You and Sustainability

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.