Cat Liter

Today I bought a cat liter caller Yesterday's News. According to the packaging, the use of recycled newspapers cuts down on some of the newspaper clutter in landfills. Although the newspaper is going right back into the land fill once soiled, I feel this is still a great option for cat-owners. Using products like this one will replace the clay litter with the newspaper, which would have ended up in the landfill anyway had it not been used to make litter. In essence, reducing the amount of trash stacking up in the environment, even if it is just a little bit.

I just hope my cat will take to it. I have decided to mix it in gradually with the liter I currently use to try to get him to adjust.

Water wasting

This morning I took a really long shower, and now I feel quite guilty. I tend to do this more often during the winter, especially in the morning. I am finding more and more that going green is a double-edged sword. In the case of the shower situation, my roommates and I keep the apartment fairly cool during the winter, around 60 degrees or so, in order to save on the electric bill; however, the cool temperatures tempt me to enjoy the comforts of the hot water for longer. I suppose the best answer to this problem is to time my showers to prevent myself from letting too much water go down the drain. I do not like the idea of rushing through an activity that I find so relaxing, but I want to do the right thing.

When I was around ten or eleven years old, I had a friend whose younger brother told me that I should not let the water run while I am brushing my teeth because I would kill all the whales. At the time I knew that the water coming out of the faucet did not come from the ocean, but thinking about the source of the water is an interesting idea. The professor of my ecology class a year ago told us that it was projected, based on the speed at which the city's population was growing, that the water supply of Las Vegas would be depleted in ten years. What would happen to all the residents? Would they enact so form of water rationing in this desert oasis? Would the government force them to leave? It is a scary thought...

Utility Bills

Saving water and electricity are some of my major concerns these days. Living on campus my first two year of school really spoiled me. Regardless of how many lights were left on or how much time was spend in the shower, the bill was always the same. My biggest crime during those years was spending lots of time under the unlimited hot water in the shower. Now a days I have to pay for every fluid once of water that escapes the faucet and every watt of electricity burned. Needless to say, I am much more careful about how much of these resources I use. I have a responsibility to not only my wallet, but also my two roommates who split the bills with me.

Something that I have recently tried to change about my habits is turning the hot water knob on the facet when washing my hands. All children are told to use warm water to wash hands, but think of all the water that runs down the drain before the temperature warms up. Is it worth all the waste to be sure that all the germs are washed away? I suppose that depends on your activities previous to the hand washing. Using the toilet or handling raw meat probably warrants being a little wasteful.

As for electricity, my roommates and I are lucky because we are all friends and feel comfortable enough to study together in the living room. This is important because it means we are not in our separate rooms, using three times the amount of electricity.

It is funny the way that paying for the utilities has made me much more conscious of my usage. Perhaps in the future there will be rations on the amount of electricity and water a household can use before it is charged overage fees. That could make a great difference on the environment.

The title of my blog came to me as I was brain-storming ways to describe the word green. I am a college student at Texas A & M University, studying nutritional sciences, a degree plan that requires lots of chemistry. It was ingrained in my head during organic chemistry that each color in the visible light spectrum has its own range of wavelengths. The color green is seen when light being reflected is approximately between the wavelengths of 520 and 565 nanometers. Green is a symbol of nature and life in its simplest form. The lush green hues we associate with the chlorophyll of plants capture and utilize the sun's rays in such an efficient way. And they say that when the great ball of gas that is the sun burns up all organism will die, starting with the plants; but will life on Earth still exist by that point? Life on Earth has existed for thousands of years by Biblical estimates and billions of years by scientific estimates, all without the help of humankind, but it is time for us to interject and reverse the damage we have caused before we are longer able to.
I realize that I am only one person, and can only do so much, but I hope to inspire others to join in the efforts of the green movement. I think that selfishness is our major obstacle as a society. Think about all the things we don't do to help the environment because it is an inconvenience to us: taking the bus, separating out the recyclables, taking our own bags to the grocery store. I don't want to give the impression that I am selfless when it comes to the environment. I take my car to class more often than I ride the bus, I don't recycle at all, and I often times forget to take my grocery bags into the store with me. I know that I can be doing so much more... I am promising to all my followers that I will make an effort to change my habits into more eco-friendly ones. I guarantee that I will stumble at times, but I am recording my journey because I know that others will be able to relate, especially other college students. So I hope that you will return to read about my progress and share ideas about how we can all be a little greener.