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Tiana Price Eng 2010 Camille Pack Memoir March 2014 My Mother Taught Me To Clean Up After Myself

I saw an image in a Saturday morning English class that I cannot forget. It was followed by several more pictures, and a short video, of bird carcasses with human TRASH where the belly was once anatomical. It literally broke my heart thinking of the agony that animal had to have lived in before its demise. As a human being we would have gone to a doctor and communicated the need there was something wrong with our stomach. We are in control. We definitely could, and should be in control of that horrific picture.

I went home that day captivated by the ground at my feet as I walked, and seeing ALL the refuse that was small like that, that an animal could ingest as if it were shiny glitter grabbing at my attention. It was catching my eye everywhere. I was feeling baited, almost like a fish on a hook. I couldn't shake the images. I tried to reason with "a lot of them are gulls, scavenger birds, that Finding Nemo even describes as rats with wings"......still my thoughts returned to nothing deserves to die that way, slowly, suffering....nothing. The straight up fact is, WE are the ones creating huge problems for other species, and that if we dont globally start fixing the issues we too will see our end from the repercussions of this growing problem.

I took a walk around a neighborhood school later that evening, with my son and I was disgusted by the time we left. We walked around the outdoor field a total of 3 laps. The first time

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had me trying to ignore what I was seeing, and thinking that the grounds keeper of the school needed to be fired. The second time around, all I could think was how ridiculous it is that an elementary school looked like this. The third time my OCD was taking over and I chose to count it! I was going to call and tell the super intendant the number of pieces of trash that lay on the one schools ground. I stopped counting of the way around at 410, and one of those was an opened condom. We left at that point, I didnt want to be there a second longer.

It got me thinking how the more people the Earth fills with, the more garbage. I literally went off thinking it should be illegal for people to have kids anymore.....Too many of us. China was really on to something all this time I thought they were being unjust. Most of us are not much to be proud of these days, and each generation is only getting more and more lost anyway. We should just start cleaning up what we have created now. (Dramatic. Maybe, but I totally went there, and that certainly would be an easier solution to getting people to really, truly, give a shit). Where did we go wrong? When did we start thinking that we could keep reproducing and also start creating SO much non bio degradable waste? Why would we have not come to this realization BEFORE making billions of tons of garbage that has nowhere to go?Math that even I can see the solution in front of me how could others not? Certainly not as fast as a biological decomposition would?? We export our trash!? Really?? I'm positive money, laziness and greed are involved. Human hearts are easy to persuade when money and glory are promised, and not a thought to consequence until its too late. The industrial revolution was run by this concept.

The next evening while I was driving to work, I decided to turn down the volume on my car stereo and listen to my book on my mp3 player. It is called The Earths Children by Jean Auel. Such a great series about an amazing woman who was raised by Neanderthals to be a

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medicine woman of the Klan, and goes on to be one of the first people to ride a horse, tame a wolf, be a female hunter and many more evolutionary achievements. As I listened to how her water-bag (a canteen to us) was made of a cows stomach and cured and stretched, her bowls are made from clay mud, her knives and spear points are made from mammoth tusk or flint ( a hard grey rock similar to obsidian), her clothes and even the dyes, all came from the Earth. ALL of it will become part of it again or COULD. Yet with that argument you hear how important Industry is to the economy. Plastic was only invented 100 years ago. Look how quickly we are doing this. Really?? I agree the economy is important, but if you really think the environment is less important than the economy try holding your breath while you count your money. (Facebook)

As a youngster I loved going fishing. One time we went up American Fork canyon to Silver Lake flats. The sun was out, it was early June and there were beautiful sunflowers, lupine and paintbrush covering the trail sides. Everything was so green and vibrant. New life was everywhere as the winter run off had just recently vanished. The Monarchs were out bouncing lazily from location to location on the most perfect soft breeze. The water of the lake was so stunning. It was a bluish tint with the reflection of the sky and mountain line perfectly mirrored in its still waters.

I laid down my blanket and started setting up my pole. This is the life. I thought peacefully, let this beauty never end. I cracked open a drink and chilled. The fishing was slow so I stood up, threw my empty in the cooler so it didnt blow away in case the breeze strengthened as it usually does between 1-4 in the mountains. I am one who is always barefoot. I used to joke and tell people it was the Indian in me. That pleasing shoreline was calling my name! I kicked my flip-flops onto the blanket and started off on a stroll.

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There were the cutest, fattest little pot guts running around scavenging everywhere. I spotted a Western Tanager bathing in the edge of the lake and thought what a marvelous idea little one.I stepped in and was surprised at how warm and refreshing the edges were. It was so tempting to just dive on in. The fish werent biting. Its not like I would be scaring them?? I walked further out and figured with this high of elevation it would be best to inch my way in and choose at crotch level weather the plunge would be to astoundingly cold. OW! HOLY HELL! What was that!? I pulled my foot up with a jerk to see blood gushing from the crease of my big toe. How did that happen?? I thought. A rock? I reached in to find the culprit so that I knew what kind of treatment I was going to need. It turned out to be a broken beer bottle and 5 stitches. Why would somebody throw their trash in the lake? Why would they drive to 10,000 ft above sea level to find peace and beauty, and return to it an everlasting token like THAT!?

Another time, my kids and I headed up Spanish Fork canyon to an area called Nebo Creek. It is a cool little camping area because its turnoff goes right through a ranch and it looks like a private road. Back then no one really knew about it, so it was no race to get one of the maybe 10 campsites that spread the 7.5 mile road. The site we were at was so cool. It tucked around a corner and had a creek running along the backside of it, that is surrounded by red cliffed canyon walls on every side. We took a bunch of larger rocks and built a dam in the stream.

Within 20 min we had a little swimming pool to play in and cool off in the hot day. It wasnt until hours later I found at least a grocery bag full of trash just dumped in the water, and a diaper included. Those remnants were pouring downstream in the water my kids were below playing in, nasty! I got pretty irritated and picked it up. I also noticed cow-pies right on the bank

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where free range cattle graze the area. This strangely clear stream feeds into our water ways? I wont be going back to that place, only because the last time I was there more people have found it. I can gather 3-4 big black garbage bags of trash easy every time I have gone back. The sad thing is it attracts animals that can become stuck, or are adapting to humans for food rather than surviving naturally. Its a disgrace, it used to be a very beautiful serene place. Even with the free range cattle, it actually once had a sense of the true old west.

I was staring out the window at the Tarmac of the San Luis Obispo airport last week, totally enjoying my nostalgia. Sad to be walking away from the vacation I was leaving. I love the ocean. I dont see why the locals dislike not having seasons, or take for granted the wild iceplant that blooms freely over patches of dirt and sand on almost every crevice from the moisture in the air. I loved it. Everything I had just seen was beautiful. However, fresh off the images of the video with the sea birds and garbage filled bellies as their end. I definitely noticed garbage as I went through activity to activity that vacation more than I normally do. It goes to show how powerful images can be. Why we need to use more of them apparently. It is powerful to appeal to the senses. I remembered there was a smell of petroleum oil as I walked along looking at the sea lions on the dirty pier of Avila Beach, a smell that was so strong that it sickened my stomach. I actually stared around at the water wanting to test it. There was this stuff called sea glass it really was pretty, and I guess its Earths way of recycling, but its still garbage that took a while to evolve. The day we were at Pismo Beach, I looked out at the waves and up washed a small yellow metal sign and hit me in the foot. A guy standing there on the beach introduced himself as Bill and offered me $10.00 for it. Wow..really? I looked at him in astonishment and told him he could have it. I prefer to rid the ocean of

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garbage for free. It was his turn to look at me with stupefaction. He then told me he owned a surf shop and will turn around and sell it for $40.00. I smiled and told himyou owe me 3 more pieces of ten dollar garbage then, as I walked away. I hear theres an island of floating garbage out there somewhere from the tsunami that hit Japan. That it could hit those beaches up north somewhere. Sad.

That Tsunami is not the only huge disaster that comes to my mind. Flashes of ducks, extinct sea otters, and penguins looking like bog creatures covered in oil being cleaned by rescue workers with a toothbrush and dawn soap. The Exon Valdez spill in the Gulf of Mexico, ( a.k.a the BP oil spill 2010, or The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill-the worst in human history. Of the seven remaining species of sea turtles known today, five of those species are in the Gulf of Mexico. So many humbling images come to mind as the visible water not mixing with the oil and gas streaks the ocean for 47 huge miles. That pipeline leaked for 87 days. By the time the well was capped on July 15, 2010 an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf.

People in white suits covered in black tarnish, cleaning sea rocks and animals, were images seen all over. Marine pollution can start as far away as middle-America. Any toxic materials that are put into rivers and bodies of water can flow eventually to the oceans. Run-off from drains and areas adjacent to the ocean are also a severe problem, bringing all kinds of materials into the sea. And this.. HOW DO YOU CLEAN OIL OUT OF WATER? It can be done, but at what cost? Sadly Scientists now know too that about half of the man-made, CO2 has been absorbed over time by the oceans as well. We are destroying our beautiful planet. Everywhere I go I am seeing true evidence of this. The Ocean is the only thing on Earth that still

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has the most unknown creatures and discoveries. The Ocean itself, is the only thing that sets our world apart from other lifeless planets.

I do feel great gratitude to companies like Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District who here local to my home in Utah, are cleaning up things like acid rock in our aquifers left by Kennecott Copper from the mining boom. 50 years later they are using a very expensive process called reverse osmosis. I wonder how many years until the ocean either fixes itself from that spill or becomes toxic. Shallow-water creatures, like corals, are extremely vulnerable to carbonic acid and toxins. Scientists are calling for drastic measures to avert massive bleaching of the world's reefs. I am grateful to water treatment, I think, as I come back to reality staring at my plane coming up the runway. It was time to head back. We boarded our plane and I looked out the window as we took off. I could soon see the bay bridge streaking the water looking as the image of the oil itself did.

I am doing it. I am going to go to school and learning to educate others, so they may educate, and so on, and so on! KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. That is one of my favorite sayings. I think if I tell people ages 9 through drinking age about what I have seen, experienced, and will be learning, and if I can get others to care for the future, over time we can do a global reverse osmosis.

WORKS CITED The National Geographic Societys freshwater initiative is a multi-year global effort to inspire and empower individuals and communities to conserve freshwater and preserve the

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extraordinary diversity of life that rivers, lakes, and wetlands sustainability. I took statistics from this source and referenced pictures. Ray Stokes.Twila Brantley.Marie Owens.Steve Blake.Mike Axleguard Personal Interview Monday Febuary 3,2014.

NaturalResourceDamage.www.deq.utah.gov/business/kennecott/nrd/index.htm.NRD.2013.Web

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