Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

We can be the change.

Sitting down in my 3rd period class listening to the global warming presentation changed my whole life style. My name is Alba Arce, I am a freshman at Mt. San Antonio College and one of my major concerns is our environment. When I was a sophomore in High School, my science class teacher assigned us to do a power point; we were free to choose the topic as long as it was related with science. At the time I wasnâ€™t very aware of our global warming crisis and didnâ€™t care much about our environment. When the presentation was over I was so amazed and I felt so guilty for some things I use to do as my daily routine. From that point on my whole life style changed, from little things like saving water, recycling etc to becoming involved in our community, and organizing event to help our environment.
Many people donâ€™t realize how important is to take care of our environment, and do things that just donâ€™t make since. Why throw trash on the floor when we can easily put it in a near trash can? Why drive a car to a place that is close by when we can ride a bike, or simply walk there? See there are many things we donâ€™t pay attention to that seem so very small, but when you multiply them by how many people exist in the planet really become an issue. The moment I was exposed to the global warming power point, I said to myself I had to make a change not only in my life style but try to get others involved also. I Started by recycling in school, it not only helped the planet, but it certainly gave my pageantry team some extra cash for new equipment. Then I felt like that wasnâ€™t enough so I became a member of the Teen Value Council from the city of Pomona. What we do is we get together to plan different city events as well as others outside our community. We have cleaned our parks; erased graffiti from kids play grounds, picked up trash and even planted trees. Not only have we cleaned parks but we have also gone out to the beaches and cleaned, it was amazing because our number one thing to find was cigarette buds, which made me sad, people donâ€™t just damage their own body but they also go ahead and damage our environment by leaving their waste in our public beaches.
Why is it important to care for our environment? Well simply because we are part of it. Maybe we donâ€™t see many changes right now but our kids, grandkids and generations ahead of them will see the effects, and it might be too late to change it. I believe is important to keep a good and clean environment, so we can live peaceful, so we can take a look at our mountains and actually being able to see them. Going to the beach and seating down without having to find a cigarette bud from someone else, and looking at the waves and not see trash swimming in there like little fishes. If we all help I know we can make a change, there are so many different ways to contribute that it should be no problem for anyone.
I learned that as a community we should get more involved fight for what we want, work towards seeing a pollution free environment, clean parks to take our kids, or simply streets without trash on the floor. I know I have made a change and I will continue being part of all these wonderful events, and hope to see a better community to live in as time goes by.