2020 Scholarship Recipient

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is home to 1,500 species,
Yet some people are only concerned with saving the trees.
Why is it that humans choose to ignore the ocean?
I am asking you to listen, please.

Marine plants produce more than half of Earth’s oxygen
And remove one third of the chemicals in our air,
They are extremely important for us to survive, yet we choose to ignore them.
I don’t think that’s fair.

The climate is changing and humans are in trouble,
We plant trees and limit our fossil fuels then think that we’re done.
These are good things, don’t get me wrong,
I just think we’re missing the most important one.

Plastic and sunscreen are killing the ocean:
The chemicals in sunscreen bleach the corals
The plastic strangles the animals
And I really think it’s time that we change our morals.

We must do something very quick
If we wish to see our oceans thrive.
One of my dreams since I was little is to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef,
Now it is uncertain if it will even survive.

More drastic measures must be put into place to protect our seas.
Plastic must be limited or abandoned completely
Sunscreen must be made safe
These changes cannot be made discreetly,

They must be widespread adoptions that we all choose to make
In order to help save Nemo and Dory
We must make changes in society
We must write a new story.

I am asking you to please use reusable bags and water bottles
Put down that plastic straw
And buy reef safe sunscreen
We must make protecting our oceans a law.

Phillip Mathangani Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
EIN: 46-5338870 | ©2024