A week ago I attended North Central College’s Arbor Day Tree planting where 3 trees were planted to take some action against the rapid deforestation of the planet in addition to North Central College being named an arboretum. I had to look that up prior to attending, but an arboretum is “a place where trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes”. The ceremony was nice as there were snacks and it was cool to see the three new trees planted. Much like the other event I attended, the screening of Plastic Oceans, it help raise awareness about the importance of taking care of our environment. They had some informational pamphlets and they described the enormous amount of trees that are cut down every year but the individual can do their part at trying to combat such deforestation by planting trees themselves. I believe people are too caught up in their daily lives to really look at what they have and how it originated, which degrades the appreciation of raw resources. It is hard to look at a notebook and think about how it came to be – from a tree. And the world produces so much paper that it is hard to think that trees are a limited resource. I think it is important for people to step back and think about what it takes to have the things we do and how it is effecting the planet. We shouldn’t let the business of daily life blind us from the environmental impact we are leaving behind.

Prior to attending this movie showing, I knew that plastic usage is a huge problem for the environment. The film featured a mixture between beautiful shots of ocean life and contrasted this natural beauty with the amount of plastic pollution that human society introduces. It was extremely sad for me to watch especially because this issue is already so important to me. It feels almost impossible to counteract to the amount of plastic waste that we have created and are currently producing in order to save the environment. The problem of plastic is especially substantial in the United States, as portrayed by the movie, because a lot of commercial goods are packaged in plastic and America is a country of, well, consumerism. I personally have taken steps to lessen my plastic usage by not buying plastic bags, using reusable grocery bags, using only glass or metal containers, etc. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie despite its sad tone because it offered possible solutions and brought to light what people try to avoid thinking about. I believe that this is the main problem with the ignorance towards the impact that people have on the environment. Average individuals believe that they can do little to change the pace of human pollution so they think it best to try to avoid seeing the negative effects of it – which often depict animals suffering. I believe by forcing people to face the results of their own pollution would finally drive a large enough movement to change the pace of human pollution.