So it begins

I have decided to do a sort of green experiment for the next three and half weeks by giving up some of the things that I do in my daily live that effects the environment in some way. During the experiment I will give up television, video-games, and the internet (with the exception of school work and this blog of course). I will also not be eating any takeout, fast food, or frozen meals. I will also be eating fresh fruits and vegetables, stop using plastic bottles and instead only use an environmentally friendly water bottler. Also I will use rechargeable batteries since batteries do not decompose and are very acidic. I choose to do these things because I feel that by committing to these actions will lead me to living a healthier lifestyle. I hope that my actions will have a small measurable impact on at least the plastic bottle problem. 

According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.  Other problems with bottled water includes the facts that bottled water tastes bad, is anywhere from two hundred  forty to ten thousand times more expensive then tap, and that it is also mostly just tap water anyways. Although I do not personally drink bottled I water, I do drink bottled beverages like Gatorade, and the heart of the problem is more the plastic then the water. I do reuse the plastic bottles to a point (they do make decent water bottles when emptied) however the end result is always the same: getting “recycled”. Recycling works to an extent; it is impossible to fully reuse everything that gets placed into the recycling plants so the better solution is to avoided plastic bottles in the first place.  

Another problem is fast food; everything from the packaging to the food itself is horrible. The packaging is designed to be thrown away as soon as you walk through your front door to get to the food as fast as possible.  I am not saying that it would be a good idea to ban fast food altogether, there is a point to it: (unlike bottled water) sometimes people need to eat something fast, cheap, and on the go for a variety of reasons: working late, low on cash, or on a road trip. However there is a problem of how often people eat fast food. I eat fast food once or twice a month but even that can be viewed as excessive. When we eat fast food for no reason it generates waste, environmental and human. Not to mention fast food is plain disgusting, unhealthy, and fattening.

Now I am NOT an environmental activist of any sorts and I certainly do not care if you follow suit (the real reason behind cutting down electricity use:  it helps marks in these precious few weeks left of high school, I am not on board with this whole ‘repent your greenhouse gas causing ways or the Earth will burn’ view point) however there are some rules to this little experiment. I can not use electronic media for entertainment period. No YouTube videos or video-games. Also one hour and one hour only will be used to watch T.V per week. (Damn you BBC for compromising this entire experiment with your ‘Doctor Who’) Also if you look closely this experiment may be for more of my good health and not just the environment. I mean what has the environment done for us besides supporting all forms of known life?