Letter to Andrew Little

My letter to Andrew Little for the Social Action

Dear Mr Andrew Little,

Hello Sir, my name is Trisha and I am a Year 7 student from Hornby High School. I have been recently doing some work surrounding Sustainability, but I have been focusing on water quality. What I am most concerned about is the microbeads used in certain care products in New Zealand. Microbeads are very miniature plastic particles. They are used in care products such as toothpaste, soaps, face scrubs, and other products. To keep New Zealand fresh and clean, I believe that we should ban microbeads in New Zealand. The impact that microbeads have on our environment is appalling.

How do microbeads get into our waterways? Microbeads get into our system by getting washed down the drain. Microbeads are so tiny that they cannot be filtered by sewage systems. They get into our lakes, waterways, and rivers. Microbeads can also absorb toxins while in the lakes, rivers, or waterways. A massive amount of sea life die from microbeads, because they mistakenly believe that it is their food. It is believed that microbeads are more dangerous than discarded plastic bottles. Microbeads get in waterways, lakes and rivers >They absorb toxins > Pollute the water > Marine life eat them >  Marine Life Die > We eat the fish that eat microbeads > We eat the toxins in microbeads.

The companies that I know that use microbeads are : Clean & Clear, Clearasil, Neutrogena, Olay, and many more. Most of the companies disguise the microbeads. They call it  polyethylene, but sometimes polypropylene, and polystyrene.

I urge you to help New Zealand and ban microbeads. With your high authority in the matter, I believe that you could make New Zealand a better place. Thank you for taking your time reading this.  I would appreciate a response.

Thank you Sir

Sincerely,

Trisha Tayong
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe that I have achieved LO3 because I have explained to Andrew Little why microbeads need to be dealt with, how big their impact is, and how he can help New Zealand by banning them.

Water Quality - Reusing Water Sustainability assessment National Geographic Kids Magazine

I believe this meets LO2 because, I have explained how this is impacted on living things, (In FACTS box), and ways to minimise these problems.


Why is sustainability important for the future? - Sustainability is important because as humans, we need to learn on how to sustain resources on Earth. We might not always have them forever. Also, water is very important on Earth. It is very healthy and it helps with the environment.

What are some ways we can minimise these problems? - There are a few ways to save water.
 One way is to distil water. Meaning purify it.
To save the oceans and sea life, try to stop using products that contain microbeads. AKA polyethylene. Microbeads have a huge impact on sea life, and some people don't even realise that it is dangerous.
I also suggest to try take shorter showers. The average shower uses around 8 litres of water per minute.. Thats a lot.

What and How big are these impacts on the environment and living things? -

The impact that these things do to our environment is very appalling.

 Every 8 seconds, a child dies from drinking contaminated water. In China alone 700 million people drink contaminated water everyday.

Microbeads also have a big impact on the environment. Since microbeads are too tiny to get trapped in water filters, they get into our waterways, lakes, rivers, and oceans. A huge amount of sea life die because they mistakenly believe that it is their food. Microbeads can also pollute water because they can absorb toxins and release them in the water.

How can we stop these impacts? -
For the people that don't have freshwater, try to donate to charity, or come up with a clever way to help them.  "No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted."

As for the microbeads, I suggest looking at the back of care products, and checking if there are any. If there are, try not to buy them.

Sustainability Water - Reusing Water

Reusing Water Questions

 Sustainability : To keep renewable and non renewable resources by choosing to use them wisely, for our future generations.

1. Is there a way we could reuse polluted water? 

Yes, but it also depends on how polluted the water is, how you are going to reuse it, and what you are going to reuse it for.

You can also distil water. There are many ways to do this and it removes most of the impurities inside it. The process of distilling water involves boiling it.

2. How do we know it is safe to reuse water?

This also depends on how polluted the water is, how you are going to reuse it, and what you are reusing it for. Physicians have checked these kinds of things with their science stuff, and there are also ways for you to check.

If you are using distilled water, yes it is safe. Distilled water went through a process where most of its impurities were removed and it has been purified. Physicians say that distilled water is actually more safer, cleaner, and more pure than tap water.

3. Will we run out of water soon? 

Although Earth may not run out of water, we still need to remember that we might always not clean fresh water all the time. This is why we reuse water, so we don't run out of fresh water. Not all countries have clean water. We are very lucky to have clean water in New Zealand. In fact half of the fresh water on Earth can only be found in 6 countries!


Why is sustainability important for us for our future and how is it related to water? 


 Water is very important for humans. It is very healthy for our body. If there were no water, we wouldn't survive on Earth.  We use it to water our crops, we use it to wash things, we use it in our food, and most importantly we drink it. Why is Sustainability important for water? Well, unfortunately we are running out of fresh water. A lot of countries today have to live without fresh water, meaning... they live a short life and they die young. Did you know, every 8 seconds a child dies from contaminated water. Yes, this is horrible but true. Also in China alone, 700 million people drink contaminated water. Us humans need to realise that we will not have water all the time. We are running out. We all need to learn how to sustain our water resources for future generations.


I believe this meets LO1 because, I have explained why sustainability is important, and have given examples on how to take care of our resources.