Brian's World

Green Day

No, this blog is not a follow up to Green Day’s Ode to Hamlet or anything of that like; lets talk about the different type of green… arguably more important, the green Earth! Why? Well its certainly not a topic I would normally blog about, mainly because it doesn’t effect my everyday life in a direct way… I think thats part of the problem, global warming and all that stuff isn’t something we easily notice as affecting us everyday. I can’t way I’ve been frustrated at the Earth lately, it hasn’t played loud music or prevented me from doing my homework. A little alarm bell doesn’t go off telling me that I am late for a save the earth meeting, but that doesn’t mean its not important.

Maybe I need to be more enviromentally aware, I try to be environmentally smart.. recycling as much as possible. I minimize trips in my car, most of the week it sits parked in a lot up here at BARH.. I like walking to the Union, classes, etc.

I save a little power by turning off the lights as much as possible. I insist on turning the lights off in the bathroom and any other room I’m in while I’m not there… and I like using sun light when possible. I don’t know how much this actually matters when you look at the computers and everything I’m related to. Sure, I turn them off at night (everything but the servers), but they still drink power like its going out of style… is it?

I could buy carbon offset for everything I do, but that doesn’t feel real enough. I don’t doubt someone is planting a tree or whatever they do with it, but I could go plant a tree in the forest in South Hadley if I wanted, there are already a bunch of trees in there too.

That might just be part of the problem, I think I’ve ran out of ways I am environmentally friendly. I recycle and minimize my car usage, there certainly must be more I can do without taking it too far. I don’t want to convert my car to run off vegetable oil.. but I’d be willing to take a small step or two.

Any ideas of small things I could start doing to improve the Earths condition? I’m open to try just about anything if it makes sense to me.

All this earth talk makes me feel like going camping, which I get urges for in the fall when all the leaves are changing and looking cool. The air is nice and cool and brisk, there is a pleasent breeze.. very nice camping weather.. I wish I could be sleeping outside in a tent in a forest. Too bad there wasn’t a forest outside my window at RPI, stupid parking lot.