The Green Parent
Raising kids with conscience
25 Mar 2010
Save our Planet
Eight year old Verona Strauss writes about how we are damaging the planet with our actions and shows us ways in which we can work towards a better future.
Throwing away rubbish is one of the worst things to do. Throwing food in the landfill produces methane, a gas which is bad for the environment. We need to stop throwing away so much rubbish before it’s too late.
Here are other things that harm our environment: cars give off toxic fumes. Cutting down trees is very bad and we kill bees.
Trees give us oxygen and they take in carbon dioxide. Oxygen is what we breathe in; without trees we wouldn’t have any oxygen and without oxygen we wouldn’t be alive. Trees are also home for wildlife like squirrels, birds, bees and wasps. Wasps eat our rotting food; if we didn’t have wasps, we would have a lot of rotting food everywhere. Yuk!
Bees are very important. Bees pollinate one third of our crops. If we didn’t have bees we would not be alive today. Bees are endangered, so we must help bees instead of killing or injuring them. A good thing to do to help bees is to plant a bee garden. This means you find out what flowers bees like and plant lots of them in a certain place; preferably away from fumes and other animals. This will help bees because they will then be able to get pollen which they make into honey, which they then eat.
A brilliant way to cut down on rubbish is to use reusable bags when you go shopping instead of expecting plastic carrier bags. You can recycle lots of things; even crisp packets and toothpaste tubes at the Philippine Community Fund. If you send your crisp packets and toothpaste tubes to them, the Mum’s can make them into bags, purses and pencil cases. They get paid well so that their children can go to school instead of scavenging on rubbish dumps.
What else can you do to help?
• Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
• Don’t leave your TV or computers on standby when you’re not using them.
• Use your own reusable containers in the shops.
• Use a bus, bike or walk where possible.
• Reduce your rubbish – if you have a kerbside collection, use it!
• Take any plastic packaging off at the checkout and leave it
• Encourage your Mum and Dad to use the recycling centre
• Buy everything you need in one trip instead of keeping going to the shops
Try these websites for more information:
The Philippine Community Fund
My Zero Waste
Bumblebee Conservation Trust
The Green Parent is the UK's leading green lifestyle and natural parenting magazine. A truly inspiring read, TGP is like nothing else on the newsstand, with insightful intelligent journalism covering topics from babywearing and attachment parenting to home-education and alternative medicine. Each issue features regular columns on Organic Gardening, Seasonal Food and Drink, Green Travel, Ethical Fashion and lots more.
6 comments in response to this article
Inspiring and so well written, thanks V for sharing your wonderful thoughts and great ideas with us xx
Very interesting article and inspiring as well. Carry on as you wish to go, good luck.
Wow, a great article to share with all the family!
Lovely article! I like the link to the Bumblebee Trust! Good luck with the writing.
Thank you for the interesting article Verona, you’ve given us lots of good tips, especially about recycling unusual items!
A brilliant article Verona. I need to sort out my new garden and you have given me the inspiration to have a bee garden. Hopefully we will be reading more articles written by you!
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