A World of Colors

Chapter 11

I hadn't even really realized the number of bottles back at the beach. I am dumbfounded by the waste that covered the surface. Weather in the trees, sand, or water, there was always a hidden bottle or

Mark had agreed to drive Marlee and I to the beach after studying so I could get some pictures for my project. I had decided on a stream of posters that I could post all around the school, advertising a pollution walk for a Saturday three weeks from today. I had gone when I had the idea to ask Mrs. Sparks, and she was completely in love with the idea.

Just walking down by the water, Marlee alone counted about two dozen carcasses of fish and birds. I hadn't really paid attention to these beaches before. The place that i spend most of my time is trashed. that really put my research into perspective.

Snapping a couple photos here and there, I hear Mark making comments about the pollution as well.

"Was it this bad at your beach on the other coast?" he asks after a gap in the conversation.

"Well, I don't think I really noticed. Whenever we would go to the beach, there were always bottle and trash; I just don't think I really paid attention to it all." if it was this bad everywhere, I don't want to think of what the earth's beaches would look like short years from now.

Maybe the fact that people weren't aware made the pollution grow and grow. That's why I had decided to do the posters for the beach walk. It's hard to try to fix something if you don't know what is happening.

We pass bottle after bottle, paper after paper, and I can't get over the monstrosity of it all. There are bags floating in the ocean. We find at least ten seagulls with plastic in their guts. We see hundreds of napkins and food waste and trash items covering the beach. The ocean is tainted.

Mark and Marlee seem to share my enthusiasm. This is no longer a silly school project-

This is our world. And it looks to be dying. Us humans are killing the earth with pollution.