Reflection

Zakia Rashid is whom I was inspired by when creating this painting. According to her website, “Zakia is a self proclaimed nerd, shark lover and ocean ambassador. She works tirelessly to educate and engage every age range on the crucial role that the ocean plays." She feels the urgency to help the ocean and believes everyone in the community could contribute significant help. There are jobs such as marine biologist, marine technician, marine engineers, and many others that are specifically to further improve the ocean condition. However, Zakia Rashid believes that everyone, regardless of job or age, could help the ocean. I got the feeling of a much deeper understanding and a more clear realization that the best way to save the planet is to throw away our mind and habits of littering. One of the "unnoticed heroes" of Earth are the scuba divers who pick up trash individually and save sea animals that are stuck in the plastic bottles or trash bags. Zakia Rashid loves to scuba dive and to interact with the sea animals – especially sharks and fishes. After doing research on climate change, I have learned that there are numerous innovative technologies, ideas, and jobs to specifically help the ocean be less polluted. There are drones that locate and pick up trash in the ocean and robots that clean the ocean bottom. There were also countless ideas such as using paper straws, biodegradable plastic, edible packaging for water, and toothpaste pills. However, most people do not care to know about these inventions or don't feel the necessity to use them even if they are told they exist. Therefore, we should care about our ocean by changing our own mindset and knowing how important it is to save our ocean, and also by spreading this knowledge to others too.