Pollution

Last week we learned about natural disasters, and we listened to your design presentations in small groups, and then larger groups. I was happy to listen to all the presentations, because they are getting better and better. The more you speak English the better speakers you all become. It goes without saying that doing anything over and over can be a boon to ability. That includes any skill including scientific measurement, climbing a mountain, or speaking English...speaking any language for that matter!

 This week we will start our next project design topic: pollution. Air, water, noise, and groundwater all are prone to being polluted. Through constant use of materials and throwing things away, our natural environment will undoubtedly become polluted. When I was a child, my parents had a summer cottage. There was a restaurant and dinner club near the summer home, and many cottages located around a golf course. These establishments needed to throw things away, of course. I remember hiking in the local forest around the club, and sure enough, I found a small piece of land where garbage and unused things were "dumped." I was shocked that so many things were just left there, in the woods to rot and be forgotten about. Of course, after some years, this dump came to light, and the local residents cleaned up the area and become more careful about not dumping there. Nowadays, scenes like this probably don't happen. This is because of human awareness. Human awareness can put an end to anything negative, and can put positive actions into motion.

Pollution is one of those things we need to be educated about. It's amazing how many things can be caught up in the midst of pollution - water (seas, streams, and groundwater), soil (chemical seepage), air (dirt and particulate matter [pm2.5], smog, and haze), and even noise (cement trucks, construction, traffic, human voices). We should be careful of pollution not only for ourselves, but also for our future families. There is one thing that can help us in gaining knowledge about pollution and its prevention: education!