A Gift 4 Nature
A journey to help the wildlife and conserve land throughout the world
By Charles Cross
Purpose
The purpose of the Nature Conservancy is to help stop deforestation, climate change, and conserve land and ocean. Deforestation is both letting more carbon emissions go into the air, and taking away the habitats of many animals such as birds and chimpanzees. Deforestation is a huge problem with more than 15 billion trees cut down annually. The Nature Conservancy is doing its part to help plant trees. It also is protecting coral reefs. 50 percent of which have died in the past 30 years. In order to even slow down global warming, people need to act. The Nature Conservancy is one of the many conservancies trying to slow these issues.
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Values
Caring
Caring for nature and others kept me on track because it reminded me how we need to care for the earth in order to stop major global problems such as global warming, deforestation, and littering. One individual cannot change much, which is why we need to donate or help bigger charities that are trying to solve these problems.
Immediacy
In order to solve these major problems, we need to act swiftly. If we act fast enough, we might be able to slow global warming down to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Most scientists agree that this will avoid most of the worst impacts of global warming.
Preserving
According to the Nature Conservancy website, there has been an average of a 70% decline in birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. We need to preserve the natural habitats to help these animals thrive. Birds such as the shining honeycreeper have lost around a third of their natural habitat due to illegal cattle ranching.
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The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the land and endangered species throughout the world. It helps protect forest areas to pull in carbon emissions and stop climate change. They have many goals for 2030, but the most notable of them were to store 3 gigatons of carbon emissions every year, to conserve around 10 billion acres of ocean, and to conserve 1.6 billions acres of forest area. In order to achieve these goals, they need donations. They are acting to protect the world from climate change and biodiversity loss. Some values that the Nature Conservancy has are integrity beyond reproach, respect for people, communities, and cultures, commitment to diversity, one conservancy, and tangible, lasting results. The Nature Conservancy’s purpose is to help preserve wildlife, forests, and large bodies of water. They also want to help slow down global warming. In order to keep in touch with them, I can sign up for their newsletter, attend their events, or volunteer to clean up beaches myself.
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Current Context
We are already seeing some of the effects of global warming such as melting glaciers, extinction, and severe weather. There are many different conservancies/charities working on this, such as the Nature Conservancy, #Team Seas, and #Team Trees. The reality is that people need to donate to these organizations, or help them out by volunteering in order for them to be any use for the world. Right now, poaching is still a major problem, and it is said that only around 1-5 percent of all poachers are caught. Poaching is largely motivated by the black market.
Potential Context
By 2030, I will be 18 years old. By this time, I would have almost completed my first year at college, and have become mostly (I hope) independent. The Nature Conservancy has many goals set for 2030. (most of them already mentioned) I think that we will be able to avoid the worst of global warming, people will take care to preserve the environment, and forests will be re-planted. I also hope that people will begin to understand the effects of poaching, and will eventually stop.
New Habits
Some new habits that I hope to have by the end of the month are composting, conserve, and bike. My dad just bought an indoor composter, so I am hoping to use that a lot more. I think that I am starting to get the hang of putting bananas, starch, and veggies. I also want to conserve the water, energy, and food by turning off the lights, turning the tap off, and eating everything off my plate. I love biking, so I am not sure why I still use the car to go everywhere. I am planning to bike to nearby places that I want to go to such as the park and school.
Reflection
Several things that I found surprising were that only between 1-5 percent of poachers were actually caught. I also found it surprising that trees could make such a big impact on the amount of carbon emissions that go into our atmosphere. I also didn’t think that there would be an average of a 70% decline of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Overall, I think that this project has been essential to deepening my understanding of the seriousness of environmental issues.