A Tribute to our Habitat

The world’s natural beauty has seemed to fade along with humanity over the last few decades. I often wonder if it ever crosses one’s mind, as it is a cause of concern for our future generations.

Entering the beach

Earth Day is conducted on April 22nd every year. This event is for us to show our protection towards nature which people have destroyed over the years. Teachers at IPS have addressed that it is vital to care for the habitat we live in. Through industrialisation and tourism, we have caused air pollution, global warming and climate change. Despite the existence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policies and Business Ethics, many industries barely apply it to their workplace.

One such place that has been suffering from these inhumane activities is the Bang Saen Beach. On 20th April 2017, the Year 12 and 13 students along with T.Tricia, T.Malika and the Nurse Elmera attempted to clean up the beach.

Cleaning up in process!

The sight of dispersed litter made us all aghast. Since the literacy rate in Thailand is 96.7%, we were not expecting a lot of rubbish in that area. There were additional plastic packets of edible items swarming on the sea, which was not from the beach. We even got to see many dead fish on the sea shore that had been swept off with the other plastic items. We concluded that they likely died after eating the waste materials tourists have dumped in the water.

The positive aspect of this event was that the visitors were also helping us by throwing their garbage into the dustbin or the bags we were collecting waste items in. We have inspired the people for this simple act of humanity, just by people observing our act. Indeed, actions speak louder than words! Although we were not able to collect all the litter formed over the Songkran break, we made a little difference by cleaning a portion of the beach. Visiting the Bang Saen beach was definitely a learning experience for all of us.

The next morning, Teacher Michael Woods addressed this issue through a presentation and explained that we could prevent our future generations and endangered species from this simply by reducing the amount of plastic we use. He demonstrated the amount of plastics he received just for buying a few items from 7-Eleven, which was illogical and unreasonable. He highly recommended for us to spread awareness about this issue on social media platforms, as it is the most effective way to inform others.

I observed that everyone in the auditorium agreed with this information. They also understood that prevention is better than cure. At the end of the presentation, we received cloth bags so teachers could assure that students had no excuse for using another plastic bag.

The trip to the Bang Saen Beach and the presentation had provided us with the aim of the actions we need to conduct and react to. It is our role as the residents of the world, and we should be responsible for the world we live in.