Teen Ink

Since middle school, I have found that the study of the environment reflects a part of my personality. It all began with a National Geographic ­article about the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Although I live nowhere near, I found the story compelling. I was drawn to the photos of plastic bottles plaguing the bay while a pair of ducks floated through the mess. Focusing on a photo of a dead catfish, I learned that shellfish numbers have been declining because of the destruction of seagrass habitats. “The bay today has become the ecological equivalent of a morbidly obese person, force-fed nitrogen and phosphorus,” the article read. From that point on, my whole way of thinking about our world’s environment changed.

I recognized how our world is in danger. I had always pictured the earth to be a wonderland with perfect habitats of luscious plants and animals. But I now realized that this world is not as perfect as I thought. In recent news, I learned that the Yangtze River in the People’s Republic of China contains carcinogenic heavy metals. Meanwhile, factories in Azerbaijan release large amounts of detergents and pesticides into the air. In my own local St. Lucie River, pollution has caused thousands of dead fish to be washed up on shore. Regardless of your political party, ethnic group, or religion, this is not morally acceptable.

I realize now that I cannot be a spectator in this global environmental crisis. Natural beauty must not be tossed aside for construction of new office complexes and strip malls. As William Ruckelshaus, the first head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, put it: “Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our ­appetites.”

Now is the time to end the wars in the Middle East, cease genocide in Africa, and stop criticizing each other. Now we must recognize that Mother Earth is in grave danger, and the world as a whole must work together to solve this crisis.