Monday was a fabulous day on the calendar: EARTH DAY. And as
it turns out, some cities have events throughout this entire week to celebrate
Earth week, which is cool and all, but honestly, shouldn’t we be “green” every
day? The other day, a friend of mine asked me some questions on sustainability,
so of course I felt a need to discuss some ideas here.
Some people, upon hearing “be green” and “Earth-friendly”
may sigh. Some even mutter. Earth day has been extended to Earth week. Oh,
great. Now there are going to be more tree-huggers parading around, preaching
on about the ever shrinking rain forests that are continents away. For some, the
whole be green is just a waste of time, a phase. What can one person possibly
do that could improve the overall state of the planet? Call me overly
optimistic, but as it turns out, a lot. Small changes do not ever affect any
one person; small changes snowball into big change. We just have to mold change
to be for the better.
Now what on earth (oh that was clever) can we do? We can
take it upon ourselves to look at our daily routine and see not what we do, but
what we use. If you live in a place like the United States, you know how easy
it is to get what you need. Fill up the tank? Just drive down the street. Thirty
minute shower? No problem. Burger King? Pick up a Whopper after filling the
tank. Most people have warm water coming out of a wall, an abundance of food,
and fuel when needed. We are generally under the impression of having an
endless wealth of resources. All you need is the money to pay for it all.
I wonder how many Whoppers I can buy with Ulysses
Because we think like this, as if money equals sources and
as long as money is available, sources are available. So then we keep using,
keep abusing, and have driven ourselves into a bit of predicament. I’m not one
of those “HUMANS ARE TO BLAME” kinds of people, but we really could think
through our actions further. Perhaps we shouldn’t fall asleep in the shower
whilst we are still trying to stay awake on three hours of sleep. Do you really
need to stand for half an hour under warm water? Wouldn’t you be warmer if you
were dried off and in a big sweatshirt? Or maybe you can think about your meat
intake and the effect the meat industry has on the planet. Maybe that Whopper
can wait until a cross country road trip.
As for the use of fuel, if you live in a city, walk. The
problem is that the States were never built like Europe. Europe is made up of
clusters of cities. The States pretty much have people everywhere. So if you don’t
live in a city, there is really no place to walk to except your friend’s house.
And then public transportation? Don’t bother unless you’re willing to spend
most of your time waiting, and then be uncomfortably squished with other humans
in a bus (which is simply a metal box on wheels). For more on public
transportation, here is an article I wrote for a college student newspaper: http://ltifiles.blogspot.com/2013/04/public-transportation-ripta.html.
So really, it is entirely up to the individual to make a
change. Sure, there are big organizations out there trying to reduce human
impact on the Earth, but guess what? Those organizations are run by
individuals, each doing small things that will cause big change.