The Day The World Woke Up

What seems like ages ago, a new series of BBC's Blue Planet was launched. Almost a quarter of the population watched a single episode, and that changed the world. Everyone suddenly realised the dangers of plastic, and the damages we are doing to our planet.
Suddenly the news was covered with warnings, alerts, local and non-local beach cleans and the poison of plastic.
It makes me upset beyond measure to know the amount of devastation we are causing to our home and animals, but especially now in the ocean. Nature was here long before humans were, and we have made so many species extinct by our laziness, inconsideration and greediness.
Now that the world has finally woken up, people everywhere are noticing the amount of plastic we have created. Its in drinks bottles, cups, straws, pencil cases, balloons, bags, make-up-even in our clothes and glasses and even in plastic surgery. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a plastic bag stuck in a tree, and how many times it has killed me to know that someone has once let that go, looked at it, shrugged and just left it there.

I participated in a project a few months ago, which was to make a poster exclaiming the dangers of plastic. During this, I put a cardboard box in my local store with a sign above saying 'Please place your plastic bottle caps in here'. After only a few days, this box was full the brim, so I cut out the carboard to a A3 size, and glued the bottle caps around the edge. I stuck half of a litre coke bottle in the middle, with a plastic straw coming out of the top. Lastly, I wrote 'Take care of our ocean; it won't last forever' underneath. Unfortunately, I didn't win the competition, or even get my poster back, but I still feel I got my message across.

Then I heard the news of one of my heores, Sir David Attenborough crying because he filmed a beautiful mother whale carrying her calf. Her dead calf. They later found out it had died because of plastic consumption and the mother was too afraid and distraught to let it go. If people still don't care about the damage, then I am afraid there is no hope.

Most of us are concerned about climate change and global warming, but I think that we, as humans, will destroy Earth first.

So this is also a thank you to those who go on beach cleans, even if it isn't every day or week. It's to those who make art to show others the increasing danger. It's to those who write stories and present programmes about it. It's to those who pick a little bit of litter and place it in the bin on the way to school or work. It's to those who regularly re-use and recycle.
Thank you, because you are all making a difference.

For all those people who look at the sunset, or stare at the waves and the water's horizon. It won't last forever.
So please. For all our sakes. Care for the planet we share.