52 July 2014
Miss Sustainable
Continued from previous page
children. There has been an
ongoing effort to clean up Lake
Atitlan, which has been on the
decline from raw sewage, fertil-
izers and trash either being
dumped directly into or other-
wise making its way into the
lake. You can read more about
it here (http://bit.ly/1oFvLaW).
In 2009, Global Nature Fund
listed Atitlán its "Threatened
Lake of the Year." We noticed
in our travels throughout Gua-
temala that there were very
few, if any, trash cans in sight.
Progress has been made, and
I can only hope it continues to
save such a magical gem of a
place.
Other issues, which commonly
plague developing and third-
world countries in general,
include:
• Lack of access to potable
water (especially in rural
areas)
• Poor air quality
• Tropical deforestation
• Soil erosion
• Natural resource extraction
issues (mining, petroleum,
etc.)
I'm encouraged by the number
of public/private partnerships
I've seen to address many of
these problems, and it appears
there is increasing awareness
of these concerns worldwide,
which gives me hope.
If you've ever thought about
visiting Guatemala, I would
highly encourage you to make
the trip. I'm planning to es-
cape the commercialism of the
holidays and take my children,
so they too can experience this
captivating country and have
their eyes opened to a different
reality.
Stepping outside of our com-
fort zone to see how others live
in different parts of the world
is important. After watching
Nicholas make the journey into
the village just to bring us five
gallons of clean water to drink,
I came home with a renewed
appreciation for the tap I'd
been taking for granted. This
is just one of many examples I
could give.
Water cistern - Photo by Stacey Champion
Bottle Wall Art - Photo by Stacey Champion
