Am I the only one? Am I the only one?

Day after day I find myself asking the same question. Am I the only one who cares about the world we live in, and how we treat it? I never knew what I, as a person, could do, until now.

When I was little, my mother would always tell me to clean up my room and get rid of things. I would fill up shopping bags of unwanted items. My mother would see how much I got rid of and she would be so proud of me.

Somehow, I didn't feel good, I was curious where all my junk went. So I would ask, "Mommy, where does all this trash go?"

My mother would reply with a smile, "Oh, to a dump. Don't worry."

But how can I not worry? I'm destroying the world my kids will have to live in, and the world I live in. But what can I do? How can I stop all this waste and pollution? How can I fix this damaged world?

We can't just hope and wish. We have to act. Thousands of acres of valuable forests are being destroyed for selfish needs. These forests are the nucleus of our breathing air: the Brazilian Rain Forest, and the Amazon Rain forest. Those trees are so valuable, more valuable than a diamond ring, a fancy car, or anything. What about toxic waste, water pollution, the destruction of the ozone layer, hunger, poverty? The list goes on.

But what can we do? We could fill up one shopping bag instead of two; walk instead of drive; write to a local politician; recycle, and be careful of what we dump down the sink. When we dump toxic waste (lead paints, motor oil, insecticides, muriatic acid) down the drain, it brings down the quality of our own water.

Now I know what I can do: I've made someone aware and someone care. n