Earth Day

Being an environmentally conscious individual, I was very excited to hear that my school had deemed this week "Green Week" and dedicated each day to a specific lesson about going green. Monday, there were two electric cars in the school, a lesson in purchasing for teenagers ready to buy their first car. Tuesday, visitors came during lunch to teach about green architecture and other important ways to go green in a big way. Today is walk/bike/carpool to school day. Of course, I will be riding my bike! Tomorrow is "curriculum day", and also, there will be a recycled fashion show. Friday will be "pledge day" so that everyone can make a pledge to themselves to improve the world around them. As I watched a show about the 'human footprint' this morning, I saw a staggering statistic, the average personal watches 12 1/2 years of television in their lifetime! Wow, I turned off the TV right then.
I like to think I watch much less TV than the average person, what with cooking, dancing, and reading. But still, I feel like I need to cut back even more. Also, I've already improved my footprint by becoming a vegetarian one year ago. According to PETA "According to a 2006 U.N. report, the meat industry produces more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined". Though I am not as radical as PETA about animal rights, I do agree that the raising of animals purely for food has become harmful to the environment in so many ways. I have decided this week - and I hope I can uphold this decision - that I am going to strive to buy only used goods from now on. This means buying "vintage clothing", used books (!), and, if possible, used electronics. Who knows, maybe this green craze will wear off, but maybe not!