I’m not sure when exactly it happened, but it has come to my attention that we as a people are more concerned with the environment than ever. Practically every company is touting their “green” goods and consumers are making conscious efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.
The first sign of this movement, in my opinion, was the success of CFLs. It seemed that instantly everyone was converting their old incandescent bulbs to CFLs. Another sign of environmental awareness is the increase in use of reusable shopping bags. Nearly every grocery store has them for cheap and a lot of people are switching over.
I remember when I was a kid, there was an episode of Barney (yes, I used to watch that show) that showed the kids using reusable tote bags for their pretend groceries. At the time, I thought that was an extremely radical, “hippie” way of viewing things. It seemed so ridiculous. And yet, here we are, in a time where reusable shopping bags are becoming the norm.
I might even go so far as to say that Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had a role in our perception of the environment. Al Gore often gets a bad rap, but his documentary about the environment definitely put a public face on a very important issue.
I’m definitely glad to see humanity putting more emphasis in helping the environment. Right now, this is the only planet we’ve got, so we’d better keep it clean.
Filed under: world | Tagged: Al Gore, carbon footprint, CFL, environment, hippie, reusable
