Monday, April 23, 2007

Earth Day and going green.



There is 16 days of left (including weekends) until I am completely done with school (I get done with finals on Wednesday). I can't believe how fast this school year has gone by but I still have a lot to finish before I can go home. Well, I didn't get that summer internship that I applied for, oh well guess I'll have to look for something else. Yesterday was Earth day for those of you who didn't know, so I've decided to give you my perspective on global warming and the issues surrounding it.

Many of you know about Al Gore's documentary/power point presentation "An Inconvenient Truth" that provides hundreds of facts on the global warming issue. Gore provides evidence that there are no dissensions in the scientific community that global warming is a problem for our world. However, in the media there is a split between journalists who believe it is a problem and those who don't. I personally think that there is a problem with global warming but I think it is becoming a little over sensationalized because of Al Gore's high profile status. We do need to reverse the trends that have been going on for the past two decades and this can only happen if everyone pitches in. Many activists will give you a long list of things to do that are environmentally friendly but sometimes they just aren't possible. For instance, many environmental activists tell us to start riding a bike or walking to work/school but for many of us that is just not possible. Even if school or work is less than 5 miles away we all enjoy sleeping so if you wanted to walk you would need to wake up an hour earlier! Then all the scientists who study sleep health would complain because the environmental scientists are telling people to get up an hour before they need to, imagine those fights.

There are some easy ways you can help the environment and I'm sure you've probably heard many of these. The easiest thing you can do is recycle everything you can. At my house, the city recently distributed recycle bins that are as large as the trash cans and my family has probably cut the amount of waste in half since these new recycle bins were available. Newspapers, plastic bottles, scratch paper, and many other things can be recyclable. You can also switch your interior lights for your house. They are a tad more expensive but they light rooms better, longer, and produce far less energy waste. One other thing that is very easy is to watch how long you keep your lights on. Whenever you leave a room and you know you won't be back for a while, turn off the lights to save money and the environment!

Here are some more tips on making your house "green"

Well these were just a few reiterations of tips that I have heard in the past. If you have any other tips, please share them because there is no harm in keeping the environment clean.

-Jamie

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