As many of you know I host a short feature segment on WERU Weds AM (7:30) and here’s another of the ongoing series…I haven’t recorded this one yet…your thoughts welcome. (I’m not trying to be preachy or holier than thou so keep that in mind before shooting please)
Hello and welcome to Earth Sense, thanks for stopping by. The topic? Two ugly words. Words that have followed and haunted at least me, if not you. Those words? Personal responsibility. The actions we take in our daily lives that help or hinder the planet, the ecology and our own lives. I’m not sure what it is but it often seems the easiest things to do, just don’t get done. How hard is it to recycle stuff anyway? What does it really take in terms of time and effort? There’s the throwing of the can, bottle, papers, etc in some kind of bin and taking those bins somewhere, maybe once a month. Or changing incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents. Once one makes the change, there are hardly ever any annoying burnt out bulbs `cause the compacts hardly ever burn out.
The average American drives 250 miles a week. Replacing just four incadescents with compacts can save thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide. Turning the thermostat down (or up) just 3 degrees can save over 1,000 lbs of CO2 annually. For every 1,000 of us who install faucet aerators and high-efficiency showerheads, we can save nearly 8 million gallons of water and prevent over 450,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. http://newdream.org/tttoffline/actions.php
Enough with the numbers, you get the idea, you do make a difference. So now we’re back to being lazy, indifferent bums or maybe just unaware, habit driven good people. I’ll vote for the latter. We’re good people, caring people, we just haven’t replaced some of our habits. I just gave you all these stats from newdream.org but when was the last time I went back, learned something new and applied it? Maybe it just seems overwhelming, all this stuff and composting and green energy and sustainable living we should be doing for the environment rag. It’s a lot to remember and nag oneself about. Are we all supposed to be Catholic or Jewish or start a new religion to be called the Eco-guilty? What would a church service consist of? Eco-flagellation? Followed by a lengthy Rachel Carson reading? Silent meditation on our eco-sins of the past week? I have a feeling this approach just wouldn’t work.
One thing will work. Just one. Pick it. Currently not buying green energy?..switch, it’s not even painful. Stopped recycling? Start. The lightbulbs? Compact fluorescents now cost $20 for 10..what the heck, change a bunch. Pick one. It can’t hurt.
