Environment.......who cares?!

I do.

Just to let everyone know. Im studying an environmental science & health degree at the moment and im currently in my second year of study.

I've always cared about the environment since i was younger and i have always been sickened to see people abusing our wonderful and beautiful earth. Now there seems to be an attitude in this country that it doesn't matter how they treat the environment because it wont affect them in the future as they will know longer exist on this planet. I think this is the most ignorant way of thinking as it will affect people in the future which includes our children, grandchildren and future generations.
Alot of people regard environmentalists, environmental scientists or "tree huggers" as they are sometimes referred to as idiots who are wasting their time with something that does not matter.
I for one believe in doing a good deed towards someone or in this case something should have that good deed repayed. Its just common courtesy and manners. This also applys to the environment.
I have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, places where i can enjoy natural beauty, recreational places which i enjoy (the sea, ocean, river etc) and most importantly we get so much of our food from our environment. Now why do people see it is acceptable to abuse all these things? Mother nature is giving us all these wonderful things, then why do people stab her in the back?

Today as part of my degree, my class went to the Avoca River in Co.Wicklow to take water samples which will be tested for all sorts of pollution in the coming months. I found it really interesting and it would be a field of work which i would consider in the future. Anyway it was really hard work. I think environmental scientists deserve more respect and admiration for the work that they do. Today i only got a small taste of the work they have to do and i must admit it was very tough. It was raining hard all day and very windy, i had to stand in freezing cold water to take water samples and by the end of the day i was soaked to my skin. Do I mind? Not really, its what i love to do and i hope what im doing will benefit some people in one way or another.

Now it doesnt take alot of effort to actually find the sort of pollution that is going on in our rivers.
As you can see from the above picture (which my friend is posing in :D) there is a drain pipe which has been there for a long time and is pouring in god knows what into the river. The brown colour you see is not from the pipe however and was actually caused by the heavy rain which burst the nearby river bank and caused all sorts of material and compounds to pour into the river and cause harm to the river.

Now you may all think this is just a random hippy rant or something, but its something which i care alot about. The environment needs our respect and i think we should all do our best to improve and make it a better place for all of us to live in.

If we dont....then things will most likely get worse and our world will be a tough place to live in.

Getting people to realise this is the real battle.