Hello everyone!
It has been quite a while since I have last posted, so I sincerely apologize. I have been lacking creativity lately, and have thus been unable to come up with new ideas to post about. What I will be posting today is a short story I wrote about littering quite some while ago, way before I officially began my journey of environmentalism. Anyway, without further ado, I hope you all enjoy it!
Two teenagers walk on cheerfully, Starbucks cups in their hands. The two of them are rambunctiously talking about the day's events, including qualifying for the Varsity Soccer team. As their conversation continues on, they occasionally sip their cups, eventually finishing its contents and leaving it empty. For an unspecified reason, perhaps out of laziness or the sheer lack of responsibility, the two teenagers carelessly discard of their cups onto the concrete sidewalk. As the cups lay on the floor, the two teenagers continue to walk down the street, as if they were immune to the tragedy that they had just committed.
A few days later, the cups remain in the same area of their disposal. Other teenagers walk on by, completely ignoring their existence, and some even kicking the cups as if littering was an exciting sport. Not one single teenager stops to simply bend down and pick the cup up and properly dispose of it.
One night, heavy, dark clouds slowly move overhead. Thunder roars as rain harshly begins to fall. The cups now begin to violently move as the wind picks up. The cups roll, the sound of their empty contents echoing on into the storm, and soon end up in front of a gutter. With no hope left, due to the initial lack of responsibility from the teenagers and the lack of intervention from all of the other pedestrians, the cups lose their battle and fall into the gutter, where they make the long, arduous journey to the ocean.
In the ocean, a turtle scavenges the water in hopes of finding the day's food to fulfill her hunger. Alas! In front of her she spots a spherical object. She does not recognize the object, but fails to make the observation that it is not suitable for eating or is part of her diet. Nonetheless, she pursues the odd, spherical object. As she chews on the object and attempts to swallow, she begins to panic as she finds herself not only unfamiliar with the taste, but also unable to digest the object. After a few minutes of attempting to reject the object, she fails, and succumbs to not only the object itself, but the effect of human impact. Her lifeless body sinks to the ocean floor, and serves as a reminder of how the "unimportant" action that is littering and the "useless" nature of taking action can be detrimental.
Now, this story isn't real. I made it up myself as I was thinking about the effects that litter has on animals. Although the specific teenagers and the turtle were merely remnants of my imagination, it is imperative that you as the reader realize that this fictional story is essentially a true reality that is happening constantly. The litterers might not be teenagers, but they can be little children, adults, or even you. The affected animal might not be a turtle, but it might be a fish or a dolphin or a seal. No matter the specific conditions, the main point is that every day animals are succumbing to death as a result of our careless, irresponsible actions. Our laziness may seem harmless at a said time, but its final effects can take the life of another living organisms. Please, be aware of what your actions lead to. Properly dispose of your trash. If you see trash that you yourself did not dispose, take responsibility and dispose of it yourself. After all, doing such tiny actions can preserve the life of countless organisms.
