Letters to the Editor

Oldham County residents, stop polluting

To the editor:

I think the people of Oldham County need to stop polluting the air. One reason is that polluting the air can kill plants and animals. Polluting the air is like a smelling garbage can stinking up the room. Polluting the air is causing global warming and melting the ice caps. Please Oldham Countians, stop polluting the air.

It is very important to keep plants and animals alive. The plants need to stay alive so we can eat. Vegetables and fruit grow on plants. Plants take in carbon dioxide and let out oxygen. We breathe the oxygen. So right now you’re breathing what comes out of plants. The American Cancer Society, doctors, and scientists, say that you need five servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Animals also need the plants, but we have to have the animals. The animals have meat and we need meat too. We need servings of protein, and protein is meat. As you can see plants and animals are important to our health.

Another thing is that polluting the air is making global warming. If you use aerosol spray it releases CFCs. CFCs are chlorofluorocarbons, which harms the ozone layer. CFCs put holes in the ozone layer. The holes let in ultraviolet rays through the ozone layer, and the rays further cause global warming. Scientists say global warming is killing seals, polar bears, and other sea creatures. The air being polluted is killing the plants and animals. ee

ee Vehicles are getting bigger and they’re burning and using more gasoline. I am not saying that you can’t drive cars anymore, I’m saying you need to drive less. ee You can carpool or ride your bike. If you carpool or ride your bike you can burn less gas.

Look at this, animals would be running around and we would have good juicy fruits and vegetables if we would stop polluting the air. I know I would rather have good juicy fruit and animals running around than have people sick, sea animals dying and other bad things happening because of pollution. What would you want, a cleaner world or a very gross and dirty world? ee It’s your choice, but please, Oldham Countians stop polluting the air.

Kennedy Ricci, Fourth grade, Mrs. Curry’s class

Save trees by recycling

To the editor:

Wouldn’t it be great to see billions of trees in the future all across the world?

Well, we could make that a reality if we all do something as simple as recycle, which will take about 10 seconds a day to put paper in a recycle bin. In this letter I will tell you how much paper we consume a year, what we use the paper for and, how much less air pollution recycled paper has. I think that we should recycle because it wouldn’t take that long to recycle, just stick it in the recycle bin.

I think we should recycle because we consume 700 pounds of paper each year!

We use 6 percent on printing paper, 45 percent of tissue paper, also we use 49 percent on newsprint. I know that sounds like a lot, but if we recycle paper it will come easy and at the same time you will be helping the environment by people not cutting trees down. I think we should bring 700 pounds of paper down to 300 at most.

Did you know that half the forests have been burned or cleared for paper or wood products and 80 percent of what’s left has been seriously degraded? We should not cut down any more trees or very little. At this pace we will have no more trees in about 100 to 200 years. If we keep cutting down trees it won’t only hurt the carbon oxygen cycle, but it will kill all the insects in the tree or any animal that relies in trees to live.

Have you ever heard that recycled paper has 73 percent less air pollution than making it from raw material? Well, it’s true! That is a lot for just having to make recycled paper and there are directions on how to make recycled paper at www.google.com, then type in “how to make recycled paper.” It will take about four hours.

Because you read my letter I hope you take my advice and take care of the environment by recycling paper. That would take about 10 seconds if you just stick paper into a recycle bin. Then, next time you are at a store, buy a recycle bin and instead of throwing away your paper simply put it in a recycle bin. It could change the world!

Evan Cripe, North Oldham Middle School

To the editor:

Look at it now, all residents of Oldham County recycling — wouldn’t that be great! ee Help keep the earth to maintain healthy! ee

So, if everybody in each home recycled in Oldham County that would be less waste in land the landfills, and there wouldn’t be a risk you would have take. ee My solution is that we should make a law that every home isn’t aloud to throw away all of their trash, they should all get a recycle bucket that they can recycle with. Each home would have to have a certain amount of recycled trash that you can give to recycle with. This will help tremendously in the land fills to make our earth healthy and clean, and not cause all of the expensive problems that started out by just throwing our trash into the landfills.

Facts say each year Americans produce more waste and most of the waste is buried in our landfills, this is very unhealthy for our earth. In 2003 just by recycling it diverted 72 million tons of material from landfills, now that’s a lot of materials saved just by recycling. If we did this except three times more the materials to recycle then we would be saving plenty of materials to not just toss into the landfills, which is again a very expensive problem waiting to clean up. ee

In Wisconsin in the 1990s they started mandatory recycling, which diverted 40 percent of all the junk we use to throw away saving valuable landfill space and conserving natural resources. ee I have a solution to help save our natural resources. We could have a law that everyone can only have so many natural resources (paper) but not a lot, but enough to suit what they need it for. This way if we make the law that the residents are only aloud to buy a certain amount of the natural resources (paper) we would be saving trees and reducing space in the landfills!

I hope you really consider thinking about our community and how the future has a bunch of problems to look forward to, please take my advice and help the earth maintain its healthy self that I know it is. Just remember one thing the future is in you hands and the residents of Oldham County! Help the earth be healthy.

Gabby Liston, NOMS

To the editor:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the earth was garbage free? Just think, clean waters, animals that aren’t on the verge of extinction, and a lot more. You might think that that could never happen. Well, you’re probably right. But we can still help save and make things cleaner in our area by at least recycling at home.

The reasons why we should recycle at home is because first it helps save the earth and keeps us from getting sick from air pollution and waste. Did you know that it takes 95 percent less energy to make recycled products verses new products? That means that when you recycle your not just reusing items your saving energy too. People don’t really realize this and think that those alone can’t make a difference but they really can.

If you’re asking what we should recycle, just recycle things like empty milk cartons, water bottles, paper, and cardboard. Just look around your house and I guarantee you’ll find something to recycle. Did you know that 25 percent of landfill waste is paper?

That causes air pollution for sure. If you don’t have a recycling bin maybe just use an old cardboard box, I’m sure you have one of those lying around somewhere. And if you’re like my neighborhood and there’s no recycling truck that comes around just take it to a local recycling center, they’ll take care of it for you.

Taking care of trees is also very important. What a lot of people don’t know is that trees help contain pollution which saves us from breathing polluted air. That’s great, but, we are cutting down so many trees that pollution is being let out into the air. The more we recycle paper the less air pollution there is so be sure to recycle as much paper as possible!

As you can see recycling is very important, even just in your home. Don’t just let other people take care of it because you count in the world’s population. You can make a difference, so don’t forget to recycle. You might think that you don’t have the time to recycle, but if you think about it the more time you give to recycle the more time you give to future generations even your children to live in a healthy environment.

Haley Oliver, NOMS