Let's go Ozone

So with all of this commotion over the depletion over the ozone layer, everyone's "going green". I personally am very pro-environment; I recycle, yell at my friends when they don't recycle, and turn off the lights when I leave a room. I try to be environmentally friendly. But many people don't believe that global warming is actually happening. Some might argue that the temperature is not increasing, and they just ignore it. WAKE UP PLEASE. Because the truth is, global warming isn't just about the warming of the earth and increasing CO2 levels..it's also about the weather becoming more extreme. This means bigger hurricanes, more storms in general, when it gets cold it will be really cold, and when it gets hot it will be really hot.

In Al Gore's book and documentary An Inconvenient Truth, there's stuff that's so true it's scary. A chart of his shows how drastically the carbon dioxide levels have increased within the past 500 years. Within this time, the industrial revolution began (sparking pollution). From then on, our environment got worse every day. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the main cause of ozone depletion, and they come from our four-wheeled vehicles that don't appear harmful - we usually get a car because it looks cool, doesn't cost too much, or is big enough to haul our boat to the lake. But who stops to think, how much damage am I doing to the earth by buying this car?

Well, maybe it's time for us all to think about this. Gas mileage is a nice guage of fuel emissions. A Toyota Prius gets around 50 mpg. If we all had a car that was closer to that gas mileage, not only would you save money on gas, you'd be saving the earth. Higher gas mileage means you can drive farther on a gallon of gas then a car with a lower one. More money in your pocket, and less smog. Good deal, right? Another (and much less expensive) way besides buying a more eco-friendly car would be to walk, take the bus/subway, or ride your bike that's probably been sitting in your garage for a few summers. You'll get a good butt workout from biking, guaranteed.

So turn off the lights when you leave the room, recycle, use transportation that's good for you and the earth, and please..be kind to our mother earth, and that means using your good judgement. We've only got one planet.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl