Manage Monday: Should you teach your child to go green?

Water Pollution with Trash Disposal of Waste a...
Water Pollution with Trash Disposal of Waste at the Garbage Beach (Photo credit: epSos.de)

Although the”Go Green” movement to conserve what is left of earth is popular and gaining steam. Being green is a way of life for me and my family. Living green just makes sense to me, if we claim to care about our families and our future, our actions will show that we are taking steps to help preserve the world around us . Thus, I believe learning to “Go Green” starts in the highchair.

If we really want our children to enjoy a beautiful planet in the future, parents must teach their kids how to conserve and not waste. As a child I remember listening to Sesame Street’s “Wasting Water” song. It has had a lasting impact on my life, and I now share this song with my own children.

Why is it important for us to teach our children to go green?

  • Keep our world beautiful. The world doesn’t have a lot of space for our trash. According to “the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2008, each person in the United States created a daily average of 4.5 pounds (2.04 kilograms) of solid waste…To put that estimate in perspective, the average blue whale — the largest mammal on the planet — can weigh more than 100 tons (99,800 kilograms) [source: American Cetacean Society]. Assuming we are dealing with only modestly sized, 100-ton specimens, the United States throws away about 6,750 blue whales worth of garbage every single day.” (Source)
  • Our actions today, affect our future. Of course we want our children to have the best quality of life they can, so our actions today, will affect their lives later.
  • Some people go green to save money. By turning off unused appliances, lights, and gadgets we are not using unnecessary electricity. Choosing to change your energy source to solar power can help reduce the greenhouse effect by lessening the amount of harmful pollutants that go into the atmosphere, which leads to global warming. Using solar power can also reduce your utility bill costs and save your family money.
  • Help sustain life. Our habits of yesterday, not conserving, has contributed to certain species becoming extinct. For instance, the Polar Bear is a beautiful animal that we are aware of today, but if they continue to die at the same rate our children’s children in the will only know of polar bears from books and pictures.
  • Increase our quality of life. By changing the products you use to clean your house you can breathe healthier air, which can lead to a healthier life. By changing how you wash and buy your clothes, you can increase their overall lifespan, save you rmoney, and decrease the amount of waste in landfills. For example, you can affectively clean your clothes by using cold water. Did you know that 90% of your washers energy goes to heat the water? A couple of years ago after having an energy audit, I permanently switched to cold water  washing. In the summer my Gas and Electric bills averages less $30 for a family of 4. So wash in cold water and reduce your CO2 that is released into the atmosphere. Collin Dunn wrote an article that stated “Washing every load on the hot/warm cycle (in a top loading machine and an electric water heater) for a year is equivalent to burning about 182 gallons of gasoline in a car.” (Source)
  • Our lives depend on it. Unfortunately, we also take for granted the scarcity of fresh water. Sure, we just go our faucets to have water for cooking, bathing, drinking, etc, but water is a limited renewable resource. Yes, our planet is surrounded by water, sure the oceans are full of water,but the salt water in the ocean is not fresh water. 97% of the water on earth is salt water. (Source). In order for water to become fresh water that we need to survive it has to go through a water cycle. Some areas have less fresh water than others and we all have to share the fresh water so our changing world does not produce an abundance of water for us to both waste and share. Therefore, we each have to do our part to conserve it for the survival of all.

Reader question:

If you could save a life by choosing to live greener and “go green” would you?

 

Go Green Resource for Kids

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