Mendham Borough Students Report on the Environment

REDUCING ALL POLLUTION ON EARTH By: Abigail Acevedo, Adeline Perkins, and Zadie Weaver

“Environmental pollution is an incurable disease, it can only be prevented.” according to Barry Commoner. He’s right. The Earth cannot be saved once we destroy it, it will not come back to life when we kill it, so we have to find a way to prevent the destruction. Pollution is heresy to the Earth. The Earth is our habitat, so we need to take care of our planet the way it takes care of us. Pollution is just one thing we should prevent, and conserving natural resources ties into this. By 2030, the Global Goals for Sustainable Development is dedicated to restoring terrestrial and aquatic environments (Goal 15). The American Littoral Society is a membership organization dedicated since 1961 to the protection of all coastal habitats including beaches, estuaries, rivers, wetlands and wildlife. If we are able to limit the amount of pollution in our world, then our living conditions, and other creatures’ too, could be a lot better

Water pollution and water acidity are other big problems on Earth. Clean water is important. 60% of our bodies are made up of water, and if we can’t drink water because it’s not clean, then we won’t be able to survive. Combined sewer overflows are also a danger to New Jersey which would cost about $9 million to fix. Combined Sewer Overflows happen when it rains the old sewers can’t handle the water and they overflow causing pollution to end up on streets, in the ocean and in streams. Also, 1 in 5 glasses of NJ drinking water is contaminated with a very bad chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA! This chemical can lead to cancer or low birth weight. Water pollution like this can harm people and animals. We need to keep our water clean!
Another big contributing factor to pollution is the litter that makes up the human footprint. We don’t think about it, but a single plastic bag or an empty soda can can end up in a turtle’s stomach or around a penguin’s neck. According to www.humanesociety.org, 14,000 animals are admitted to the SPCA Wildlife Care Center due to trash and harmful litter damage. That’s three times the population of our town, Mendham. Not all of those animals can be saved. That’s why it’s important to be aware of how litter deeply affects our environment and what we can do to prevent it from filling our home. Lots of people think that one plastic bag won’t change a thing. Every single person, once in their lives, has decided to contribute to the problem of litter pollution because they feel that one plastic bag thrown away is not a big deal. The truth is, if EVERYONE throws away “one little plastic bag”, that becomes about 7 billion plastic bags. They end up in parks and waterways or even on beaches-- where animals and humans alike are living. These plastic bags are affecting our lives, the lives of others around us, the creatures that live on Earth, and the environment in which we call home.

Air pollution is a big problem in the world. The ozone layer of Earth is becoming destroyed. The ozone layer is vital for us to live. It prevents skin cancer, cataracts, and sunburn. It also serves as a UV filter, it blocks 95% of harmful rays entering the Earth. The ozone layer helps us humans, and we’re not helping back. The ozone layer is being destroyed because of harmful pollutants in the air such as pesticides, sprays and greenhouse gases like gas from cars. These pollutants are harming our atmosphere and the living things on our planet! Morris County, NJ has received an F for ozone grades which is the worst air quality. Also, every year New Jerseyans die prematurely of a pollutant in the air, known as soot. While Morris County has had bad ozone grades, air in Mendham is clean as measured by our classes by a sun photometer. Our graph shows that most of the time AOT (Aerosol Optical Thickness) is lower than 0.1 which is very low. For comparison, an area experiencing an air pollution event would be over 0.3.

To stop pollution we have an idea. We want to program an app, that gives tips, timers, and reminders. For example, our app could time how long a shower takes and give suggestions on how to conserve water. If someone were to a 15 minute shower and they have the App time them, it might suggest cutting down their shower time. It could also find the weather and this will cut down on greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Our app can also give tips about recycling, and DIYs to tell how to reuse things like plastic that don’t compost well. There a few problems with our app. It is not yet made because we are still figuring out how to program it. Also, the app wont be as personal because it can’t connect to houses, and do things like turn off the shower when the shower timer is done.

Pollution is something we need to reduce and maybe if we do something it will be gone. Our app will help people reduce, reuse, and recycle so that in the long run we will get rid of pollution. “Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans”--Evo Morales.