The environment and the health of our planet are in the hands of you and I.

Every single thing we do affects what happens. Even when we walk to school or work, most of us are wearing shoes that have been created from leather from a cow, which, over time, will wear down and then we will be compelled to buy another pair. Leather shoes, causing cows to be even more in demand than they are already, produces methane: greenhouse gas.

Products bought by so many people, all containing plastic of some sort. What have we done? A generation above mine is fleeing the scene and leaving behind the crime they committed. Why does it have to be my generation that has to fix things?

Age doesn’t change the way you feel about the Earth. The phrases ‘our Earth is dying’, ‘we are destroying our planet, and ‘we need change’ have been used by people who have done nothing to prevent it. Overused by people who are too lackadaisical to make a difference themselves.

Why does it have to be my generation that has to fix things?

Plastic has impacted us terribly. It has made our Earth riddled with waste. We all know this, yet most of us still continue to buy plastic bottles, bags and plastic packaging. How do we stop this at the source? What are we doing to change it? I shouldn’t have to be saying this but I do. Because still we haven’t changed things. Act now.

Aimee Docker, aged 14