David Grant and Yvonne Faulkner-Grant of Warwickshire. England always let their 13-year-old dog, Scruff. pick up the plastic bottles he finds while out on their daily walks. The dog carries the bottle for a while, and they kick it or throw it for him to chase. The game is over when Scruff loses interest and drops it.

Throughout 2021, David and Yvonne observed Scruff’s habit of finding even the most well-hidden bottles. They also noticed a marked increase in the amount of litter in their rural area. David says they were both taught never to drop their trash as children, so they couldn’t believe that people were littering so much. At the start of 2022, David and Yvonne decided to start picking up the bottles to bring home with them. It was the large number of litter that made them decide to train Scruff to gather other people’s trash.

Since starting this journey, Scruff has become a local celebrity in his neighborhood. David and Yvonne never let Scruff pick up anything dangerous, like glass. They also remain appalled by the amount of litter they’ re seeing, and hope that people will hear Scruff’s story and either stop dropping trash or, perhaps, try picking it up themselves. Plus, Yvonne thinks Scruff took to his duties so well, other dogs could easily be trained to do what he does as well.

In the end, Scruff was able to gather up 1,334 bottles-along with three cups, a Pringles tub, and a baby feeding bottle. “If we walk the same route every day, he will find bottles on that route every single day,” said David. “We feel a bit of pride that we are picking them up, but a bit of anger that they’ re even there,” Yvonne said.

Southern California’s Catalina Island is a popular destination for nature lovers. It is reachable by boat from Los Angeles and San Diego. Most of the small island is a government-protected wild area. But, a report last October in the Los Angeles Times newspaper raised public concern about the water surrounding Catalina. The newspaper discovered that industrial companies for years had been dumping (倾倒) the insect poison DDT into the ocean near Catalina. The practice began in the 1940s and ended in the 1970s.

The newspaper report led to a search and study of the area by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego (UCSD). The research team discovered about 25,000 large containers, below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The scientists suspected the containers held DDT, and other chemicals used to make the poison.

Eric Terrill, who led the Scripps program that worked on the project, said the finding was a surprise as the containers were spread over a very large area. The Scripps examination also showed the companies responsible for the chemical dump disobeyed rules about where to place the containers.

The researchers mapped about 15,000 hectares of ocean floor where past studies had shown evidence of poisonous chemicals. The area lies between coastal Los Angeles and Catalina. “The long-term effect on ocean life and humans is still unknown, and needs extensive study,” said Lihini Aluwihare, a member of the Scripps program. But, in 2015,she co-wrote another study that found high amounts of DDT and other chemicals in the fat of bottle nose dolphins. Aluwihare said some studies among small groups showed that DDT-linked health problems have been passed from parents to children.

Sagarika Sriram was 10 years old when she started reading newspaper stories about a planet in trouble, one of which was about turtles with plastic in their stomachs. Sagarika knew she needed to do something. First, she joined a group which organized cleanup campaigns in her home city, Dubai “The group helped me understand what an individual can do and how I can really make a difference,” she says.

Then Sagarika created Kids for a Better World. It’s a digital platform which has brought together nearly 10,000 youths from all over the world with the goal to create a greener world.

Sagarika is now 16. She’s part of a growing number of young climate activists. “We’re the generation that is going to face the results if the climate crisis is not dealt with,” she says. She believes even individual actions can create a “ripple effect”. Sagarika says this can build momentum and can move things in the right direction.

Kids for a Better World is for people aged 8 to 16. It teaches them about what they can do to reverse climate change. They can grow food, plant trees, collect recyclables and avoid using plastic bags. “This is the information which can help change our future,” Sagarika says.

Dubai is a desert metropolis. Growing up there has made Sagarika very aware of the need for action. Her city faces the risk of rising temperatures and its water supply is shrinking. She believes young people can bring attention to these environmental challenges.

Sagarika is all about small actions, but she has big plans. She’d like to go to college in California. While she’s there, she’ll continue being an activist. She’ll also be running Kids for a Better World. She hopes to inspire others to fight for a greener planet. Others have inspired her. “We’re creating our own system of inspirational change-makers,” she says.