We are literally sucking Mother Earth dry. State-sized piles of garbage float in the Pacific as many of us drive in polluting vehicles to shop for more goods—more synthetic containers to add to the mountains of waste, more energy that is spent to imbalance our environment.
But there is hope.
A growing amount of people are realizing that the nature and intensity of what we do has ramifications of the same nature and intensity. They are understanding that just as we can ravage our world, we can rejuvenate it and that we have the opportunity to thrive.
“Our local environment is dependent on our global environment,”Green Atoms sponsor and French teacher Joelle Rudney said. “What we do here has effects that extend throughout our world. We are a globalized society and we should think globally. We should know that many of the resources we use have great consequences on the other side of the globe and to ourselves.”
The Green Atoms have accomplished a variety of environmental work. Last year, they fundraised enough money to buy five acres of land in the Amazon Rainforest to conserve through selling “There is no Planet B” wristbands and helping with the community organic permaculture garden.
Display boards informing about pollution and energy use have also been common in recent years. The projects the Green Atoms are planning to focus on this year are deep water well construction across the world and continuing to aid the garden effort through a service learning project with other clubs.
“[Our goal] is to educate, educate, educate,” Rudney said. Rudney elaborates that many of the reasons for the public’s lack of awareness stems from what they are bombarded with everyday. Corporations, product obsoletism, advertising and simple profit are large factors of resource manipulation and environmental degradation in her opinion.
Besides working on large ventures, the Green Atoms also advise to do the small things everyday such as photocopying on both sides of paper and reusing items.
There is nothing wrong with consuming and buying. Consumption is a natural process that is vital for humanity’s survival, but people forget that they are producers as well. Instead of just taking and consuming, we are able to create and give to our world.
“Think before you buy,” Rudney said. “In our modern world, we have to think more. It can sometimes be a burden, but we need to do it.”
The Green Atoms, teachers and students here are representative of the shift that is occurring globally.
Amidst all our struggles and crises environmentally, we have dandelions that grow out of cracks on the sidewalk. The task to heal and nurture our planet seems disheartening at moments, but the seemingly small efforts of the few here ripple across mother earth, intertwining with the endeavors of others over there, and truly create change on a monumental scale everywhere.
