During this class (Environmental Studies at Warner Pacific College) we have discussed many different aspects of the environment and I have learned
a lot about ways that we can help sustain the world we live in. I am sure that in
this class we have only scratched the surface of the ways we are able to
maintain our environment. In this paper I will discuss three ways in which we can
preserve our ecosystem. But before I do I would like to tell a short story
about myself when I was first in college. I was helping out with the Junior
High age group at my local church. Every other Sunday I would give a message to
the kids and hope for the best. The Junior High age can be difficult to please
so it was always nerve wrecking trying to get them to respond to the message presented
so that they might hopefully grow in their relationship with Christ. One
particular Sunday I was asked to give a word on the environment. I thought this
was an absolute waste of time. Why would I use valuable church time to talk
about why we need to environmentally friendly? It did not make sense to me. I
preached the message and the youth group was about as interested in the topic
as I was. I wish I could preach that message again; I would have a lot more to
say. God has given us a beautiful world and we are to be good stewards of
it.
The first way
we can help with conserving our environment is recycling. I do not just mean
throwing away your garbage in the right bins. I mean being less wasteful in
general! There are so many easy ways to do this. I always thought that this was
so insignificant but after researching and finding all the ways that we are
able to help in this area is very eye opening. Here are just a few examples.
Using less paper napkins could save over 1 billion pounds in landfills each
year! There are 63 million newspapers printed each day in the U.S. about 69%,
of them will be thrown away. If we recycling just the Sunday papers we would
save more than half a million trees every week. Another fun fact is that if all
households in the U.S. paid their bills online and received electronic
statements instead of paper, we would save 18.5 million trees every year, 2.2
billion tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and 1.7 billion
pounds of solid waste. It is crazy how such little things could make such a
large impact. Like I said it is not just about using the proper trash bin, the
idea is much bigger! Being less wasteful can integrate into every part of our
lives. Transportation is one, think of all the ways we could make an impact,
using public transit, carpooling, consolidating our trips, these are all very
practical. The problem is they are also inconvenient. With the way our society
is today inconvenience is not tolerated. We want things fast. But if we looked
at being less wasteful as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience think of
all that we could accomplish!
The second
way we can make less of a negative impact is to buy local. Unlike recycling I
did not know how big of an impact this could make on our world. I have always
known that recycling was a good idea and we should do it, I just didn't
practice it myself. It was not until this class that I heard of how much of a
difference this could make. It is not that there is some magic in the way local
produce is grown. Our local farms create just as much pollution as others. But
when you consider the amount of pollution created to get your food from the
farm to your table that is where we can save. Whenever possible, buy from local
farmers or farmers' markets, supporting your local economy. This will reduce
the amount of greenhouse gas created when products are flown or trucked in. Not
only is buying local going to help out the environment it will also give you a
much healthier and chemical free body!
The last and
most important way in which we can help preserve the environment is education.
Just like the way we are all being educated by our professors we are to do the
same for others. If we do not have a positive influence on the upcoming
generations we will be even worse off than we are now. It is also just as
important to practice what we preach. One way to inspire a younger generation
is to lead by example. G.K. Chesterton said “Education is simply the soul of a
society as it passes from one generation to another” If we do not value the
environment with our actions we are not being effective. We must not only
educate on the importance of preserving the environment but show how important
it is by living it out ourselves.
Throughout
this class we have discussed many ways that we can help reduce our footprint on
our environment. Although I only mentioned three ways in this paper, there are
many more. I believe that many people think just as I did when I was asked to
preach that message to the youth ministry. They think that their personal actions
are not affecting others and that the problem with the environment is blown way
out of proportion so that the media has something to talk about. The fact is we
do play a part in this and we should be good stewards of our planet. I believe
that this is another way that God can teach us stewardship not only with the
environment. I believe God has given us many gifts and talents that we are to
be good stewards of. He has a plan for each of us that goes well beyond preserving
our world and it would be a shame to waste the plan he has for us. This class
has been very enlightening for me and I plan on not only sharing the
information I received but to live in out in my own life as well. I believe
this relates to all of us in our future careers because how we live and treat
the planet today will impact all we do in the future.
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