I like breathing clean air and drinking clean water. Don't you?

Nov 01

There's a lot of discussion about "climate change", which really means "climate change caused by humans". A lot of the discussion is political, but let's be honest. I don't know anyone who wants to drink polluted water or breathe dirty air. So, given that every single one of us, conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican likes having a clean environment what can we do personally to keep our Earth clean?

We have one planet to live on and what we do here affects people on the other side of the world. If I go outside in my back yard and decide to be a terrible neighbor and burn a bunch of plastic that stinks up my neighborhood and forces my neighbors to breathe the dirty and smelly air that burning plastic creates, not only will my neighbors be affected but so will strangers in Europe. It will take a while but if I release pollution in my back yard it will be blown across the ocean and it will eventually affect the entire world! The same goes for water pollution. If I was rude enough to dump oil from changing my car's oil in the water close to my house that oil will not only kill plants and animals where I live and get into my drinking water, it will also flow around the rest of the world and pollute drinking water in South America! And pollution created in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia makes it's way here to the USA and makes our air and water dirty too!

Since we all like breathing clean air and drinking clean water what can you and I do personally that will make a difference? Sure we can protest pollution and petition our politicians to pass more laws mandating pollution controls, but that's not enough! What can we do that will make a difference today?

We can start by buying products and food that are manufactured and grown in the America. The United States of America has some of the strictest pollution control laws in the world! We're far from perfect, but generating 1 kWh of electricity here creates less pollution than generating that same electricity in most of the rest of the world does. If the shirt that you're wearing right now as you're reading this was made in the United States of America less pollution was created by making it than was created by making the same shirt in Indonesia! The same with the food that we eat! American farmers use farm machinery that creates less pollution than farm machinery in the rest of the world! So if you and I buy American made goods we're cutting down on the amount of pollution created in the world immediately with one quick, simple, and easy step.

The other reason to buy products made in the United States of America is because of the amount of pollution created shipping freight across the world! In some cases buying something made locally will create less pollution than buying that same product and having it shipped across the world to you even if your local factory produces more pollution than the factory on the other side of the world creates! The amount of oil that is used to power cargo ships as they move products from other countries to America is insane! Especially considering how much pollution those ships create and how much toxic waste they spill in the ocean! Airplanes are sadly even worse! They spew tons of pollution everywhere they go! Plus trucks that haul goods across the USA from California to New York put out tons of dirty air every year so buying products that are made close to where you live will help clean up our Earth so that we can all live on a cleaner and healthier planet!

You and I can make tiny changes to our lifestyle and help clean up our world so that we all have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. If you live in California, buy California oranges instead of Florida oranges. If you live in Florida buy produce grown locally in Florida. And no matter where you live buy products that are made close to where you live. Each one of us doing this will make a tiny difference and enough tiny differences will result in a much cleaner world than the one we're living in today!

This is something that we can all agree on no matter what our politics is which is why it's so exciting! We can all make a difference and it won't hurt us or be hard either! Isn't that a great thing?