With today being Earth Day, people are going to be hearing terms such as “going green,” the “green movement,” and “sustainability” all day long. The environment has never played such a large role in our society. Global warming concerns are at an all-time high and the new Obama administration has promised swift action to climate change. Although the environment has such a large role, very few people truly understand the meaning of “going green.”
“Going green” is a loose term that represents the shift towards becoming more environmentally conscious. Most people think of going green as simply screwing in a fluorescent light bulb or carpooling to work one day, but going green has become a lot more complicated than that.
To go green first starts off with the awareness that our environment is in trouble and that you need to take a role in stopping a planet-wide catastrophe. There comes a sense of responsibility in living a green lifestyle. You must hold yourself responsible for your carelessness and then begin to take steps in making a change.
After realizing you have a responsibility, simple changes must then occur, like screwing in that fluorescent light bulb or frequently carpooling with a person or a group of people. Although these are good steps, going green just doesn’t end there. Beginning a green lifestyle also involves becoming more aware of the latest green news and changing your lifestyle in response to recent findings.
In a lot of ways, going green is like a fashion trend—but one that you can’t switch over when you don’t feel like it. You don’t have a responsibility to wear Prada (or maybe you do). Going green is about changing your lifestyle to better the world around you and preserve it for future generations. For example, more and more findings are showing that meat production produces more greenhouse gas emissions per year than automobiles. In order to curb, these emissions, people as a whole need to eat less meat or, preferably, none at all.
“Going green” may be a loose term that people use lightly, but there are many aspects associated with going green that make it a lot more difficult of a shift than many would like. Thus, there are many more people who are in the “screw-in-fluorescent-light-bulbs” phase of going green than in the shift to vegetarianism form of going green.
Although it would be best for everyone to be in the shift to vegetarianism form of going green, even if someone does a little bit to help out the environment, it can make a big difference. The Earth is a very important planet for all of us—there isn’t another one like it and we should do everything in our power to preserve it.
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