What started out as a quiz-taking venture on http://kdmacphee.blogspot.com/ has turned into a non-stop quest for more information on living a greener life. I always thought I was pretty green, but information I've gleaned from searching web sites like "green your" and "treehugger" has made me realize there is more I can do that doesn't cost that much money. More importantly, I see now how it is vital to take every action I can--the earth and its creatures depend on it.
A National Geographic special I watched on PBS this week drove this point home. The show, called "Strange Days on Planet Earth: Dirty Secrets," followed scientists trying to figure out why albatrosses chicks are starving to death. It showed the mother birds dutifully feeding their chicks, but eventually the chicks would die. Autopsies of the chicks showed the reason--their stomachs were crammed with bits of plastic that couldn't be digested. It turns out there's so much plastic floating about in the Pacific Ocean, albatrosses fatally mistake it for food.
This story really got to me. I recycle what plastic I can, but end up throwing away a number of plastic bags and wrappers. I had an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude about it until I saw those poor birds.
Of course, it's impossible to completely eliminate plastic from my life--most food from the store is wrapped in it. But there's one simple thing I can do, as http://eatplaylove.blogspot.com/ has mentioned: bring my own bags to the store. That would eliminate countless plastic bags from entering my household and eventually ending up in the trash.
My resolve was tested this morning when I forgot to bring my bag to Safeway. As the cashier starting putting the items in the plastic bag, it hit me. "I don't need the bag," I said. It was only four items, after all. The cashier gave me a strange look, but that's ok. I now know what can happen to those bags after they leave the store.
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