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Junior Stories 2024

Short Story

by Easton Pan



Little Timmy abruptly asked his dad on a sunny Saturday if he could get some ice cream. His dad, of course, said yes. Timmy and his dad walked for around five minutes from his home to a nearby ice cream parlor named Squiggly Treats. But on the way, Little Timmy saw something he could never forget.

He saw animals on the side of the road eating plastic and other garbage. He also saw a lot of loose trash fall out on the road and when he looked up, he saw all the factory smoke coming out of the smoke chutes. The sky was gray. He asked his dad what was happening. His dad said that since 2019, the litter and plastic waste ratio has been skyrocketing. Little Timmy also asked, why were the animals on the floor looking in pain. His father said, many animals have been eating dangerous garbage like plastic. This may kill them over time. Throughout the years of 2000-2024 there have been many animals, most notably birds and fish that have been found with a stomach full of plastic.

After their stomach is filled with this material, they can no longer move. They become easy targets for predators. But when the predators eat them, they also consume the plastic. Fish and birds cannot digest the plastic that they are eating. That’s why it’s important for us to keep the environment clean. As you can see, the plastic waste and litter are affecting the ecosystem and also the Earth’s wellbeing. Things like banana peels decompose in only a week or two but plastic can stay on the Earth for over 500 years. Also, when it decomposes, the environment eats up all the plastic. The pollution can range from the sea all the way to air. All the pollution and litter kill the Earth. Scientists say that it may take up to 100 years of no pollution whatsoever to save the Earth again. The government is not speaking up enough to influence the whole world. Not even the country of the USA or Canada. It is our responsibility to not litter and to clean up for other people in our world. But it’s not just the pollution or litter, it's also how we treat nature. Trees produce oxygen as well as plants. When we breathe things out, it comes out as carbon dioxide. This is not safe to breathe in. We need the oxygen from the plants. Less plants means less clean air to breathe in.

After that, Little Timmy didn’t feel like getting ice cream anymore. He was sad and sick in the stomach because of the things that he saw on the way to the ice cream parlor. He made it his dream to become a very successful and well-known politician to fight for nature. He wanted to slowly make laws for pollution but also make littering fines and consequences more severe. Overtime, he made sure that at least in his neighborhood, no one was littering or doing any sorts of pollution after he was enforcing nature laws.


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