I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom, for me and you

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world



These lyrics, from the song “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong, may not always apply to the world we live in. If the people of the world do not start paying attention to the environment, we may no longer be seeing “trees of green.”

Nowadays we seem to be hearing about global warming, high gas prices, endangered animals, green house gases, and deforestation everywhere. From science class to the five o’clock news, someone is always talking about what more can be done to help the environment. Usually a lot of people just shrug off these conversations with a thought of, “I recycle and ride my bike instead of drive during the summer. What else can I do?” or, “Is it really that big of a deal? We can’t honestly run out of water, can we?” It appears things like this can happen and are in the process of happening right now.

According to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 400,000 square miles of arctic sea ice has melted in the last 30 years. This is threatening the surrounding habitats of already endangered species like the polar bear. The sea level has, because of melting glaciers, risen 10-20 centimeters in the last 100 years. Not to create an over-large snowball effect, but if this continues, cities on the coast may no longer exist. Manhattan will be the Atlantis of the twenty-first century. Looking at environmental issues from this perspective has made us pay more attention to how we can be greener in our daily lives.

“Being green is important because we have only one planet and no second chances,” Environmental Club president Emily Lewis said. We agree, once this planet is ruined, it is ruined. There is no going back and undoing our actions. Once we run out of oil or water, or kill off an endangered species, that’s it. It’s gone, and we can’t get it back. We know we don’t want to see a world lacking panda bears or tigers, but someday we might, if we don’t start caring for our planet a little better in the here and now.

Trying to be more environmentally friendly in our homes and workplaces is a good start, but what about where we, as students, spend the majority of our time? We will try to provide some easy ways to be more ecologically conscious during the school day.

There are many ways that we can be greener when we are at school. First, for those of us who drive to school, we could consider riding our bikes. Then, when it gets a bit too cold and snowy for bikes, car-pooling is another alternative. Instead of having two parking lots completely full of cars, we could use just one, or half of each. Grab a couple of friends or neighbors and spilt the gas cost and take turns driving to and from school each week.

Another thing that each of us can do on an individual basis is to try to reuse and recycle paper. Take notes in classes on both sides of the paper, and do homework that is not being turned in on the same sheet. Buy loose-leaf or notebooks that are made of recyclable materials and then when finished with them or they are completely used up, send them to the recycle bin rather than the garbage. Also, we can all encourage our teachers to only print a class set of papers and reuse them for multiple classes, or to post notes and other materials online so we can access them at home and at school without writing them down and using more paper.

On a slightly larger scale, as a school we can purchase large floor mats for every entrance so less grime is tracked into the building. Rugs that are at least five steps long can lessen the amount of germs brought into the building and improve the air quality. Also, floors would not need to be cleaned quite as often if less dirt was tracked in. Lessening the cleaning would, in turn, lessen water usage.

On the note of less water, fixing leaky faucets can preserve this valuable resource greatly on a daily basis. Also, we can turn off appliances, like computers and SMART Boards, when they are not in use to save energy. We can even unplug them to prevent energy from being sucked in and not being utilized.

Turning off lights when classrooms are not in use is another energy saver. Then to go above and beyond, replacing light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones can save even more energy.

In the course of writing this article, we have learned that though our recycling at home is a step in the right direction, there are many more simple little things we can do at school and at home that helps Mother Earth. So for all you competitive students out there, let’s make it a race. Ready, set, GO GREEN!