The Earth and how we can help make it a better place to live has always been an interesting subject for me. It's easy to tell how some things that we do can help or hurt our environment. But as there are ways to hurt the environment, there are also ways to help restore it. I'm writing this to help the reader; (you,) take a deeper and more focused look at the importance of caring for our environment. It may seem like it wouldn't hurt to throw a tiny wrapper on the street or leave all the lights in your house on at once, but it actually does. Leaving trash on the street not only makes the whole city look unsightly, but it also pollutes. It's is very easy to find ways to help. There are so many available things already that you might not use such as recycling. When you recycle you don't just get rid of the used paper, you basically send it to be reused. We do not need more trash than we already have. The United States generates around 230 million tons of trash a year. That's about 4.6 pounds per person every day. Only a little less than a quarter of that is recycled. Leaving the lights on, which can be a habit to some, is a waste of energy that we need. It also runs up the electricity bill. This wouldn't exactly make your parents the happiest people in the world. Just remember to turn the lights off, and you not only save energy, but make your parents happy! If an environmental crisis is too much to handle yourself, start an organization or some form a kind of other group that helps keep the environment clean and orderly. Maybe talk to an important person from your school like the principal, or some other authority, if you can start a group that picks up trash when needed. No matter what you do though, you are either helping, or hurting the environment. I hope that this opened your eyes a little more to how important it is to maintain a clean and safe environment.