MRH Eighth-Grader Talks Environmental Stewardship

continues to look for ways to build student leadership and voice. The latest effort is this joint project between Patch and the eighth-grade communication arts class of Ms. Whitney Shaw. For the next few weeks, a group of students will be providing student insight and thoughts through their writing about some of the overarching ideas and concepts that thread throughout the learning at the middle school.

Students are responding to the question: How do we pass the land and resources to the next generation in better condition than they were found?

As a community, one way that we are able to pass on the land and resources that we have today is to build upon the good things that we have come upon and purge the things that do not help or cause damage to the environment. Another way that we are able to do this is by not destroying the land, and stop contributing factors such as pollution, and deforestation. Pollution ruins the earth because it fills the earth with gasses, hurting it severely. Deforestation is where we remove trees/forest without replacing them. This is important because trees are a source of oxygen production and reduce the carbon dioxide. Trees  also avert erosion. These small ways may not seem significant, but in the long run it will make a pivotal difference.

As a school, we can make the most of our resources by using only on what is imperative, and not using it on anything that will have a  negative long-term impact. We can use renewable resources that will reproduce over time. We can preserve land by not contaminating it with any chemicals or pollutants that will hurt the land. A final way that we as a school can maintain the land that we have is by composting and keeping the land in the best condition possible, in order to survive as long as it can. 

There are many ways to pass the land and resources to the next generation. You just have to be considerate of your actions and use of resources and supplies, as well as making good decisions on how you treat the land that you are on.

- Brian Beasley, MRH eighth-grade student