(upbeat music) Whoo!

Look at this mess.

It's everywhere.

You know, this is not a good thing.

This is a problem because the earth is a valuable place and it's full of valuable resources, which is why we need to help protect those resources as much as we can.

I want you to think about something that's valuable to you.

Maybe it's a drawing that you worked on really hard and you love that drawing that you made.

Or maybe it's a special toy or a gift that you've been given.

Well, you don't want to, anything wrong to happen to those special gifts or those valuable resources.

Right.

And so we need to make sure that we're protecting those, but also protecting the valuable resources of the earth.

So what are some ways that we have to protect the Earth?

Well, we know that one way is conserving water.

Right.

We don't want to just waste water, especially when we're brushing our teeth.

We can turn off the faucet while we brush our teeth so that we're not just wasting the use of water.

We could also donate clothes and toys to help out our communities, and we can also pick up trash outside.

Today, let's focus on picking up trash outside.

We've got a mess to clean up, so let's get to it.

But why is it important to pick up trash outside, even if it's not ours?

What if we didn't make the mess?

Well, let's talk about a few of those reasons.

Number one is that it helps protect the animals.

Did you know that it is estimated over 1 million birds die from trash and plastic around the world each year.

They might get choked up on tiny pieces of plastic or tangled up in different trash.

So when trash is on the ground, it's on some animal's home.

So let's keep it clean for our animals out there.

But also another reason is that it helps protect the oceans.

Did you know that trash often winds up in the ocean?

It may travel through rivers and streams into larger bodies of water like lakes and even the oceans.

And plastic and other trash can be especially harmful to ocean life.

The trash gets in and it pollutes the water in the oceans, which causes plants or fish to be harmed and possibly even die.

But not only that, it can affect humans too.

Some people count on being able to catch and sell fish for their jobs or for food.

But if our trash is affecting the oceans, then we may be hurting those people as well.

And a third reason that it's important to protect the Earth by picking up trash is it keeps our communities clean.

Have you ever walked down the street and seen a plastic water bottle on the ground?

Or maybe you've been playing at the park and there was an empty soda can as you went down a slide.

Trash not only makes our living spaces not look very good, but it can cause problems such as flooding.

Whenever it clogs up the drains in the street.

Or it can pollute the air we're breathing.

And many items that you see, they they may not decompose naturally very quickly.

Now, that's a fancy word, right?

Decompose.

What does that mean?

Well, decompose means that the material breaks down and it can go back into the earth.

Right.

But did you know that plastic bottles can take over 400 years to completely decompose?

That means if I threw this out on the ground, could still be harmful to plants and animals for many, many years.

This is important that we get out there and we help clean it up because now we know that trash can be harmful to animals and plants.

It can hurt our oceans, wildlife, and pollute our air, and it can be harmful to the communities where we live.

So I have a challenge for all of us.

Your challenge for this week is to take a walk around your community with your trusted adults and pick up some trash that you may see.

You you will help make your community clean.

Right.

And there's different ways to do this.

You might want to put on some gloves first because, you know, that's going to help you make sure that you don't get extra germs or even use something like this that has a grabber.

And I don't have to actually touch it.

So you can save the oceans and save the earth for.