Going Green. The catch phrase of the decade. You hear it in commercials and during your favorite shows. You see it in magazines and on the web. You encounter it so often, the term, and the benefits of going green have almost lost meaning.
You Want to be a Good Human.
You realize that the upright-walking, opposing-thumb bearers of this planet have messed up the place and things aren’t going to get better if we keep doing the same stuff we’ve been doing. Just the same, you’re only one person and you’re getting a little tired of being made to feel guilty. In fact, you’re so weary of this “green” thing you’re losing sight of the very real advantages to living a sustainable/renewable life. It’s more than twisty light bulbs and cloth shopping bags. When you put an effort into being environmentally responsible, the benefits are many.
14 Core Benefits of Going Green:
1. Save Energy – While solar and wind energy are awesome, at the moment, a great many westerners get their energy from fossil fuels, natural gas and coal. These forms of energy cause pollution as well as devastate and deplete the lands and waters from which they are obtained. The less energy you use the less that energy needs to be produced.
2. Save Resources – We’re so used to seeing products on shelves that we rarely consider the environmental impact of manufacturing our widgets and doodads. We see the chair but not the forest laid bare to build it. We make a squee over that cute stuffed toy but we don’t ponder the waste-dumping factory from where it came. When you buy products from sustainable companies, that means you’re saving the lands where they operate.
3. Save Economies – When some big-deal corporation tears up farmlands and empties rivers just to make room for another useless product mill, the regular people that live there suffer. Try to make sure you buy stuff that improves the lives of the people that live where that stuff is made.
4. Save Your Health – Not only is driving your car four blocks to the store incredibly wasteful, it’s a lost opportunity to get some exercise and breathe some fresh air. Filling your house with plants that clean the air naturally is better for your lungs than spraying it with chemical-laden perfumes. Going green makes you a healthier human.
5. Save Your Sanity – The world is a crazy, unpredictable place and feeling powerless is maddening. Taking control of your immediate surroundings is an excellent way to regain peace of mind.
6. Save the Future – This is pretty self-explanatory. If we don’t change they way we live in the world, the world will make our lives unlivable.
7. Save Ecosystems – When you choose recycled paper over virgin, you’re helping to preserve the ecosystems that would be destroyed by deforestation. Corporate minds are one-track. Profit is more important than biodiversity.
8. Save Money – Victory gardens. Responsible energy consumption. Re-use/Recycle. These actions save you money.
9. Save Your Reputation – You may not be the most awesome person in your town but when you dedicate yourself to green living, you will have earned respectability.
10. Save Local Producers – One of the lesser-known steps to going green is to buy local. Not only do you diminish the pollution resulting from cross-country supply delivery but you help support the livelihoods of your neighbors.
11. Save Local Economies – When a big-box store bulldozes into town, it kills virtually every small business in the area. Avoiding chain stores is another way to promote sustainability.
12. Save Jobs – Going green is all encompassing. When the big company is done flattening the countryside and collecting tax breaks, they just pack up and move, leaving entire populations in the dust. Buy local. Save local jobs.
13. Save the Planet – You may not think your one small effort makes a difference. This is the kind of mindset that stops a societal movement in its tracks. There is incredible power in leading by example. The more people you influence, the more people they will influence. Get enough people to change and the rest of the world will follow.
14. Save Yourself – Do you really want to wake up ten years from now to skies so filled with pollution that you can’t go outside? Do you want to die decades earlier than you need to? Do you want your life to be nothing but one natural disaster after another? Do you want food and water rationing for the rest of your days?
I Know. Bummer.
One more scary article to make you feel like bleh.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to live in fear and guilt. You also don’t have to completely spend your life in order to go green. Instead of tossing that plastic butter tub in the trash, wash it and use it to store spare screws and nails – voila! Re-use! Instead of re-flooring your living room with oak, opt for bamboo – hazzah! Sustainability!
There are so many benefits to going green. Give some of them a try. Share your comments below!
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