Students Against Climate Change club, a new campus organization, will write a bi-monthly column in The News to educate the Choate community and the actions everyone can take to lead more environmentally-friendly lives.
Check the label: where’s your shirt from? Chances are, it’s from Malaysia, Guatemala, the Philippines—somewhere far, far away. Now think about the apple that you ate at lunch: if it’s from an ordinary supermarket, it’s most likely from South America. Day students carpool daily from towns twenty miles away to save on gas. Imagine how much gas it took to bring that apple thousands of miles.
We live in a globalized society, there is no question about it. In many ways globalization is a wonderful phenomenon, as it allows for the sharing of ideas and the collaboration of cultures. However, it also has a downside, especially if people do not think about the energy costs of exchanging mass quantities of goods with other countries. One of the negative effects of globalization is global warming.
Yes, global warming, the current “hot” news topic. However, global warming is more than just a fad: for the last thirty years, scientists, not just Al Gore, have been warning us that as a result of human actions, our climate is changing with drastic effects. For example, according to CNN.com, Arctic melting has occurred at a rate three times higher than scientists had anticipated. Now, for the first time ever, oil tankers can go west from Russia directly to Europe, crossing the Arctic through an area that had always been covered in ice. Step back and think about this for a second. The Arctic, land of polar bears, sub-zero temperatures, and Santa Claus, may well be ice-free by 2050. Maps will have to be redrawn!
Our generation, the future adults of the world, needs to get upset about this. We can no longer keep silent about this issue as we wait for others to do something. Although we are not yet powerful politicians or renowned scientists, our youth should not be an excuse. Think about what the previous generation, our parents, did to protest the Vietnam War and other issues they felt strongly about. However uncool they may seem to us now, our parents truly took action and changed the world. Not only did many of them oppose the Vietnam War, they helped launch the Civil Rights Movement and modern environmentalism, and they campaigned for women’s rights. By contrast, our generation has not even begun to make itself heard.
Of course, this brings up the question of what we can do to take action against one of the major problems of our time, global warming. Those of us who can vote have an incredible opportunity to voice our opinions to candidates and to America. If we are able to attend a candidate’s speech, ask what he or she plans to do to fight global warming. However, all of us make choices every day that contribute to global warming. Sure, unplugging your cell phone charger when you don’t need it seems pointless now, but do that every day for the next ten years and you will save a significant amount of energy.
An important response to globalization is conscious consumption. In other words, we need to remember the apple from Chile: we need to think about what we are buying, where it is coming from, and the impact it has on the environment. Because much of what we wear, eat, and purchase comes from so far away, our daily consumption represents a huge amount of carbon dioxide pollution. Now, it is foolish to promise ourselves that we’ll never buy another pair of jeans again, because that is simply unrealistic. Rather, we can promise ourselves to consume wisely. This means considering the necessity of our purchases (do I really need another coat?), as well as where they are coming from (how about investigating clothing brands made in the United States?). Also, be on the lookout for items with less packaging, millions of pounds of which end up in our landfills each year. Products made from recycled materials, ranging from paper to fleece jackets, are widely available. Instead of depleting resources to create a completely new product, recycled goods use what has already been manufactured, saving both materials and energy.
As New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote in an article entitled “Generation Q,” we, the “quiet generation” need to start voicing our opinions. We are the future leaders of the world, and as such, we will be dealing with the consequences of global warming when it may be too late. We have a dual obligation: first of all, to encourage our current leaders to take action against this issue, but second, to take action ourselves.
Here are some brands to investigate, as they are either made in the U.S. or with recycled materials:
•American Apparel (one of the founders attended Choate; sweatshop free labor and made in the U.S.)
•Freitag (Swiss company; bags made from recycled truck tarpaulins, seatbelts)
•Patagonia (many products made from recycled materials)
•Roots (many products made in Canada; runs environmental campaigns)
