By Jon Scott
In the United States, Vermont is considered to be the greenest state. Nevada is also considered the worst state at going green.
The going green issue is something that has been in the news for the past several years. However, the precise definition of the term “Going Green” is somewhat unclear. Many people think that they have to change everything about their lifestyles just in order to go green. That is not necessarily the case. The most accurate Google definition for going green is: “The activity of adding sustainability principles and considerations into the planning process of an event, organizational or personal lifestyle.”
From recycling to saving water to saving the Earth’s other resources, students all have their own definition as to what going green means. Sophomore Maiyah Czarnecki says, “I think it means to save the Earth by recycling, saving water, etc.”
In a situation where something can be washed out and reused, not everyone reuses those type of things. If one does not do things that are green related, perhaps maybe reusing recyclables will help. Senior Tiffani Howard states, “I think going green is recycling, using less resources that aren’t getting replaced, and simply taking care of our environment.”
When one hears the words ‘going green,’ the majority of interviewed people says that they think of recycling. Senior Alyssa Schafer says, “I think of those sun chip commercials and how the bags are biodegradable.” Junior Brooke Wojcik explains that two things she thinks of are recycling and conservation. Czarnecki says, “I think of the recycling symbol because it’s cool and I think of recycling.” By going green, it would help the environment, such as not as much air pollution. Senior Boston Bays explains, “When I hear ‘going green,’ I think about recycling and things about improving our environment. Our media has made a significant impact with these words.” Howard states, “recycling, it’s the easiest way to help go green.”
Going green is an important issue that has come up over the years. Unfortunately, not everyone refers to the term going green. Some may talk about it, but may just not use the words going green in their conversation. Senior Krysten Moore says, “I don’t really use the term going green in my everyday life because I don’t really talk about it.”
Doing things that tie into going green issues will make our country, and whole world, a better place. Wojcik explains, “Saving trees and money because recycling means less need for cutting down trees and you’ll save more money by not using as much plastic and not using as much paper.”
By going green in every possible way, the country as a whole would not be facing nearly as problems as what there are now. Hix explains, “If our country decided to go green, it would help in so many ways. Instead of cutting trees down for paper, we can access everything on the Internet.” Bays says, “It would help our country significantly by recycling and doing things that help lower our trash and emissions, our Earth could not explode in 2012.” A nice thing about going green would be that we would not have to buy as many resources and the non-renewable resources could last longer. Howard states, “It would help our economy because we wouldn’t have to buy so many resources and it will help our environment out a lot.”
The going green issue has been in the news a lot and does have some attention. Ways of going green are limiting/eliminating all air pollution from factories, not burning as much fuel, and when possible, carpool with other people. Senior Rachael Garcia says, “Think about those sad little pictures of the polar bears floating in the middle of an ocean with a single chunk of ice.” This issue is certainly something that can be solved, but it will take everyone to resolve the going green issue.