At 8 pm local time on Saturday, March 29, we were supposed to turn off our lights and appliances as part of Earth Hour, a worldwide event to highlight the problem of global warming and its solution of people working together to reduce their impact on the environment. Although I knew about Earth Hour, I didn't turn off my lights or my appliances. My excuse was that I had to work.
I'll soon have a chance to redeem myself because Earth Day is coming up. On April 22 each year, Earth Day is held to involve people in making the planet cleaner, healthier, and safer. Sadly, in all honesty, I'm sure I'll probably have another excuse not to join in one of the numerous events planned worldwide.
Because I don't join such events doesn't mean I don't care. I do care, and I try to help anyway I can. But "going green"—the newest lingo for trying to be environmentally conscious—isn't always easy to do. Case in point: About a year ago, I had an old computer system I wanted to recycle instead of throwing in the local landfill. It was too old to donate charity, so I did a lot of searching on the Internet to find a place that would accept it. (See "Spring Cleaning: How to Get Rid of Those Dust Collectors.") This year, I needed to get rid of a broken TV and a really old TV that no one would want, even for free. (I bought it back when cable-ready TVs weren't even a gleam in the inventor's eyes.) Like computers, TVs contain a lot of hazardous materials that shouldn't be in landfills, so I wanted to dispose of them properly. Once again, it took a lot of searching on the Internet to find a place that would recycle the TVs for me, provided I paid the fee. Worse than the time spent searching the Internet was the fact that I had to drive a ways to both recyclers: 80 miles roundtrip to computer recycler and 40 miles roundtrip to TV recycler. All that extra driving put more harmful emissions in the air that no doubt added to our global warming—a case of two steps forward and one step back. . . .
Register
