Helping the Environment

My name is Estella Lamas I am in Professor Ximena Hernandez English 101 class. This semester I have learned a lot about issues dealing with the harm people are causing to the environment. We have read the book No Impact Man, seen a video, and read articles. The best part of this class so far has been going to the Los Angeles River. I had such an amazing time being outdoors for once. Our class had the chance to have hands-on experience with helping out environment. Although the fact having to attending an event on early on a saturday morning  did not excite me, but I knew being there was a good cause for the environment and attending would help me engage more with the topic. In my group my job was to keep track of all the trash we collected. I did not get the chance to pick up as much trash as I would have liked to, however the beneficial part of keeping track of the trash was that I got the chance to see what type of trash our group was collecting and how much was there. We collected trash bags, plastic bottles, glass, food rappers, and even clothes. The trash that our group had collected the most was trash bags which was not a surprise to me, but what did surprise me was seeing shopping carts. Some shopping carts were growing within the trees and the only way to remove the shopping carts would be to remove the trees. Another thing that surprised me was that we had to search for the river and once we found the river we saw ducks and bird with their family (which was better than seeing dead animals). The river was dirty, but it was nice to see a different part of nature that we do not acknowledge in our busy lifestyle. Now that I have seen the harm people have caused to the environment I want to change my lifestyle and consume less trash such as how the author Bean Collin did in No Impact Man. The little I do to help the environment is going to help the lives of the next generation. But as for our trip I had lots of fun with my group and I recommend it to all other student who are invited to help clean the environment.