Environmental Health: My Experiences

Who cares about the environment? This is what many people think when environmental issues are brought up. Unlike many people I've learned that not only the health of the environment is vital to our lives and future generations but it is also filled with natural beauty and wonders. I've experienced the environment first hand throughout my years of school and it all changed my perspective on the environment. When I went to Five Senses Garden to help do some garden work, I learned a lot about that place and how it affects the city. I also learned a lot about environmental health when I went canoeing this past fall. Another one of my experiences was when I did a fish experiment in biology class which made me realize something that was surprising. My experiences with the environment helped me learn so much that I can share inside and outside of the classroom.

Doing some of the garden work at Five Senses Garden taught me how significant it was to the environment in Harrisburg. I learned that the garden is connected to the Green Belt that wraps around Harrisburg which is also a big part of the area's natural environment. Taking care of these places help keeps the city looking clean and green. During my trip there I did an experiment with other classmates finding out that the creek in the garden was contaminated with phosphate which comes from soap and other bath products. This is bad for the fish and other underwater creatures that live in the creek. Now, this was not a critical level of contamination then but, as of now I wonder if it has gotten worse. Trying to fix those kinds of issues are important because it helps preserve some of the little bit of natural plants and environment clean and safe.

When we went canoeing this year in biology I learned many new things about the Susquehanna River and how it plays its role in the environment. When we did tests of the water I noticed that the water was surprisingly very clean and fresh. When there has not been any rain in a few days the water tends to become clean. This is good because another thing that I learned was that there was more aquatic life than I thought there was in the river. Having clean water means healthy fish and other animals that use the river. Without a healthy body of water, our environment would die down and animals and or people would move to find another source. The canoeing trip in the Susquehanna River opened my eyes to the community and issues that we have in our environment.

In biology class, we did in experiment where we had a fish and changed the temperature of the water little by little to see if the fish was affected by the number of breathes it took. This taught me that the slightest change in the water affects the underwater creatures in lakes, rivers etc. and that is why water pollution and contamination is bad for that environment. If the low drop in temperature can affect the fish then imagine how much the BP oil spill or global