“Oh my gosh it’s a bee, kill it!”

“There’s no such thing as global warming.”

“One person isn’t going to make a difference.”

“I don’t have time to [care about the environment].”

“No, we don’t recycle.”

If anyone would like to see my blood boil, I get furious when anyone says something like this. Why? Well for starters, I’m majoring in wildlife and fisheries and I’ve learned a lot about the condition of the environment. Second, I’m part of the generation that has to witness the aftermath of the mistakes made in the past. And third, I live on this planet.

One thing I will never understand is how some people (most people..) can be so ignorant about how they’re affecting the world around them. People buy saran-wrapped corn on Styrofoam instead of just shucking it themselves. Everything that can come in a can, does. Cars are used to drive 20 yards to the end of the driveway to pick up mail! Everyone is so utterly wasteful! People let dozens of balloons into the air in someone’s memory without even a hint of remorse over where those balloons will end up once they pop. A giant vortex of garbage circulated in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas. If there’s somewhere that human waste has not touched, I would be shocked. And it’s disgusting.

If I could do one thing with my time spent on the Earth, I would raise awareness, from individual to individual, about how humans have so negatively impacted the environment and the Earth as a whole. Did you know that, on average, each US citizen produces over 1,500 pounds of trash per year? What do you think would happen if every single person knew about and got involved in recycling and composting? Similarly, what would happen if each person or household dedicated themselves to growing a few vegetables or fruits? Or maybe, if a household wasn’t ready for that, dedicating themselves to homemade meals instead of plastic and paper-wrapped fast food. Small choices go a long way.

In my perfect world, I have a huge garden, a FoodSaver, a nice sized flock of meat and egg-laying chickens, maybe a couple goats to mow the lawn, solar panels, large compost bins, rain barrels, ponds to raise fish, and woods behind the house to hunt from (oh, and an ENORMOUS freezer). My mind is centered on how I can make my future sustainable and I often wonder why everyone else isn’t doing the same. I always come to the same conclusions: they don’t know or they don’t care. That being said, I’m going to ask every single person that’s read this article (that means you!) to do at least one thing to help the environment. There are no excuses like “I can’t think of anything,” as you can unplug appliances while sleeping or at work, get outdoor or stray cats spayed/neutered, plant a small garden (potatoes or green beans are easy), plant milkweed or other flowers to attract bees and butterflies, roll down the car windows instead of using the AC, time your showers (aiming for fifteen minutes or less), donate old items instead of throwing away, recycling absolutely anything that can be recycled (this includes reusing), COMPOST, or supporting your local farmers and produce stands.

By myself, I might make a minuscule dent in the impact humans have made. However, if the word is spread and one hundred people do at least one small thing listed above, the impact we have made get so much bigger and may even spark others to do the same! So please, start caring about the air you breathe and the ground you walk on because we have no idea how much longer we’re going to be welcome.