All anyone sees on the news is how humanity is destroying the environment. Carbon emissions are rising, we’ve depleted Earth’s natural resources and the always present problem of climate change becomes more and more of a reality. In fact, most of my blog posts have centered around how little we, as a society, notice and appreciate the sheer beauty that is everyday nature. While we made great strides of the Clean Water Act of 1972, the problem of everyday pollution from simply litter is still very prevalent problem within our environment. However, I will say that my faith in the ecological efforts to reduce pollution from every day trash has been restored a little after spending hours picking up trash on the banks of Pony Pasture and the Huguenot Flatwater.
When myself and my classmate Diana went down to the river we brought an entire box trash bags, expecting to have to run back to my car every half an hour to get a new bag due to the sheer multitude of trash. At the end of the day we only filled up 3 1/2 bags traveling up and down the bank of the river at both locations. I was in fact surprise that biggest source of everyday trash came from a very obvious ecological site. A site where, on the ground, were marked different flags for different species of plant life. Around the area were multiple cans of spray paint, miscellaneous trash bags, as well as many beverage cans. To me it seems a little bit ironic that an ecological site appears more insensitive to the environment than the everyday users of the River. However it seems to me that those every day users of the river really value and appreciate the sheer beauty that comes with the territory. They do not wish to tarnish it next like so many of the other natural beauties in the world.