School Visits - Que Chevere! (How Cool!)

Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias! Happy Thanksgiving. I miss you all very much but I am also very thankful to have had this opportunity. Today I visited a 6^th grade classroom at Liceo Naval School. The students welcomed me and asked me questions about life in the United States. I told them about how 7^th graders at Young Achievers maintain our recycling program. I asked them what they would tell my students to do to help the environment. They said: don’t throw trash in the ocean, recycle, protect animals, plant trees, and don’t introduce invasive species into the ecosystem. These kids know how important it is to protect the environment, because they know how fragile their island habitat is, and how quickly it can be destroyed if they don’t take care of it. Of course, there are things we can do at home that will help in the Galapagos. I know none of you throw trash into the ocean, but did you know that litter in the streets in Boston often ends up in the storm drains (the rectangular openings under the sidewalks)? Normally, this goes to sewage treatment plants, but if there is a lot of water, such as in a rainstorm, some of this gets dumped directly into the Charles River. As if that isn’t bad enough, the Charles spills out into the ocean, and so does the trash. This trash gets carried around in ocean currents and forms giant trash islands in the sea. When sea birds eat this trash, they cannot digest it or remove it from their bodies, so they can die of starvation. (Click here for more information of this). So if you see litter on the street, put it in a trashcan! Or better yet, if it can be recycled, put it in a recycling bin.

Galapagos has a trash problem, too, but they have a major recycling programs on some of the islands. I was hoping to visit the center on San Christobal, but I didn’t think I would have the opportunity. However, after class was finished at Liceo Naval, some of the students said, “We’re going on a field trip to the Recycling Center. You should come!” So I hopped in their van and traveled with them to the center, or Gestión de Lixiviados. In San Christobal, they recycle organic materials (like food scraps and vegetation) to make compost (which they use in their gardens), as well as glass, plastic, cardboard, and paper. On the island, they grind the glass to use in making bricks. The rest is compacted and shipped to the mainland. It’s important for Galapagaens to recycle, because there is no place to put trash. Even if there were space, the toxins that leach out of the trash would be harmful to such a fragile ecosystem. Instead, they burn their trash, which obviously releases pollution into the environment. The only solution is to use less. San Christobal is working to educate tourists who visit the island to recycle as well. I know 7^th graders care about recycling enough to educate younger students.

I encourage you to educate as many people as you can about why it is so important not only for the health of places like the Galapagos, but the health of our world.

p.s. Amariliz it´s a real alligator, though I didn´t take the picture. I forgot to cite it, but it´s from National Geographic. I took all the other non-captioned pictures. This is a picture of a sea lion pup. He´s about 2 and a half feet long.