An Environmental Dilemma: Fireworks By Taiga Yoshida, age 17 I have always cared about the environment. I do what I can to lower my impact on climate change, pollution, and water usage. I make an effort to carpool. I avoid single-use plastics. I try to take shorter showers. And I get upset when I read about the huge issues facing our environment today. Over the summer, my environmental awareness increased drastically. My mind continued to be clouded with environmental thoughts and worries while I was on a trip to the beach. On the fourth of July, a few friends and I walked down to the bay to watch the annual fireworks show. We brought a picnic blanket and found a spot in the middle of the grassy field. The chatter and excitement of all the people surrounding us filled the vast space and heightened my anticipation for the show. My friends and I waited among the crowd for the show to begin. I imagined how the town had likely prepped for weeks for this spectacle, saving up money and hiri
By Taiga Yoshida, age 17 Dear litterbugs, Please, start throwing your trash away. I know what you want to say; that small right corner of the Skittles bag just “blew” out of your hand, or that the extra plastic straw you grabbed at Starbucks found its way out of your driver seat window “on it’s own” while you were driving. Still, for every little piece of trash you litter, it creates far bigger problems than you would assume. I believe that in the world, two types of communities exist: those that leave small bits and pieces of waste lying on the ground, and those who manage to keep that small piece of aluminum from flying away in the wind, the community that keeps the extra plastic straw for the next person to use. This is the difference between Santa Monica and Singapore, and I learned about this difference and the ripple effect of littering at my local skatepark, where I saw trash all over, gum turned black, and floor flooded with plastic, where no one looked twice at a litterbug. Th