Human action has put the environment in an incredibly dire state.  If we don’t act now, issues such as deforestation, climate change, and much more will destroy the planet. This generation of youths, myself included, are part of the most environmentally conscious generation to exist, something not to be taken lightly.  When asked what should be done to save the planet, many reply with “stop climate change”, or “don’t use plastic”, or “reduce, reuse, recycle”.  Although all important, I believe that we need to start at something so seemingly simple, yet so very important, before taking any sort of grand action.  The answer––education.

These days, the lack of education seen throughout the world is such a pressing issue.  Many older generations, those greatly contributing to the destruction of the environment, lack the necessary education needed to understand how their actions are greatly harming the environment.  People don’t like change.  They like to stick with what works––or, at least, what they think works in the moment, but is actually doing great harm.  This is due to the stigma around adults being educated as, once again, people do not like change which is what education would bring. Moreover, people don’t want to be told that they need to learn something, taking it as an insult rather than seeing the opportunities that lay ahead.  For example, with proper education, illegal logging in the Amazon could be reduced by learning about alternatives to logging trees to make furniture.  Such alternatives include harvesting bamboo to make furniture, as bamboo takes less energy to produce, has greater durability, is more affordable, and grows faster than trees logged today.  If only people knew about such alternatives, we could be making great strides towards saving the environment.

So, if I had all the power, money, and resources in the world to save the planet, I would work to change the stigma around adults receiving education, provide opportunities for adults to receive proper education, and make learning about the environment a required course for students of all ages.  The harm that we humans have done to the environment is massive and thus, sadly, we can’t just start trying to resolve our actions by attempting to tackle the biggest issues.  We have to start at the root of the issue that ultimately started the demise of the planet–– a lack of education about how human action harms the environment.