I’m in an environmental science course this semester, so Earth Day has new meaning for me this year. BIOL-103 has given me a new appreciation for just how much each one of our actions has so much impact on the environment, and how much our actions are multiplied by those around us engaging in the very same activities.
From driving our cars to what kinds of foods we chose to eat to how we dispose of our trash, every time we start a car, pick up produce at the supermarket or even flush the toilet we are making decisions – conscious or unconscious – that deeply affect the environment around us.
Being in a state like Virginia where there are so many trees and rivers, it may be hard to see just how important conservation can be. Until the trees turn brown, keel over and die, we may think we’re doing fine for ourselves.
But Virginia’s environmental abundance should also remind us of why it’s so important to preserve what we have. By the time the consequences of our actions have become visible, it’s too late.
Sure, it’s depressing to think about the consequences of our actions, but that’s exactly why we need to do more to limit them now. Not thinking about something and putting it off isn’t going to make it go away – I’m learning that now with my term papers coming due at the end of the semester, and I can tell you from experience: it’s not fun.
So, wherever you can, reduce, reuse and recycle. The decision can be as simple as switching from disposable items such as plastic silverware and paper plates to the reusable kind, or it can be a smarter investment like buying a more fuel-efficient car.
I’ve made the investment of buying fluorescent bulbs for my dorm. They are slightly more expensive, but they last about ten times longer so I don’t have to throw away as many bulbs, and I don’t have to change them as often. I don’t pay the electric bill for my dorm, but it is important to know that fluorescent bulbs, in addition to lasting longer, use about one-fourth the energy of incandescent (regular) bulbs.
This is significant, because each extra watt, each extra appliance left plugged in, each light left on pollutes the environment that much more, since most of our electricity comes from coal. Coal, in turn, gets burned into the atmosphere as sulfur oxides that can form into acid rain. Nitrogen oxides from cars do the same, as well as contribute to ground-level ozone (smog), an especially important concern as the summer season approaches – not to mention the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming.
Mercury, too, has been a concern. In the last year the Envrionmental Protection Agency warned that pregnant women and children shouldn’t eat too much tuna or fish caught from rivers because of high levels of mercury in the meat. Most of this mercury comes from smokestacks at coal power plants, which the government has yet to clamp down on.
Seeing as how there are 6 billion of us on the planet now, and growing every day, we should tread as lightly on the planet as we can. I don’t mean that we should “save the whales” or hug trees, but ultimately conservation is in our own self-interest because we want to ensure the survival of the human race.
Our environmental decisions now may only affect beluga whales or caribou in the arctic right now, but eventually the same actions will affect more and more of the earth’s population, and we should do all we can to make sure the earth we enjoy now is the one our grandchildren will be able to enjoy – we may even see the effects of our pollution in our own lifetimes.
Besides disposing properly of chemical pollutants so they don’t pollute our groundwater or the Chesapeake Bay, we should also recycle all we can so that our garbage isn’t taking up space in landfills. Someday we’ll run out of room, but like I said, by then it will be too late.
Omar Yacoubi may be reached at yacoubioa@vcu.edu.