore costs less money. In my house we have changed some of our light bulbs to energy saving ones. Even just turning off our lights and unplugging electronics when they aren’t in use helps.
We can also reduce waste by not having waste in the first place. By using reusable totes, when we go shopping, we are using less plastic and that means we are throwing less plastic out and helping the environment just that much. Every bit adds up to help the environment.
Another thing we can do is recycle paper. Ninety-five percent of the world’s trees from the recorded beginning of time are gone now. They are very important to us because they produce oxygen. Without any trees, we wouldn’t have enough oxygen to live. If everyone recycled every piece of paper they used, we wouldn’t ever have to cut down another tree. Our air would be clean again.
Although recycling paper is good, we also need to plant more trees and plants. Because only five percent of our trees are left, we need to replant them and protect them. Also, we need to replant our native trees and plants. Alien plant seeds get in the soil and kill our native plants. We need to get rid of them and replant the native ones, which grow well in our area.
In conclusion, if we all work together, we can help our environment and live up to the responsibilities that come with it. We can stop global warming and take care of our environment. We will keep the air clean and give future generations our experience of earth.
(Gina Chieffo is an eighth-grader at St. Paul the Apostle School in Davenport and a member of the parish.)
