All That is Stickney

Welcome to the 21st century. When activists want to spread their message, they don’t protest anymore, no marches on Washington, no throwing blood on people wearing furs, and I can’t remember the last time I saw someone ties themselves to a tree. No, this is The Future! ( Well, not until 2015, but close enough. ) And in The Future, people use the Internet to spread their message! Hence today. Blog Action Day.

I know I don’t have legions of readers waiting to read every post I make, but I thought I would be remiss if I didn’t at least try to do my part.

Almost 10 years ago I was in high school, in the Environmental Club, and I couldn’t care less about the environment, Mother Earth, Gaia or Captain Planet. I didn’t go out of my way to litter, but if I dropped a soda can, I wasn’t exactly running to pick it up either. And so, when I was convinced to go to Boston to protest something or another with some friends, I ended up with the infamous “Don’t Rape My Planet” sign you see below.

At any event, as the years went by, the environment became a heated topic, and newer technologies were developed that could help out. The movement is growing, there have been sections of the newspaper devoted to alternative energies in your home, electric cars, hybrid cars, better light bulbs, better thermostats, federal government tax credits for some of this stuff. As people become more aware of the problem, some people are making huge efforts to cut down their own effect on the environment ( Like This guy ). But some people are just trying to do what they can.

My own father introduced me to the CFL, compact fluorescent light bulb. Granted there is some mercury in them, but easily properly disposed of. It’s a bulb that instead of taking 60W of power, only uses 15W. They come in as little as 10W I think. Giving off the same amount of light, but at a fraction of the electric usage. You save electricity ( $$ ) and a little bit of the environment. When I moved into a new apartment, the first thing I do is change all the bulbs to these CFLs. ( The bulbs ) They are usually found at your local hardware store for $1-$2, but are guaranteed to last for 5 years. Ive also changed out the old thermostats in my parent’s house and the 2 apartments I’ve lived in to programmable ones. $30-$40, but you’ll save that in heating costs, and saves a little more of the environment. ( Froogle Search )

I like to think that if everyone made changes like these, we might be in a much better place. Ive also seen things like baseball stadiums installing solar panels, green office buildings, cities and towns trying to produce electricity more cleanly. Can we save the environment in our lifetime? Maybe not, but if we make some change now, teach the next generation to do the same, they can continue what we’ve started and finish the job. This is our planet, we should save it. Until that is we can join up with other intelligent beings and start conquering planets in the name of the Empire of Earth… but that’s another story.