Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Here are four things we can do today to stop damaging the Earth
Mercury is in the fish. Coral reefs are being destroyed. A group of scientists recently released a map showing how humans have damaged Earth’s oceans. Global warming is upon us.
For better and worse, humans play a significant role in shaping the environment that is their home.
Today, four people working locally in the environmental field discuss ways we hurt the Earth each day.
Reduce Packaging
It’s not paper or plastic for Erica Black.
And because of that, the garbage in her apartment has significantly decreased in the last year.
How?
She brings her backpack almost everywhere she goes to carry items she buys, and she brings Tupperware containers to bring food home from restaurants.
“If somebody gives me extra packaging, I get upset,” said
24-year-old Black. “I’ve gotten to the point where I feel disgusted with anything extra I don’t need.”
She also buys in bulk, and then divides food, such as yogurt, into smaller storage containers.
Reducing the amount of packaging, she said, cuts down the amount of resources she’s using and reduces what goes into landfills.
As the sustainability intern for the City of La Crosse Planning Department, she said, it also helps her practice what she preaches.
Stop Fear-Mongering
It’s not always what we do that hurts the environment.
Sometimes it’s how we speak.
That’s what Tim Jacobson says.
The executive director of Mississippi Valley Conservancy suggested today’s Real Time topic is not the best way to approach environmental awareness.
“People who are saying that the world is coming to an end probably are not going to be successful in motivating people to make positive change,” he said. “If you tell people that the sky is falling, the normal reaction for most folks is to turn inward and try to cover your head. ... You run and hide.”
And the single most harmful thing we can do to the environment, Jacobson said, is ignore it.
Quit Using Burn Barrels
Environmental apathy, environmental ignorance, hastiness, selfishness: These are among the worst things people can do to the environment, says Brian Tippetts.
But then there are burn barrels.
“People think that burn barrels are innocuous,” said Tippetts, solid waste director for
La Crosse County. “They are not. People say, ‘I only burn paper and wood and cardboard.’ The paper and wood is recyclable.”
Besides increasing the risk of heart disease and making respiratory ailments worse, burning trash produces dioxins, which are highly toxic, into the environment, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Watch What we Eat
The problem, according to Vicki Miller, is a Western diet of highly processed foods and high meat consumption, a desire for perfectly shaped vegetables, not knowing where the food we eat grows and supporting farming practices that destroy habitats and use pesticides.
The solution, she believes, is to eat locally, organically and sustainably grown food.
“Our great-grandmothers used to know where their food came from,” said Miller, a board member of Coulee Partners for Sustainability. “Now we’re starting to get more food from China.”
She used to be addicted to the Western diet herself, she said, eating doughnuts for breakfast and gaining weight.
But she and her husband decided to change their eating habits, which meant she had to learn how to cook again.
“You just have to be a smart consumer,” she said. “The days of ‘ignorance is bliss’ is just not environmentally smart or nutritionally smart.”
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