Busy school days that are packed with mock papers.
Long school hours that are never-ending.
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Save the Earth !
(Not the foolscap pad but PLEASE DO YOUR PART TO SAVE THE EARTH.)
You can do your part :
1. EAT VEGETARIAN! That means stop eating cows, pigs and chickens at a minimum. Mad cow disease is just the latest disaster story revolving around animal agriculture. Cattle ranching causes overgrazing, polluted run off, stenchs, resistance to antibiotics, and takes up a lot more water and energy resources than it would take to produce an equivalent amount of food through plant sources. Health food stores now have a pretty wide choice of convenient vegetarian food items, including favorites like veggie burgers and hot dogs. Give meat a rest.
2. STOP WATCHING TV. The main point of this remarkably successful time-waster is to sell YOU to the advertisers, whose commercials sell you junk you don't need. Do you really want to reflect back on your life and a very polluted planet, to realize that you have seen every episode of M*A*S*H seven times? Get a life!
3. LEARN TO HATE YOUR CAR. Autos and the oil/gasoline network and road systems required for their support demand a lot from the earth. Carpool, walk, bike, take mass transit, combine trips, and eliminate trips, so that you use your car as little as possible. America's long-time love affair with Henry Ford's at-times useful invention needs a chilling out, if not a divorce.
4. TEAR UP YOUR LAWN. Or most of it. Use native plants and wildflowers, which are a lot prettier than plain green grass. Lawns demand lots of time to cut, water (especially in hot climates), and for some people, chemical fertilizers and herbicides. For what lawn you do have, use either a push mower or an electric mower (solar powered ones are now available), and leave the grass clippings in place to provide additional nutrients and moisture retention.
5. RECYCLE OR DIE. Recycle or compost everything that comes in your house. And we don't mean just the easy stuff like bottles, cans and newspapers. Communities can now recycle old paint, used motor oil, anti-freeze, and fluorescent light tubes. Complain to your city, county or state if programs are not in place to recycle everything you have to dispose of on a regular basis. Remember, there are a couple billion people in China who all want to live the same resource intensive lifestyle of the U.S. - Let's at least set a good example for what we do with all of our recyclable packaging and other waste.
6. FIGHT CONSUMERISM. Buy less. Buy less. Buy less. Buy less. If repeated often enough, any message will get through. Turn off your TV, stop your junk mail (by using U.S. Postal Form 2150, see the Touchstone, Nov/Dec 1995 available on the Touchstone website at http://www.rtis.com/reg/bcs/pol/touchstone/), and tell tele-marketers not to call you back (you can actually sue them if they call back more than once). Challenge corporate power. Buy from locally-owned businesses as opposed to national corporate chain stores. When you do buy, do it eco-wise: avoid overpackaging, buy items which come in packaging that can be recycled, buy in bulk, etc.). Spend your $$$ on non-profit grassroots groups (like the Touchstone) that really need it, not on "stuff" that you will soon tire of, and which only profits corporations which will funnel the profits to their lobbyists to further corrupt our politicians and destroy the planet. Buy less. Buy less. Buy less. Buy less. Buy less. Buy less.
7. GET ACTIVE. Join at least one group that is actively taking steps save the planet, and get involved. If you have no time and can only give money, thats OK because the really good groups need the money. Stay away from staid Beltway environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, and the like, and put your money and time on grassroots groups like Greenpeace, Earth First!, Earth Island Institute, EarthSave, Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, Rainforest Action Network, etc. Animal rights groups are also good to support, since they all have strong pro-environment agendas. You also ought to participate in at least one good demonstration protest.
8. GET WILD! Explore nature and wild places as much as possible. This is fun, invigorating, healthy, and in some cases and locations, the last chance you may get to see a special spot before it is ravaged by humans. Also, the more you get out in nature, the more inclined you will be to do something to stop the insanity. Don't let nature films on TV be your main experience with the natural world.
9. CONSERVE ENERGY. In addition to the above items, use water-saving devices, lower your house and water heater temperature, insulate your house, reuse paper, print copies double sided copies, and generally follow the basic common sense steps to use less resouces of all types. Remember, we don't have a spare planet to run to when supplies run out.
10. YOUR CHOICE. Do one more thing that you know you either want to do, should be doing but aren't, or could do better, to save the earth. One final thing you can do is send this or a similar list to your elected officials, and challenge them to respond. They need to hear from us -- they have heard more than enough from Rush.
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NINETY EIGHT DAYS LEFT FOR THE FIRST WRITTEN PAPER
- CHEMISTRY PAPER 3 (:
Till then,
- Adelene.
