Every day I ride my bike to school, saving fossil fuels and giving me the added benefit of being able to sleep in for a extra 30 minutes. As I ride to school I pass the decaying, abandoned Beall Greenhouse complex.

The problem for the environment is not the materials that are visible but what were sprayed as insecticides and herbicides on the rose plants for the past 100 years or so.

Some of the chemicals that were sprayed will never truly break down in the environment and will continue to cause widespread problems. I wonder why Vashon was left with this greenhouse complex that could possibly be considered a super fund site.

I learned that the former owners of the Beall Greenhouse complex had simply not taken responsibility for cleaning up the mess they created.

When it became cheaper for the owners to import roses from abroad, they simply packed up and left.

They never bothered to consider the effect the decaying greenhouses and boiler room would have on the local environment, and how they could have prevented the environmental damage from happening if it had been cleaned up properly.

Gradually, after reading about many more stunning examples of how our environment has suffered from people not taking responsibility for their actions, I realized that the reason our environment is suffering so much is because of centuries’ worth of people not taking responsibility for their actions.

As part of the new generation of people, I feel burdened with the recurring effects of centuries of environmental damage that people have not taken responsibility for.

I wonder what good it does to tell our children they have enough money to go to college, when because of not taking responsibility for our actions, we have guaranteed our children will live on a planet that will be far less healthy than when today’s adults were children.

How can adults think that they are going to make their children a better life when they don’t take responsibility for their problems and try to correct the damage done to the planet?

Every single thing we do has an impact on our planet. The best way to take responsibility for and lessen or eliminate the impact of our actions is to stay informed about how our behavior impacts the planet.

My friends and I want the opportunity to grow up on a planet that is as good or better than the planet our parents grew up on.

Instead, it seems my friends and I are being given a neglected mess of a planet to grow up on. I am willing to dedicate my life to making our planet a better place, but I can’t go anywhere in making it a better place if adults don’t help too.

— Nathan Williams, 13, is a Family Link and McMurray Middle School student who is interested in environmental issues.