Social Studies - Trash the Planet

Hi Everyone! 

This is my first blog post for this term but also will be my first blog post with my new social studies teacher. His name is Mr. Cairn and he is a pretty good teacher who explains things well, which makes things easier. 

Lately, in our social studies classes, we have been focusing on the topic of pollution and the environment. We started off by comprehending a short story about a sea horse, this story tries to get a message through. About pollution in a creative way, this story showed us the more cultural/spiritual side. It mentions...

 ¨Kids, you must take from the sea only the kai you need and only the amount you need to please your bellies. If you take more, then it is a waste. There is no need to waste the food of the sea. Best to leave it there for when you need it next time. The sea is good to us, it gives us kai moana to eat. It is a food basket. As long as we respect it, it will continue to feed us. If, in your search for shellfish, you lift a stone from its lap, return the stone to where it was. Try not to break pieces of the reef because it is the home of many kai moana. And do not leave litter behind you when you leave the sea.’ Dad taught us to respect the sea and to have reverence for the life contained in its waters.¨

Reading this from the story makes me think of how we really have taken the ocean to our
advantage, and we have gone too far.

I have learned many things from watching this documentary made by Ali Tabrizy. Who explains how much the ocean means to him. That is why he made a documentary to show what is happening to the ocean. Not only that, but he is also showing how he is trying to help and prevent pollution.

I have written a bit about the video and what I think of it.

This video has gotten me to think about how there are some people out there who really want to save the ocean. But also that we have so much rubbish and it is just honestly never-ending. The fact that surprised and worried me the most was that the amount of microplastic. The ocean had become 500 times more than the stars in a milky way. I mean I'm pretty sure anyone would have at least tried to count the stars, but it’s way too much. Just by looking at the night sky, we can see it filled with countless stars. 

 

After watching more of these types of videos I'm starting to see how most of us humans are so ignorant. We ignore the fact that we are killing the Earth, we only keep doing this. Is because we are doing the things that are benefiting us and are making us comfortable in the current situation. But we aren’t really considering our future whatever we are doing to the earth. Will come back to us if we don’t stop, in the end, it’ll be our loss. Another fact that I had learned about was that when dolphins and whales come to the surface of the water. They actually fertilize these floating plants called phytoplankton. Which actually absorbs four times more carbon dioxide than the amazon rainforest. 

Things we could do to try and reduce the pollution in the ocean, is by using reusable everyday necessities. Like maybe a wooden toothbrush, organic/tote bag, metal/bamboo straws. If we are cleaning out our clothes, with the old one that doesn't look nice. We could find innovative ways to reuse them, maybe, for example, we could make flannels for cleaning the car. There are many ways to be innovative with old clothes. But the ones that you know look nice but you also know that will never wear it again. Find a store where you can donate or give clothes, or maybe to benefit yourself you could sell them too.

Lastly, Mr. had introduced to us a new website called "Happy Broadcast" This website is like a website talking about all the news globally. As you know the news usually talks about the bad things happening to the world. But in spite of this news, the Happy Broadcast is they to cheer you up. The Happy Broadcast talks about the good things happening around the world, for example, people helping the environment. I think it's a great way to learn about how people are out there doing good deeds.

The Happy Broadcast