Honor the Environment With Small, Sustainable Changes

Honor the Environment With Small, Sustainable Changes

Although many of us are spending hours a day in Zoom classes, it’s important to remember — and celebrate — what’s on the other side of the window.

Earth Day was April 22, and this is the celebration’s 50th year. Anita Hua ’22 sent an email to the whole Williston community near the end of March announcing a 21-day sustainability challenge.

The challenge explores the various aspects of honoring and taking care of the environment, like refraining from using plastics or taking shorter showers.

In an email, Anita expressed her passion and determination to save our planet from further negative impacts of climate change.

“I respect and value mother nature,” she stated. “It hurts to see our environment being affected by human activities and natural disasters … I want to dig deeper in this area and discover actions that I can take to become eco-friendlier myself.”

She gave a more in depth explanation on how the disruption of bees’ habitat occurs through our daily routines.

“An example would be the extinction of bees, which are natural pollinators that we always take for granted,” Anita said. “Climate change leads to the change in bees’ habitats, which forces them to leave and adapt to new environments and causes mass extinctions.”

We should all be aware of the importance of the environment, because our actions, to some extent, [are] harming the environment,” she added.

Katherine Garrity, Assistant Dean of Students and the Faculty Advisor of Community Service Club, told The Willistonian how fortunate she has been to live in different environments throughout her life, and how she wants those landscapes to be available for the next generation as well.

“I’ve always been so lucky to live near mountains, oceans, open fields, woods to hike in, etc. and I want to make sure those are all still available for future generations,” she wrote in an email.

Garrity also mentioned the importance of valuing the environment even more during this pandemic, despite the fact that we’re all scattereed across the world and it might seem insignificant given the bigger crisis at hand.

“It’s pretty easy to get wrapped up in the big picture issues of sustaining our environment and feel a bit helpless, but each of those issues can be boiled down to small changes we each can make,” Garrity replied back in an email. “Reducing plastic, minimizing our personal ‘footprint,’ and changing habits like using plastic straws or turning off the water while brushing teeth can make a big difference if we all do it!”

Lila Schaefer, a six-year senior who started the Sustainability Club at Williston and has organized climate change protests on campus, agreed with Garrity about the importance of small but sustainable changes.

“To me, Earth Month doesn’t necessarily represent making intense, drastic changes,” she stated. “It represents appreciating the earth, its resources, and its beauty, while getting inspired to make small changes that we can sustain throughout all months of the year, not just April.”

Lila wants everyone to take the chance to go outside if possible and to appreciate and be grateful towards nature and be “mindful of the effects of their habits.” Lila gave examples of things she does to help improve the environment and the climate.

“Some things that I make an effort to do throughout the year, and especially in April, are not buying from fast-fashion brands, being vegetarian, [and] keeping online shopping to a minimum,” she said. She also said she stays “formed on global warming and the politics surrounding it, and doing little things throughout the day such as turning off lights and watching my water use.”