Chapter Thirteen

The next day, Abinla woke up so late for school. It was about eight o'clock that she was awakened by her mother's footsteps. Immediately, she woke up, and throwing her wrapper, which served as a blanket, she got out of bed.

 'Mum, why didn't you wake me? I am late for school,' Abinla complained but wasn't appalled with her mother. 

Abinla rushed out to the bathroom for a quick bath. She came back to the bedroom, dressed in her uniform. She was so tired yesterday that she didn't have the strength to wash them. 

Boma, who was sitting on the bamboo bed, looked up at her daughter, frowning at the stained uniform. 'Wear something else. Your teacher will understand.' 

 Abinla sighed and took off the smelly uniform, then went to her box and took out an old brown blouse and faded pleated black skirt. She had always put her clean clothes in the box of empty noodles, which she had gotten from a provision store. Then, she took her dried dress hanging by the window and folded it into the box. Grabbing her school bag, she started for the door but paused in her tracks when she heard what her mother said about food waste environmental impact. 

 'According to research, food waste produces 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse that contributes to climate change,' Boma said. 

Abinla turned to her mother as she said, 'Honestly, if food waste were a country, I'm sure it would rank the highest in population,' she laughed.

 Boma laughed as well. 'You're probably right. Since you want to change the world, I think it's necessary for you to know that for us to have our land rolling clean and green, we are not only tackling oil pollution, we should also try to solve the problems of food waste by turning them into treasure. The careless way of people throwing plastics, paper, metals, grocery bags, razors and other things into the oceans without considering the inhabitants of the water, should be stopped. Carelessness by humans can also cause danger to our health.' She paused and said after a moment of silence, 'Abinla, humans often rely on greener economics and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change but we should know that when living systems are allowed to recover they can suck carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it up. My point is, according to an environmental activist, if we preserve species or rather wild animals it would help slow down the Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction that scientists say we are living right now. This is why we should stop animal exploitation.' She paused. 'The problem with the world is greed. We go for things we do not need or already have in triple.' 

'Yes, you're right,' Abinla nodded in approval. 'I think environmental education should be included in our curriculum.' 

 'People should never forget to protect water for the future generation,' Boma continued. ' The earth might be blessed with water or rather many bodies of water, but it is good for us to know that less than 1% of the water on earth is fit for these uses; Agriculture, Transportation and recreation, Industries and domestics. However, the remaining 99% is found in oceans, which is saltwater and not good for consumption or maybe frozen in the polar ice caps, or too difficult to reach for practical use by cities or communities…once we understand how much we use water, this would help determine how much water our household could save for the future. Drought could happen anytime and climate change has the potential to increase stress on water resources. In other words, we should learn to protect water. People should also never forget to dispose of biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes and avoid littering them around.' Boma paused for a while and said, 'Just like you, I want to see ripen fields and colourful flowers, want to see farmers at work harvesting their impressive farm produce, want to see butterflies flitting from flower to flower, want to see chirping birds flying high above, heading in V-formation. It would be a beautiful sight, right?'