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April 25, 2017

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Respect nature: even tiny actions have an impact

IN Shanghai American School, students and nature are constantly interacting. I am taking AP Environmental Science and we just returned from a nature trip to the Malaysian part of Borneo during spring break.

The trip was organized by SEASFIRE, a learning organization that combines scuba diving, media and marine science. We covered biodiversity through issues such as endangered species, deforestation, and ocean pollution before the trip and then we took what we had learned in the classroom with us to explore the coral reefs of Southeast Asia.

In Borneo, we dived almost every day and eventually earned our open water diving certificates. Not even though the diving was a lot of fun, the impact we made on the environment through community service is what truly made a difference.

In the rainforest, all 31 of us, as well as our three chaperones, each planted a tree. In addition to planting trees, we also planted corals in the ocean, which was fascinating and definitely much more complicated than the former. Our group also dedicated time to clean up the beautiful white sand beaches of Gaya Island. The amount of trash we picked up in just 30 minutes was unbelievable. As a group, we gathered more than 10 bags of trash on the beach and in the shallows.

This trip just goes to show that our actions, no matter how small, will have consequences.

We as humans must understand the significance of our impact on the environment and treat our surroundings with kindness.

This experience was truly eye-opening and reminded each and every one of us that our oceans and our Earth are fragile and should not be taken for granted.




 

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