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Environmental awareness is very important to us here at The Pinnacle Financial Group. That’s why, each year, we award a scholarship based on a student’s awareness and personal efforts that demonstrate good stewardship of the environment. Here is Madison’s essay to us!
Essay topic: What is environmental awareness and what does it mean to you? What actions do you take on a daily basis that show your concern for the precious environment around you?
I believe environmental awareness means understanding how valuable and fragile our world is 2nd to actively take steps to protect our way of life and help improve the overall health of the environment. Our planet is the only planet suitable for us in the universe, and we must do our part to take care of it the best we can. It is our human responsibility to care for the world we live in and make it suitable for generations after us.
To me, environmental awareness means taking care of the world that has been given to us. Clean water, plants, clean air, and food is essential to all life on Earth. It is necessary for sustaining the human race and every living thing on the Earth. While innovation and progress is important to advancing our society, we also do not need to dismiss needing to take care of our environment.
In my day to day life, I try and take steps to help preserve our environment and keep it healthy. Every week my family recycles and I believe it is necessary to educate individuals on how the little things can add up and make a big difference in our world. An important step in making this possible is to educate children how to help protect the environment. I have a little sister who is 8 years old and right now in school she is learning the difference between recyclable and not recyclable items. Every Thursday night, she helps wheel out the recycling bin out to the street and the pride on her face shows her excitement to be able to participate in helping keep our world healthy. Also, in my household we are careful to conserve water when taking showers, brushing our teeth, washing our face, etc. Clean, fresh water only accounts for less than 1 % of the water on Earth. There are people in Africa and the Middle East living without access to clean water and one of the easiest ways to conserve water in more developed countries is to turn off the water when brushing your teeth and by taking quick showers. I find this fairly easy to apply into my daily life and if this was applied to every person’s daily life, the world would be better for it.
Last spring, I started a garden in my backyard. I wanted to know more about how plants grew, what type of soil was best for plants, and how to care for plants in the best way possible. I grew many vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and okra and also herbs such as mint, rosemary, and chives. By researching what conditions would best suit the plants, I was able to help my garden grow to its fullest potential and it was the most plentiful garden my family had ever had. Throughout my gardening endeavors, I became more aware of how important plant life is to our life on Earth and gained appreciation for how valuable plants really are to our way of life.
This previous February, Texas was hit with a week of snow and we were completely not prepared for it. The snow storms knocked out power lines, people’s pipes froze, and roads were too icy to drive on. Thousands of people across Texas did not have any electricity or heat in their homes for days. In accordance with what was recommended by the state, my family and I conserved our energy in our home in hopes of not overloading the grid in the areas around us. We lowered the temperature of our heater and only used the electricity when necessary to fulfill our duties to our community. Environmental awareness means putting others before yourself and thinking about humankind as a collective and what will preserve the place we all live in over our individual desires.
Caring for the environment is always important but it is not a quick accomplishment. It takes constant consciousness to the world around us and the little decisions we make everyday to make a difference for future generations. I will continue to make these small decisions, along with my family, because we know they will impact future generations in a positive way and extend the lifetime of our environment that gives so much to us.
