Elijah B. Hozey
Horticulture 208
11/15/00
RESULTS OF MY ACTIONS TO SAVE THE EARTH
When I wrote my paper "Saving The Earth My Way", and started doing the things I said I would, I wasn’t thinking too much about the results of my actions, at least not in a measurable way. I just knew that most of the ideas seemed to be good, simple ways to help save the planet. Doing the things was helpful, my ecological footprint (the amount of land required to supply me with the resources that I use in a year) even decreased by about half an acre (you can calculate your ecological footprint on the website
http://www.sc.edu/sustainableu/ecofootintro.htm). Almost all of my actions had very good results, while others helped save the earth in one way, yet had some small side effect too. I hope that this will help to explain exactly how easy (for the most part) helping to save the earth can be.For the most part my easy actions turned out quite well. It was no trouble to wash a full load of clothes, and use only warm or cold water, and cleaning the lint trap on dryers only took a few seconds. These actions saved energy and money by not having to do laundry as often, having a half empty washer, not having to heat the water as much, and not having to dry my clothes as long. I also used as little detergent as possible, thereby saving money and helping the planet (over half the phosphates polluting our lakes and streams comes from detergents). Using a ceramic cup instead of paper or Styrofoam disposable cups saved money, trees from being made into the paper cups, and helped to pollute less by not using chemicals to produce Styrofoam cups (Styrofoam is made of benzene, a known carcinogen, and the gasses used to make it are very damaging to the ozone layer), or creating litter (Styrofoam breaks up in water, and kills the animals that eat it). The only drawbacks that I can see are that I have to wash the ceramic cups, which isn’t a problem about time, but it uses water and detergents. In addition to the things I named I helped pick up trash on the side of the highway a few times.
The mediums difficulty actions presented some problems, not very many, but more than my easier actions. Using fluorescent lighting presented no problems in the area of providing enough light, and they cut down on pollution by using less energy (lighting accounts for about one fifth of all the energy used on the U.S.). The only warning I can think of about fluorescent lighting would be to ask your eye doctor if continuous exposure would damage your vision. Not using a car was not too bad, since I don’t drive anyway, but I did have to carpool with others occasionally, but even that is a help, since carpooling eight miles a few days a week can save about 2,500 auto miles per person every year. Cutting my intake of meat wasn’t that hard, and it saved a lot of animals and feed for the animals (if Americans reduce their meat intake by just 10% the saving in grain and soybeans could feed 60 million people). I do caution anyone who does this to be careful how much you cut your supply of nutrients in the process, because I cut my intake out almost entirely, and didn’t feel too well.
These simple actions have helped to save the earth, at least in some small way, and were relatively painless to do. As I said in my last paper if I can do things to help save the earth anyone can, and every little bit counts. I would like to acknowledge the book "50 simple things you can do to save the earth" as the source of most, if not all of my facts and figures.