Be The Change
For the past couple of months, my World History class has been working on a Kahiau project. It basically is a project that encourages others to make an impact on a specific issue. The issue covered in my own, is the importance of taking care of the land by cleaning beaches, and starting at the source by cleaning our school and other facilities that produce trash. By doing this, I was forced to become a leader as well as a global citizen. A global citizen is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community's values and practices (Israel, What Does It Mean to be a Global Citizen?). I learned to be a global citizen because in my community, it’s kind of unusual to clean beaches as a service project because the values taught to us as children remind us to always clean after ourselves. Tourists, and even locals have left behind rubbish that ends up in the water. As a local, it’s sickening to see the waste damage the water’s ecosystem. I learned new values in doing this project because as a Hawaiian, we are taught to always take care of the land. Global citizenship has also been a part of the research process because often people see it as a Gandhi way of life whereas it actually starts with a small change that has huge effects. Starting this project made me realize how much our waste effects the community. In the beginning, it was unexpected that there was a large amount of man-made products laying on the beach and in the water. After cleaning and observing the pieces of trash that was on the beach, I noticed that it wasn’t as much man left trash, but more debris and micro plastics that are after effects of earthquakes, or even trash that is left in the water that was swept here in currents. When cleaning, I noticed that students, with the exception of some locals, admirably clean after themselves at beaches. However, newer people that move into the community don’t see the importance of making the areas around them as clean as they first found them. It was interesting to discover an inconsistent pattern in people cleaning after themselves. I also taught and explained what my project was to locals at the beaches that were cleaned. Our Earth has been in constant turmoil due to our polluting way of life. In a recent article, the hole in our ozone has grown three times the size of the United States. If we don’t take action and be the change we wish to see in this world to prevent polluting trash in our environment, the Earth may no longer be existent for future generations. According to the article, the larger the hole in the ozone, the warmer our Earth can get which is called global warming (2016 Antarctic Ozone Hole). The waters will begin to slowly dry out, rich vegetation will eventually be non-existent. All of which lead to the slow deaths of this beautiful world, and humanity. My project definitely made an impact on this world because the people who have taken part in the duration of beach clean ups and the research processes have had a sense of urgency to take care of our environment. It runs deeper than beach cleanups because I’ve developed a sense of love for our Earth, and have inspired others to think about the Earth as a person in a sense that it takes care of us. To have that mentality of the world is what really causes a change in this age because it can revolutionize the Earth. It causes people to act with purpose, and that alone is something that causes more change then the plain action itself.
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About This ProjectThis project is for the sole purpose of bettering the overall environment. We are starting slow by hosting beach clean ups and spreading awareness to our communities. Archives
May 2017
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