Cleaning up every day

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

-- Herbert Spencer, English

philosopher (1820 - 1903)

Nearly 300 volunteers, including about 20 divers, sprang into

action last week, collecting 1,000 pound of trash from Laguna’s

beaches on California’s 19th annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

Volunteers found a vast array of objects strewn across the state’s

greatest natural resource -- the usual soda cans, beer bottles and

cigarettes, but also an unusual find of an open house sign from a

Laguna Beach realtor with a 497 prefix and a 714 area code.

Simultaneously, volunteers picked up debris all up and down

California’s coast.

As people become educated about the environment, the importance of

such days becomes clear. Children now learn these lessons at an early

age and will be the first to tell someone not to litter and why.

Laguna resident Dan Shapero brought a group of kids on a YMCA

Indian Tribe outing.

“When you look at the beach out there, it really doesn’t look that

dirty,” he said. “Once you comb through it though, you find all sorts

of things you shouldn’t be finding.”

So while the future of our natural resources may be safe in the

next generations hands, we still have the present to worry about.

With days such as California Coastal Cleanup Day, which is part of

an International Coastal Cleanup Day, we are taking steps toward

preserving our natural environment. But while such days go a long

way, it is an effort that needs to be kept up daily.

Local groups, such as Clean Water Now! hold regular beach and

wetland clean up days. This is yet another step in the right

direction, but it must become an everyday action to pick up litter

and trash. It must become part of our natural mind-set.

Let’s try to make Coastal Cleanup Day unnecessary.