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Making a Difference

Human actions are affecting the environment, and If we don't try to change things, we will lose more of the,natural world. Even though it is hard, we can make a difference.

In Madagascar, a fisherman named Samson is helping his community take better care of its local waters. He and the other fishermen realized that they were overfishing. Working with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWE), Samson learned that they shouldn't catch so many young fish because if there are too few of them in the ocean, there won't be enough adult fish to reproduce. Samson now works to help fishermen change their techniques so that fishing can be sustainable. He believes that protecting the ocean is everybody's job. “Take your responsibilities with courage and never think that - you are alone. We are all in this together.”

In Florida, in the US, the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) organization noticed that there were always a lot of single-use plastic items, like coffee stirrers, bottles, and drinking straws, on the beaches. All of these items can hurt the ocean wildlife terribly. Straws are especially dangerous for turtles: they can get stuck in turtles’ noses and hurt them very badly. So, the STC started the project “Where are the straws?” asking local restaurants to stop giving customers straws with their drinks. Now, many restaurants will only give straws if customers ask for them, and the straws they do give out are paper, not plastic. Those are just two of the many conservation efforts found all over the world today. These projects all show us that change is possible and that it can start with small actions in our own community. We are part of the problem. It's time to be part of the solution.

community (n) a group of people who live in the same area

organization (n) a group of people who work together

stuck (pest participle) if something is stuck, it can't move