The Green Movement: What does it mean to go Green?

I remember not too long ago I was typing away at my computer listening to the TV which was on in the background. I don’t remember what show was on but they were interviewing a man by the name of Steven Kazlowski. Steven is a photographer who spent over eight years photographing the Polar Bears in the Artic and the effects that the Global Warming is taking on these beautiful creatures. His book is called “The Last Polar Bear”.

As I sat typing away I found myself drawn to the plight of the Polar Bear and how the effect of Global Warming is destroying their environment and how they could quickly become extinct. The thought of that made me stop what I was doing and sit for a moment and think about what he said. I couldn’t imagine a world without Polar Bears. I couldn’t imagine a world without a North Pole and the Artic. It made me re-evaluate the dire consequences of our every day actions. It made me think about the whole “Going Green” movement.

Every where you look these days you will see “Green” products and “Green” programming. There are “Green” cookbooks, “Green” clothing and even “Green” pet products. I have even seen “Green” toys for kids. But what does it mean to be “Green”?

Going “Green” to most people means being more environmentally responsible and making better, healthier choices for yourself, your family and our environment.

Some might worry that they have to make drastic changes in their lifestyles in order to be “Green”. Others might see this as just a fad and a passing trend. The terminology might be a passing fad, but the whole concept of being more socially responsible and making better choices is here to stay.

There are many little things you can do to make an impact on our environment. Maybe not individually, but as a whole society those little things add up to big changes.

Here are a few things you can do today that will make a difference in our environment when combined by the efforts of millions of others just like you.

- Unplug unused electronics and appliances when not in use. Did you know that even when not in use these items still continue to draw electricity? Some of the worst offenders are automatic coffee pots, microwaves, TV’s and clock radios.

- These days when the cost of gasoline has reached an all time high it makes better sense, both for our environment and your wallet, to walk or car pool whenever possible. I’ll be the first to say the idea of walking a mile or two down the road to get stamps doesn’t thrill me much, but even just walking to the bus stop instead of driving makes a difference. Another great tip is not to let you car idle. If you are stopped for more then a minute or two turn your car off. Idling just wastes gas and pollutes our environment.

- Use re-usable water bottles. I know it’s very easy to grab a bottle of nice cold water in any deli or convenient store, but each one of those bottles ends up in our landfills. Each year tons of water bottles end up in our landfills. You also need to consider all the power and pollutants that are utilized to create the water bottles and the fuel it takes to deliver them to all the stores. A much healthier and less expensive choice would be water from your own kitchen faucet. If you happen to have water that is not very tasty you can always get one of those affordable water filtration systems like Brita and Pur. You can purchase inexpensive reusable water bottles just about anywhere these days.

- Reduce waste whenever possible. Instead of taking a plastic spoon to eat your lunch with use a regular spoon from home and wash it when you are done. Use sandwich boxes instead of bags. You can even purchase reusable sandwich wraps. Make your own snacks, for example pudding, and put it in a reusable container instead of purchasing pudding cups from the store. It’s cheaper and it saves our environment too.

- Buy locally grown and produced products. Support your local farmers and farmer’s markets. When you buy local you save our environment from all the fuel that is used up to transport foods from one area to the next. Granted you can not buy every product locally but you can find a vast majority of fruits and vegetables from local farms. They cost less then traditional grocery stores too. It’s also important to support local commerce.

- Become a Yahoo Groups). Instead of tossing out that unwanted bike or those golf clubs you no longer use list them on Freeshare/Freecycle and pass them along to someone else who can use them. It helps to keep more items out of our landfills. You might also get something you have been looking for too for free.

- Eat less meat. Even eating one meatless meal a week can make a huge impact on our environment (not to mention it’s a healthier option for you). Did you know that 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock? That is more then what is emitted from the various forms of transportation. Another benefit to our environment is the less meat we require the less trees are destroyed. Each year thousands of acres of land in the Amazon are deforested to make room for livestock. Millions of trees are destroyed each year and as you know trees help to keep our air clean.

These are just a few ideas to get you started on the road to being more socially conscious and environmentally aware of what you can do to help save our environment. As an added bonus you’ll even save some money too.

“Going Green” is something everyone can do. All it takes is committing to doing one environmentally friendly act and continuing to do that on a daily basis.

We only have one Earth. We must all make the commitment to do our part to take care of our Earth before it’s too late. Even the smallest act can have a great impact. Make the effort to do one “Green” thing today.