Stories circulated for years over the issues of global warming and the push for the planet to go green seems to have become a revolution. Today we see recycling bins all over the school and other places around different cities. Hybrid cars have been created to be more energy efficient, and charging stations for electric cars have popped up at different gas stations in the past year. The idea of global warming seems to have been blown out of proportion, but it is a push that needs to be seen more and everyone should try to join in the go green revolution.
Global warming is no joke, and should be considered a much more serious issue than it has been. The negative effects have been seen, of course, but more should be done. There are billions of people on the earth, and a majority have made no decision to try and care for the planet. Many go on in their daily lives without a clue of how much they actually are building up their carbon footprints, the measure of carbon dioxide a person emits (Read more on Pages 8 & 9).
People need to be more aware and more conscious of how much they add into the harm being done to the planet. We live here and we need the planet to continue surviving ourselves, so why do we not do more to protect it?
The school has done an excellent job incorporating recycling and energy efficiency throughout the entire building and pushing students to actually join in on becoming more green. Students are the ones collecting recycling and pushing for the building to be more energy efficient.
The problem, though, is that students do not always pay attention to what they are doing around their homes and other places around town. Do we actually realize how much tossing papers and water bottles in the recycling bins is making a difference for the planet? To a lot of us, the recycling through the school is no different than throwing items in the trash, we are just putting it in a different bin. We do not always understand how much of a difference that the school is actually making from incorporating a few small changes. Changes we need to start making outside of school as well.
According to dosomething.org, in 2009, Americans produced enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times. In a school of over 2,600 students, just having students recycle papers and bottles has made a dent in that amount of trash. If everyone took the opportunity to reduce the amount of trash they create, it would make an even bigger difference.
Recycling is not the only option either. Small ways exist that will help to be more energy efficient in homes all around the country. Take shorter showers, turn lights off when not in a room, use sunlight coming in through the windows instead of lamps and ceiling lights, and change to other smaller actions to help make your home earth friendly.
The change is easy to make and worth it. It is our job to protect the planet we live on, especially since we need the planet to survive. Global warming may not take major effects in our lifetime, but it is noticeable now. We need to take action to help the planet for future generations ahead of us.
