Celebrating Earth Day

Gabby Steele page editor

When you think of home, you may think of four walls and a welcome mat. In reality, our home is Earth. Many of our everyday activities bring harm to our planet. Thankfully, there are a few students and clubs around Sheldon that help clean up our planet. Irish Fishing Club (IFC) advisor Scott Wright has created a sign-up commitment for all members of the IFC which has them agree to “respect and care for the environment and to help preserve for future generations.” Wright has all members after fishing trips clean up their messes and pick up the trash from others. He says he feels it’s important to “leave all of the fishing areas better than when we got there.” When fishing, Wright said he finds many cigarette butts and candy wrappers. He recommended not trying to recycle items which cannot be recycled. Once an item that cannot be recycled is put into the recycling bin, everything in the bin (including the recyclable items) are thrown into the trash.

Out of the clubs at Sheldon, the Environmental Club was probably the most significant club on April 22, this year’s Earth Day. Its president, senior Brandon Kauten, has seen the harmful changes which the Earth has gone through. Kauten said, “I think the forest fires we commonly see here on the West Coast are a very visible example of the effects of climate change. These fires are devastating, and have lasting effects on people’s lives and the landscape around us.” Kauten and others have seen the effects of climate change, and are worried others won’t see it soon enough. For those who have seen changes in the past and are skeptical of the facts should be alarmed.

Kauten believes that everyone on Earth could benefit from recycling, though there are “footnotes” to the statement. Kauten said,“In the past, the US has mostly relied on countries in Southeast Asia to sort our recycling, but trade wars with China under the Trump administration have shown us the fragility of this relationship. Not only that, but the emissions from is that skating is a crime. People think that skaters are usually dudes, unorganized and punks. In reality, it feels just like going to school and having friends or playing a sport. All it is, is just get better every day and meeting new people every day to have fun. It’s something anybody can bond over. No matter of age, we all have the same interest and come together to do the same thing.” McCormack is right, skating really is just something anybody can bond over, regardless of differences. shipping our recycling across the Atlantic are a very real consequence of relying on others to do our dirty work.” Kauten believes if we want to push for more recycling as a solution for climate change, we need to invest in infrastructure to ensure we can recycle materials domestically. This would also create more jobs for workers.

Skating is one of the most rewarding sports a person can do. Junior Scott Leirman has been skating three years and describes his favorite aspect to it as “...getting that perfect trick feeling. It’s not about just doing a trick, it’s about being able to fo it whenever and as clean as possible. It creates an unmatched feeling.” Landing a trick perfectly floods your brain with dopamine and euphoric feelings.

Skating is an escape for most skaters. It is euphoric and rewarding to land tricks after battling with them for hours. The skate scene essentially being a culture teaches important life lessons to skaters and changes their whole lifestyle in beneficial and positive ways.

On the weekend of Earth Day, Sheldon held an Earth Day Clean up. One of the students who attended was senior Aleanna Lengkong. Lengkong said, “During the cleanup, I found mostly plastic water bottles.” She believes this was the most common item because they are easily accessible and cheap. Reducing our intake and not leaving our footprint is very important. Lengkong recommends washing clothes in cold water or using more solar energy because is uses less of our Earth’s energy.

Helping our Earth is also helping us and future generations. It’s important for us to stop excessive producing and start reducing.