LESSONS LEARNED

During the time of isolation, I wonder if we have learned anything? For the first time in decades, the waters in Venice are clear and clean; the air around many cities is clear; in India, people can see the Himalayas in the distance. The whole planet was given a clean breath of fresh air while humans were under lockdown and it shows.

On our beautiful Island, we may not see such drastic changes to our environment but it is there nonetheless. Are we Islanders going to learn and realize that our choices we make and actions we do every day are damaging our planet? Are we willing to change?

I am appealing to every Islander to change your lifestyle to do small actions to help save our planet and our beautiful Island. We are the consumers, we have the power and we can change our choices to help the planet; one being to start buying your food locally. When you go into a grocery store, ask where things come from; is the meat local, where are the vegetables from, where was that loaf of bread made? Why not encourage smallscale farmers to grow more of our food? Ask our bakeries to make more bread? For my part, I have decided to go back to a whole food, plantbased diet because it is the healthiest diet for me and for the planet. I will try to buy locally made or grown food and I have my own garden. We have got to stop doing things like we have always done and do better for the future of this planet. The Earth can heal itself if we give it a chance.

Anne Gallant, Millvale