Going Green

Emily CarlsonFirst Year Experience

What is Going Green?- Making choices that reduce, or even reverse the negative impact of your actions on the earth.

- Being Conscious of our relationship to the planet.

-When an indiviual "goes green" their thoughts become more consistent with supporting the planet and conserving its resources.

Why go green?

- Population increase.- Protecting Water Purity.

- Global Warming.- Waste Management.

-Depletion of Rainforests.

Population•It is estimated that there will be over 9 billion people on earth by the year 2050.•To accomodate all of these people, there will need to be more natural resources.•It is important to start conserving natural resources now so they will be available in the future.

Protecting Water Purity

•Ground water can become polluted by waste in landfills.•These pollutants contain chemicals that can be toxic.

Global Warming

•Many of the chemicals found in fuels are are causing the climate to change.•Global warming is creating harmful smog.•Hazardous to wildlife.

Waste ManagementSimple objects we use everyday take a very long time to decompose in a

land fill.

apple core: 2 Months

styrofoam: NEVER decomposes.

aluminum can: 200 years

Disposable Diaper: 500 years

Plastic Bottle: 450 years

Depletion of Rainforests

•Rainforests used to cover 14% of the earth's land surface.•The Rainforest now covers only a mere 6%•One and a half acres of rainforest is lost every second.•This is endangering massive amounts of wildlife and indigenous tribes.

"Greenwashing"

Greenwashing

•Green washing is an unjustifiable claim that a company is environmentally friendly.•This is often used as an advertisement or sales ploy.•Motive is to increase sales and create a pro-environmet image or reputation.•Some culprits of greenwashing are GE, Exxon, Purdue, Fiji Water,and MANY more.

How Can You Go Green?

Recycle.Cut Back On Energy Use.

Reduce Waste.Buy More Natural and Organic Products.

Reuse Objects, rather than Throwing them away.

Reinvent Your old things and turn them into something new.

Baby Steps...•turn off lights when leaving a room.•try to shorten your shower by 5 minutes.•turn the water off while brushing your teeth.•bring your own reuseable bags to the store with you.•eat more vegetarian meals.•fix leaky faucets.•carpool, walk, or ride a bike when possible.•skip bottled water and use a filter to purify tap water.•use an aluminum reuseable water bottle.•use both sides of a piece of paper.•reduce, reuse, recycle.

It may seem drastic, but there are tons of little ways to start living a greener lifestyle..

Going green is an important new movement for everyone to participate in, because it an easy way to

conserve resources and to protect the earth for future generations.

Bibliography1. "10 Ways to Go Green and Save Green | World Watch Institue"World Watch Institute| Vision for a Sustainable World. N.p.,n.d. Web. 1Dec2009 <http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3915>.

2. "Greenpeace | Greenwashing." Greenpeace| Greenwashing. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. <http://stopgreenwashing.org/introduction>

3. "Greenwashing - SourceWatch."SourceWatch. N.p., n.d Web. 1 Dec. 2009<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Greenwashing>

4. "How Long Does it Take for a (Blank) to Decompose? -Divester."Divester. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2009.<http://www.divester.com/2006/04/28/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-blank-to-decompose/>.

5. "Importance of Going Green | eHow.com."eHow.com | How to Do Just About Everything! | How to Videos and Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2009 <http://www.ehow.com/facts_5144869_importance-going-green.html>.