renowned environmentalist tells the
story of a monstrous all-consuming
forest fire in this story all of the
animals rush out of the forest in order
to seek protection and watch as their
homes are completely engulfed in flames
as all the animals are sitting there
watching their homes be destroyed a
singular hummingbird goes to us all of
the animals rush out of the forest in
order to seek protection and watch as
their homes are completely engulfed in
flames as all the animals are sitting
there watching their homes be destroyed
a singular hummingbird goes to a stream
and picks up a droplet of water he then
comes back to the forest and drops it on
the flames goes back to the stream grabs
another and goes back and so on all of
the other animals look at him as if he’s
crazy and the stronger bigger animals
turned him and say what do you think you
can do you’re too little so this the
hummingbird turns and says I’m doing the
best I can each and every one of you can
be this hummingbird you see this is how
we need to approach environmental
activism
yes our actions may make us feel
insignificant at times but we certainly
wouldn’t want to be the other animals
simply sitting idly as their homes are
engulfed in flames
a common objection that people have to
environmental activism is that they
think that their efforts would be
insignificant they argue that if they
were sustainable in their lifestyles
their impacts would be so small that why
do anything at all a Pew Research study
found that 3/4 of all Americans are
concerned about the environment but only
1/5 of those respondents said they would
be willing to live out those concerns
all the time but you see there’s nothing
wrong with that expecting each and every
one of us to dedicate 100% of our time
to thinking and acting green just isn’t
feasible
perhaps if each and every one of us
dedicated a small portion of our time to
living sustainably the impact could be
truly monumental one thing that we can
control is our recycling habits so in
the spirit of thinking globally by
acting locally we bought brought this
Pew Research study to the halls of Lake
Forest High School we conducted a
student body wide survey to gauge the
waste disposal habits of our peers we
began with one central question do you
recycle seems simple enough 64% of
respondents said they did and 36% of
respondents said they sometimes did but
what we would like to emphasize about
this is that
one set out right now and what really
sparked our interest were the reasons
why people weren’t recycling all the
time the top one being that they simply
didn’t know what could be recycled and
what couldn’t our study concluded that
72% of respondents were unsure whether
or not styrofoam is a recyclable
material in fact in recent years methods
have been developed to recycle materials
that were previously deemed unrecyclable
this includes styrofoam so then where
does this confusion come from we can
trace it all the way back to our years
as an elementary school students when
our teachers told us time and time again
the styrofoam was horrible for the
environment and then it could not be
recycled the rest of the world got
similar information although as we
became high school students we were
never given follow up information and
neither was the rest of the world
perhaps if we knew this information we
could make a really substantial dent on
the 130 point 7 2 tonnes of waste we
produced at Lake Forest High School each
year so this issue really boils down to
education how can we inspire others to
become the hummingbirds and how can we
as students make a lasting impact on the
sustainability of our community we
devised that something called an
environmental commission so what exactly
is environmental Commission it’s a group
of highly motivated students faculty and
parents who collaborate with facilities
management to create sustainable
policies to be implemented on our campus
and within our community nationwide
environmental Commission’s act with one
goal revitalize their communities they
oversee city and school ordinances and
contracts that have the potential to
have an environmental impact and suggest
areas of improvement such as green
infrastructure smart growth and
environmental cleanups so we went to our
principal dr. Holland with this idea and
she agreed with us education is truly
central to the entire topic she said
that if we were to create an
environmental commission it would be a
great way to bring people together to
bring everyone together so we’re excited
to announce that our first task as in
the environmental Commission will be to
educate our peers and our teachers about
what can and what cannot be recycled in
simple ways such as putting posters on
recycling bins or just a short seminar
we understand that we’re students but we
can be at the spark that ignites a
conversation a conversation that ignites
a huge movement that can truly make a
difference even if
it does seem insignificant at first now
we get it we look at environmental
problems as one huge issue and it can be
a daunting and frankly overwhelming task
to try and find a solution but the key
is thinking small think of the smallest
environmental issue in your life such as
your consumption of plastic water
bottles and fix it bring a reusable
bottle to school every day if we all
complete this simple task we can reduce
the current 25 thousand bottles of water
we consume at Lake Forest High School
each year so if you start small you’re
soon small changes can make a
substantial change even if the change is
truly just within yourself you cannot
wait for decisive global legislation to
make change for you that change must
come within yourself so we encourage you
to think globally but actually locally
think large but act small together our
droplets can extinguish the fire
threatening to engulf the globe thank
you [Applause]