You see it everywhere. People constantly pollute our earth day by day – making it worse for everyone – for their own personal gain. Whether it’s just out of pure laziness or for monetary gain, it’s unacceptable. Pollution is around in many forms – it’s in our water, it’s all over the ground, and it’s in our air.

Pollutants enter our water systems all the time. You never know what’s actually in our natural bodies of water. Most of the time pollutants enter the system accidentally, such as oil runoff from a small automobile leak, but sometimes it’s much larger than just an oil leak. Many farms fertilize acres upon acres of land. When it rains, that fertilizer makes its way into the groundwater (if there is a source there), or it makes its way into streams, lakes, and rivers through the runoff process.

“I wouldn’t drink the water around here unless I was dying,” said Alex Golich, a citizen of Milford. People don’t trust the water around them anymore. Communities now rely on companies to purify and bottle their water for them, or for a water treatment plant to treat it for them.

 The pollution that you see most of the time is litter. It’s all over the place on the sides of roads, in public parks, in parking lots, etc…People just don’t like to take the extra step to properly dispose of their trash. Not only is this trash unpleasant to look at, it’s harmful to the environment. Lots of animals end up eating the trash pollutants and die from it.

 According to Britannica Advocacy for Animals, there are lots of cases of whales, crocodiles, flamingos, and other fish dying from consuming plastic. The plastic bags look like things that they normally prey on; such as squid or jellyfish.

Some nations such as Irelandand Taiwanhave been trying to limit the amount of plastic that their people use by placing a tax on it. Others have been trying to ban types of plastic altogether, such as Chinaand Italy. The United Stateshas tried a few times to ban plastic, but has met with resistance. If plastic is banned, jobs will be lost, and we will need an alternative for it.

We don’t need laws and regulations on our plastic. We simply need people to see that it’s harmful to our environment. Golich said “I feel like people pollute because they’re lazy, not to harm the earth,” when asked why he thinks people pollute. It’s because they aren’t informed of the consequences they are causing to happen from the simple act of polluting.

Air pollution may be the worst kind of pollution because we can’t see it once it dissipates. The fact is that one day everyone is going to have to switch to electric, or some other fuel for cars. With about a billion cars in the world, the amount of pollution they are kicking out is deadly.

The bottom line is; pollution is a terrible thing. Take the extra few steps to throw your garbage away, properly dispose of your waste material, and drive more energy efficient cars. Citizens of Earth need to start recognizing it as a serious issue and tend to its needs before it becomes too out of hand for us to handle.