A worthy band-wagon to jump on

My New Year's resolution this year was inspired by a good friend from my University days, Nina.  She posted on Facebook that her resolution was to reduce her household plastics consumption.  Over Christmas, I’d discussed this very issue with my parents and uncle and it seemed a no-brainer to follow Nina’s lead and adopt her resolution as my own.

Then I got thinking: Am I just jumping on a band-wagon and is it the right band-wagon to jump on? 

The brilliant ‘Blue Planet 2’ single-handedly raised the profile of the issue of plastic waste for half the country, it seemed.  I was fascinated by the fish with the see-through head, haunted by the ferocious bobbit worms, amazed by the tuna hunting teams of sea-lions and incredulous at the ingenuity of the hide-and-seek octopus, but it was the human pollution of the seas that had the most impact.  Who could not have been moved by the baby dolphin likely poisoned by microplastics, the baby albatross killed by a plastic toothpick and the mother pilot whale cradling her dead calf, possibly poisoned by its own mother’s contaminated milk?  And who could ignore Sir David’s slap across humanity’s wrist?

Since ‘Blue Planet’, I’ve read more about the issue of plastic waste.  The facts are staggering.  Nearly five billion tonnes of plastic waste had accumulated in landfill or the natural environment by 2015.  480 billion drinks bottles were sold globally in 2016 – a million per minute – and each one will take 450 years to biodegrade.  In 2017, the Marine Conservation Society found 718 pieces of litter for every 100 metres of beach surveyed in the Great British Beach Clean Up, including 225.3 plastic or polystyrene pieces, 42.3 packets, 32.9 caps and lids and 26.9 cotton bud sticks.  Once in the sea, something like a cotton bud is broken down by UV rays, oxidation and the waves, then plastic fragments enter the food chain because fish and marine life can not distinguish them from food.  Then we arrive at the shocking sights shared with us by Sir David and his ‘Blue Planet’ team.  And evidently, the effect on humans of eating contaminated fish is still largely unknown.

It’s not that this isn’t a worthy band-wagon to jump on and Nina’s resolution remains mine also.  What bothers me though is that this isn’t a new issue.  We’ve had some awareness of the problem of plastic for most of my lifetime yet still it is produced and consumed in enormous quantities, we don’t seem to have come far in a search for an alternative, and the amount of waste plastic in the environment still continues to accumulate.  I have great admiration for the ‘Blue Planet’ team for being so successful in raising awareness of this issue and inspiring Nina and me to make our New Year’s resolutions, but I wonder why it took Sir David’s appeals and a BBC programme for us to do something.  Why wasn’t this my resolution ten years ago?  Why wasn’t this a serious enough issue before?  And what other issues are we ignoring because they haven’t yet been the subject of a David Attenborough documentary?

I’m a teacher so I’m bound to reflect on my own role and the part education can play in addressing these sorts of issues.  How is it that even I – with my degree level education and such little interest in celebrity – probably knew more about the latest celebrity gossip than I did about the dire consequences of my own plastic waste?  Why is it that so many people are apathetic toward or even ignorant of issues that it turns out really matter but know all there is to know about bland trivia?  Why for many young people has it become embarrassing and shameful to admit they have knowledge and original thought whilst ignorance has become a badge of honour?

I’m endlessly frustrated by our education system – in more ways than one!  It seems to me that the quality of the education we give children should be judged not just by their test results, the grades they get and the proportions going on to University – as important as all those things are.  We should reflect upon whether or not the children we are teaching are growing up to be independent thinkers, adults who want to know more about their world, seek information and question it, and responsible citizens who seek solutions to real problems and are proactive in improving their world.  Will they be the sorts of adults who will not just flick through the gossip pages of newspapers, magazines and the Internet, but search for news that matters, engage with it, find out more and even act to make a difference?  Will they write meaningful news stories themselves and even make history?  Could they be a future generation of Sir David Attenboroughs?

I’ve decided to make a second New Year’s resolution: To be a better teacher.  I suppose that is something I am always striving to achieve.  Really, it is!  This year though, it has a different meaning and I have a new sense of purpose.  I’m going to tell my class about my New Year’s resolution; we’ll watch some of ‘Blue Planet 2’, discuss pollution and work together to find out more; perhaps we’ll decide there’s something we can do at school to reduce plastic consumption or there are letters to be written to our Member of Parliament or the big supermarkets.  Maybe the children will choose to make their own resolutions or try to reduce the use of plastics in their own homes.

I’m going to try to be more aware of issues in the news too and to share some of them with my class.  We won’t be able to do something about all of them but we’ll talk about them, share our thoughts about what matters to us and at least consider the possibilities.  Hopefully then, they will grow up to be the kinds of adults who take an interest in their wider world, are curious about issues that really matter, want and know how to find out more and feel empowered to pursue change themselves.

Who knows?  Maybe one day, I’ll watch one of them fronting a ground-breaking and inspirational television documentary.