Since the beginning of time, when mankind was created, the Earth was perfect, it was in perfect harmony. Nothing could harm it. As time passed by mankind began to harness all of earth’s power. Mankind learned how to control the ground beneath him, the animals that surrounded him, the sky above his head, the oceans that surrounded him, he even learned how to control space, he made himself owner of everything. That is not the problem; the problem began when he started using all of those things in a bad way.
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants to a natural environment. Pollution can be tracked to the early ages when open fire was misused and caused air pollution. Another example that can show the early beginnings of pollution are some glaciers that have evidence of the pollution caused by the metal production. Now days there are many types of pollution, not only one. The first one is air pollution, this happens when chemicals and particulates are released into the atmosphere, light pollution, includes light trespass, over-illumination and astronomical interference, littering is another way of pollution, noise pollution, which includes roadway noise, aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as high-intensity sonar, soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground leakage, radioactive contamination, resulting from 20th century activities in atomic physics, such as nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons research, manufacture and deployment, thermal pollution, is a temperature change in natural water bodies caused by human influence, such as use of water as coolant in a power plant, visual pollution, which can refer to the presence of overhead power lines, motorway billboards, scarred landforms, open storage of trash or municipal solid waste, and water pollution, by the release of waste products and contaminants into surface runoff into river drainage systems, leaching into groundwater, liquid spills, wastewater discharges, and littering.
Now that we know what types of pollution exist, we can move on to classify what types of pollution affect our Puerto Rico. If I may say, Puerto Rico is attacked by most of the types of pollution, the only one that we might be exempt from is radioactive contamination due to the fact that we do not have any nuclear weaponry development of any kind. We can see many types of pollution like light, noise and even air pollution just by traveling through the streets of our island. People are not considerate about turning off a light that is not being used, or lowering down the volume of their stereos. They just care about what looks nice. Air pollution is affecting our everyday life; we see trucks that do less damage in the junkyard that in the streets. But our biggest problem I would say is littering. People in Puerto Rico litter everyday like if they were throwing rocks.
There are many effects of pollution and many of them are happening right now all around the world. We can see how global warming is melting the icebergs and polar caps in our planet. We watch how people in China have to go outside wearing face masks due to the bad condition of the air. Many other places around the world are being victims of pollution and the little efforts that mankind have are not enough. We need to find other alternatives and take them to the public and encourage them to take conscience and help out the planet.
Days pass by and our Puerto Rico is covered more and more in garbage. It is our responsibility to work together so our beautiful island is not consumed by pollution. If we do not take action in to our own hands no one will take this issue serious and help us in this big problem. A single person helping makes a difference. There are various steps that we have to take to ensure that our Puerto Rico will be a more attractive and clean place to live in.
The first step is education. That is the base of the operation. People instructed will have a greater knowledge of the importance of recycling and keeping our planet clean. The best way to instruct people is by giving conferences and giving examples of what we want to do in the world. This way people will feel motivated and might join our cause.
The second step is identifying the specific problem of that area. There are many areas in Puerto Rico that need specific needs. There are some places that need what I like to call a “Bag-a-thon”, in which the idea is to collect the most garbage possible and dispose of them in plastic bags. These bags are classified and then taken to a recycling facility. Other places the problem is the contamination of the air, this is mainly due to trucks or cars that have bad exhaust. In this case the right way to handle it is education about the harm it does.
The third step is to establish a plan of action. After we have identified the specific situation it is our job to establish what we are going to do. In this step we should already have a big group organized so it is no to much hard work for just one person. Each member is given a certain job and it is his responsibility to make that happen. It does not have to be big jobs, little jobs to many people can become a huge job that can be productive to everyone.
The last step is to carry on the plan. Once everyone has what he has to do, the rest is to go to work. It should be fast and at the point. If the people do not do the job that has been given to him the whole plan will fail. In a good working environment of unity and helping hand the job can be done easily.
The task at hand is not an easy one but with teamwork, dedication and a common goal anything is possible. Let’s put that task in our minds and let’s make this place a better home.
