There are a lot of organizations working hard to save our planet. But the efforts of these individual heroes do not go unnoticed. They show us that people can have a major impact on our planet.
We need fixers, not complainers.
On a global scale, our society faces many problems. Inequality, diseases, natural disasters, terrorism to name a few. But the biggest threat to our future is our environment. It is depressing to see how animals are getting extinct, the rain forest is getting cut and our ocean is full of plastic.
But rather than complaining, we all need to take action. Let the video below be an inspiration to us all that we CAN make difference and contribute positively to help save our planet.
Gerald McDougall built an entire island out of garbage that had made its way into theocean. He saw that people dumped trash inside a clump of mangroves, and over time, sand built upon the rubbish and trees started growing. So Gerald created an artificial garbage island, Westpoint Island, from garbage from the other islands. Westpoint Island now features flora and fauna, and houses and lodges have been built there as well; all out of garbage!
Richart Sowa too built an island out of garbage. The small, floating Joyxee Island is made entirely from plastic bottles.
Andrew Turton &Pete Ceglinski founded the Sea Bin project. The two surfers found so much plastic around them while surfing, they wanted to do something about it. So they created the sea bin: it’s a bin that you can place in the water and it filters it; it holds plastic in a linen bag that can be cleaned out and changed. This way, they’re doing their bit to clean the ocean, one bin at a time.
Dr. David Vaughan works on the Florida Reef Tract,the third largest coral reef in the world. More and more coral disappears everyday but David has developed a technique called “microfragmenting.” It allows corals to grow 25 times as fast as they would normally. He is confident that the crisis hasn’t gone too far.With support from governments and the public, he sees no reason why they can’t restore all the coral that has disappeared.
Komal Ahmad created Feed Forward. It’s an app that unlocks food wastefrom restaurants and delivers it to those in need. She managed to feed over600,000 homeless people in San Francisco. It started when Ahmad was still incollege, she had an encounter with a homeless man and she took him out tolunch. She then started an initiative atthe university which allowed the dining hall to donate any excess food to localhomeless shelters. Since then her enterprise has really taken off and people from all over the world have asked her toexpand the app to their countries so that they too, can help with the foodwastage problem.
Lauren Singerstarted the YouTube channel Trash is for Tossers. She makes videos in which she shows sustainability and zero waste tips. Lauren was an Environmental Studies major and it made her think about her own choices. She has now been living a zero-waste life for the past two years. On her website she describes who she is, what she does and more importantly; how she does it.
She makes living a zero-waste lifestyle seem effortless!
Oscar Mendez builds houses for homeless people using waste plastic and rubber. He founded the Colombian Enterprise, Concept Plastics foundation. They make building blocks out of used plastic andrubber. Those blocks resemble legoblocks in both functionality and simplicity! This way a high quality house is built within a short amount of time (only fivedays!) that has a low cost, for people who need it the most. So far, over 300 tons of plastic waste have been used, and over forty houses have been built. This way he decreases both homelessness and plastic waste!
Student Akshay Sethi is the founder of Ambercycle. They develop chemical technology to produce rawmaterials for polyester, from waste! It produces polyester without loss of quality. Thistype of chemical upwasting is unprecedented, and it’s no wonder that they’vewon the Global Change Award. This way they’ll be able to further develop theirtechnique and make it available and more widespread.
These amazing individuals prove that everyone can have a positive impact on this planet.
What will your legacy be?:)
Start your own environmental initiative at school
If you're still in school, you can find out how to start an initiative at your own school.