Dirt! The Movie Response
Throughout the world times are changing and people have become careless and insatiable. Many people don’t appreciate the material beneath our feet because they don’t understand what dirt does for us. Dirt is alive and has all kingdoms of life and from the amount of species that live in dirt; dirt may be more alive than we are. If people would take the time to see how dirt has evolved through time then maybe more people would try helping it instead of endangering it through damaging courses such as agriculture, mining, and more. I feel that if we want to improve the soil we need the efforts of everyone. If students and faculty helped make an edible garden with composting, potential green roofs, or created a campus wide green day, we would be helping the dirt one step at a time. Students and faculty should make an edible garden that anyone that wants to participate in can help and mend. An edible garden will be efficient because we can grow our own food using our own waste that we composted. If the faculty could find an area that they won’t be using we should create a waste site where we can put leaves, banana peels, coffee grounds, egg shells, paper, and grass clippings, and more in it. These things decompose into the ground and when mixed they become compost, which is used for fertilizing the soil. This will get us fresh soil to help our vegetables and edible garden to grow better. This garden will let people eat healthier food substances and take part in a community endeavor. However, if we want this to get done then we need petition to get extra ground to work with, so maybe creating green roofs would be more productive. The next idea I feel that would improve the campus would be creating green roof gardens on top of the dorm buildings. I would say on top of the science building, but most have triangular roofs. However, I feel that if the garden is on top of the dorms more students would take part into trying to keep it thriving. Just knowing that something is alive, growing, and creating something makes more people want to take part in it. If we could get funding together to get the possible resources for it to be able to start growing then this idea would work well. And we could also make it a job, so that it does get taken care of and more people would view it as a responsibility. But if we don’t get funding to do it or because faculty may find it too dangerous for students to be on the roof then a campus green day would work well. A campus wide green day would benefit the whole school and most people would take part if it is required and not for a whole week. Students tend to want to do the limited amount, so if you tell them they only have to do something for a day instead of a week they are more likely to oblige. I feel this day should include fun activities so the students can learn about different effects the environment has on our lives and should be made into a big lab day. On this day no one is allowed to use plastic bottles only reusable water bottles. Everyone should walk or bike and if needed carpool. This day will be used to demonstrate that with a little help we can improve the environment. Everyone depends on dirt to purify and sustain our systems, but they don’t know to what extent how dirt is helping our environment. Dirt is alive and is made up of everything around us and if we don’t take care of it then it will take longer for us to grow crops and other agriculture. We think of soil as being dead, but really dirt is the metaphor for life. If we create an edible garden, not only will students be eating healthy, but they will learn how to do compost to fertilize the soil. If we do the green roofs then students will be learning responsibility and them that it is fun to take care of the environment. However, the plan I feel that would be most effective here on campus to raise awareness would be creating a campus green day because then students and faculty will be learning different environmental problems while also being cautious by not driving and not using plastic. I feel that if we could add some of these into the school curriculum, then more students will want to take part and improve the dirt.