The modern man most often lives in the city, more specifically in a flat or an apartment, which occupies only part of a building. This man is surrounded by air pollution, skyscrapers, and congestion caused by cars. Apparently, people who are living in metropolitan areas, rarely spend their time in nature. For this reason, the human connection with nature vanishes little by little…
However, the relationship between man and nature has been special since ancient times. People mostly were living in regions or villages, that’s why they were usually farming, growing their own vegetables and fruits, taking care of their animals. Nature was a place for inspiration, an example of how to live and a source of survival. It is noticeable that the most famous Lithuanian writers and poets usually wrote about nature and were describing the connection between man and nature.
I was lucky enough to be born in a city, which is surrounded by pines and lakes. Visaginas is my hometown, a bit unusual city because it was built in a wooded area. The people who built the city tried to not cut down all the trees, that is why there are a lot of trees in the city center and near the buildings as well.
It takes approximately 10 minutes for me to reach the lake shore from my home. While being in nature I can always feel peace and harmony. While taking a walk in the woods or sitting on the bench by the lake I can find inspiration and I also have the opportunity to just stop, relax and reflect on everything. Nature gives me strength and encourages me not to rush to live.
Picture author: Lynė Marija Koženiauskaitė, Visaginas lake
Unfortunately, most people do not experience this because of increasing urbanization and rapidly changing society and its values. Modern youth usually prefer living in metropolitan areas or emigrating abroad. The wonderful nature of Lithuania is not very significant for young people, they are more interested in social media, money, entertainment and other vanities.
However, it is nicer to be in nature when it is not littered. My city, like other cities, faces the problem of littering. Every year, during the spring all Lithuania joins the environmental cleaning campaign “Let’s do this” (lith. “Darom”), which aims to manage and clean its environment, yards, nearby forests, coasts from trash and rubbish.
Picture author: Lynė Marija Koženiauskaitė, Visaginas nature
I support this eco-campaign and personally join it every year, but in my opinion, think it is not enough to preserve nature. In order to reduce littering, people need to be encouraged not to leave litter in the first place. It is important to raise awareness and spread the message that littering is harmful to both nature and the ecosystem. We should not only collect the trash left by other people but to find a way to reach out to those people and to make sure that they do not litter at all. This way every person will gather their trash and eco-campaigns like “Let’s do this” will no longer be needed.
One of the possible solutions could be obligatory ecology lessons at school. This way concerns about nature and environmental issues will be introduced to children from an early age. Perhaps this would help to solve the current problems which our environment is facing at the moment.
Written by Lynė Marija Koženiauskaitė, “EcoWrite” contest 2nd place winner
