I
grew up being aware of the environment and our impact on it. As a
child, I remember my family using the cloth bags from a bygone grocery
story and the ubiquitous PAPER, PLASTIC and GLASS colored recycling
bins. In middle school, a teacher would share lessons from 50 Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth.
It was then that I learned about cutting six-pack rings so turtles,
birds and other animals wouldn’t find themselves stuck and in danger.
Over
the years, I stuck with recycling. I credit my parents for instilling
this in me, with their participation in the city recycling program.
Their actions helped me grow up feeling like it was normal and easy to
be green. Cloth bags in 1991? My dad being vegetarian when I was
younger? It all stayed with me and helped shape my views.
A
few years ago, I decided to get more into environmentalism. It felt
like a calling, and still does. Our actions, as humans, are destroying
our environment, but even more, they’re destroying our descendents’
environment. Our children and grandchildren are going to live in a
different world from ours. WE live in a different world from our
ancestors’. One of the biggest reasons I care so much is because such
simple actions can make big differences.
Being
greener doesn’t have to require spending more money or changing
everything about the way you live. There are so many ways you can make
yourself greener. Small actions count. Changing one habit at a time
counts. Start easy and make it routine. See where you can expand your
practices. In many cases, you can save money - and that sweetens the
deal. I get the satisfaction of knowing my carbon footprint is smaller
than others’, but I also have the satisfaction of lower utility bills
and spending less at the gas station.
It’s
simple to me. Why NOT be greener? What really is the benefit to
continuing to be wasteful? Sure, it involves changing habits. But the
benefits of those changes outweighs the drawbacks. Denying that it makes
a difference is simply denial to change. It DOES make a difference.
Summers in South Louisiana are brutal. And they take a toll on the
utility system. I remember some summers in the past few years where the
utility system threatened to implement rolling blackouts because the
strain on the grid was too much. Because people were using too much
electricity, and being wasteful with it. Changing your own ways -
turning off lights that aren’t in use, turning off TVs that no one’s
watching, turning up the thermostat a few degrees while no one is home -
cuts the electricity demand, reduces the strain on the grid, and helps
to avoid a rolling blackout.
It makes a difference.
Why not make a difference?
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