For many, spring doesn’t come until the first flowers have bloomed—crocuses that line sidewalks, daffodils that spring up in patches next to highways, and hyacinth that bloom in delicately planted containers—but my favorite way to bring spring inside is with a fresh bouquet.
Very dismal news came through in October that the Great Barrier Reef had suffered mass bleaching and a major part of it had died. This led environmental writer Rowan Jacobsen to publish an obituary, “The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old." But there’s still hope, and these positive news stories form 2016 certainly prove it right!
Environmental sustainability—and how to apply it—have become rising issues in many local communities and youth programs. The rise in environmental literacy programs coincides with the increasing need for innovative solutions and affordable models through which to apply them. Accordingly, programs have increasingly begun to offer paid and unpaid internships, jobs, and volunteer opportunities that expose today’s youth to the environmental stressors our world is facing, while at the same time teaching them the tools needed to develop these innovative solutions.