The disaster we leave behind

The disaster we leave behind

As time went by, the nature has degraded more and more and the main reason for this change is represented by us, humans.

If we look around ourselves today, we imagine nostalgically how places were in the past. But would it be that hard for things to become beautiful, like they were back then? This only depends on the importance we give to the environment.

Most of the time, people don’t realize what’s left after the picnics and barbecues they organize in their spare time. While walking along the Ghimbășel River, we were touched by the desolating and decayed aspect of the meadows which were burnt and covered with garbage. Nobody ever thought about how the place would look like after a barbecue or about the fact that it takes a lot of time for an ecosystem to regenerate after being destroyed.

What's left after our barbecues

Burnt grass near the riverbank

If we ignore the garbage and the waste papers, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist and that they don’t represent a kind of pollution. Among the things we found there were empty plastic bottles, waste food, textiles and all sorts of wrappings which, gathered in one spot or spread all over the place, painted  the sad picture.

Garbage and waste papers

Everything we leave behind turns back to us. Beside the fact that burnt and dirty meadows create a visual discomfort, they draw our attention towards themselves and make us think about their impact on the structure of the biocenosis.

Pollution is the result of many of our activities, and its effects consist in: the degradation of the environment, the modifications on the circuit of substance, with devastating consequences upon all living creatures.

Is it that we don’t know, or is it that we can’t take any responsibilities? Is there anything we could still do? We got our answers from the community’s important people. The lack of education and care of those who visit our area have damaged the environment almost irreversibly.

There are ways to solve the problem, but what we need most is implication and responsibility from all. We proposed some solutions, among which the creating of special spaces for barbecues, the building of selective garbage collecting stations and the sensitizing of the tourists by putting informative panels. We promised we would come back to work together. The Ghimbășel, the meadows and the woods need us!

Flyers, TV programs and public campaigns will keep us together for a while.

We could either go on all by ourselves, careless, or together, for a great change. The future of the environment depends on us!

Authors:

Mitişor Maria-  aged 14

Moldovan Mirela- aged 14

School: „Dr. Ioan Meşotă” National College, Braşov, Braşov County, Romania

Published at http://www.mesota.ro/proiecte/yre/