Is anyone else noticing the world around us dying or is it just me? Species of animals and plants that generations and generations of our family have grown up with now on the verge of extinction. An entire continent starting to melt severely affecting one of the most beautiful animals we know, polar bears. Along with bees, whales, tigers, turtles, elephants, and all the remarkably amazing animals we grew up seeing at zoos (not my favorite place but an example) and on the television with eye-opening Discovery Channel documentaries. Does anyone care about their kids not being able to have the same experiences as us? To enjoy and explore a world full of nature, beauty, and animals that they will find fascinating? As hard as you may try animal endangerment, climate change, and pollution are not going to go away by ignoring them. They are only going to become more and more prevalent as the effects of them start to affect you.

Did you know that half the money spent on nuclear advances and the use of natural resources could supply clean drinking water to at least a quarter of the one million people in our world that go without it every year? Fossil fuels emitted into our oceans have made our oceans acidity level at some of it's highest values to date. This has also led to the critical endangerment to some of our longest-living marine life. See how it all comes together? One fact I found shocking was that as a country we produce at least 30 percent of the world's total waste and we use at least 25 percent of the world's natural resources. Funny, huh? Not at all.

I was laying in bed scrolling through Facebook like I do most nights before I fall asleep and came across a video about climate change and pollution in our world today. A scary fact stood out to me. If we continue on the path we are today about energy consumption, pollution levels, fossil fuel emissions, and over hunting and fishing valuable animal species, half of our world could be scientifically "dead" by 2020. I will be completing my undergraduate degree by then. By the time I graduate college half of the world I've spent my last 18 years on could be "dead". That is chilling.

What can we do to help? It is the simplest things that can make the biggest impact. Taking those 15 empty water bottles you have sitting in your room and putting them in a recycling bin. Use LED light bulbs that use less energy in your home it will be better for the Earth and your electric bill. Instead of tossing that 10-page paper that printed wrong in the trash, find a paper recycling bin and stop killing trees. Carpool with your friends when you go out instead of taking 5 cars to meet at the same place. It is the easiest little things can reduce pollution and global warming by even 20 percent.

I'm not trying to scare you by any means. Just trying to make you aware of the realities of our world and showing how simple it can be to help keep the world we live in alive and well. You don't even have to hug a tree.