No Longer Conventional

I feel that the article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, about Innovation and making a difference, is very interesting. I think it is great that there are people out there who are taking the initiative to spark change. There are many alternative energy sources that are more environmentally friendly that have the same impact. Instead of using up all of our natural resources, such as Carbon-based fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, we should look to create new sources of energy. Nuclear energy, wind and solar energy, geothermal energy and biofuels are just a few of the alternatives. I really like how the two American woman are touring around India trying to promote their eco-friendly car, and let people know that Global Warming is a serious issue. Friedman seems to be very optimistic about what Howe and Ringwald are doing and I think this is made obvious in his second to last paragraph.

"After a year of watching adults engage in devastating recklessness in the financial markets and depressing fecklessness in the global climate talks, it’s refreshing to know that the world keeps minting idealistic young people who are not waiting for governments to act, but are starting their own projects and driving innovation."

After reading Friedman's article I, too, feel optimistic. I know there are good citizens out there who want to make a difference, including myself. I will now share my thoughts on how HIS could have less of a carbon footprint.

I want to start off by defining what, exactly, a carbon footprint is. A carbon footprint is “the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product."

With this in mind, I feel that our first step is to determine the size of our carbon footprint. It is hard to come up with ways to fix something if you don't know what you need to fix. As a school, we have to come up with ways in which we are hurting the environment. After we get a list of things that we can fix we can start talking about how we can change. Obviously, there is way too much CO2 being emitted, which means carpooling is a good alternative to everyone driving places. If we have to pollute the world it is best to do so in small portions. The grade 10's seem to be working on getting a green roof for our school which is a brilliant idea. It will say good things about our school, and it will help lessen our carbon footprint. I'll leave it at that for now. But again, we have to determine the size of our carbon footprint before we can start making changes to make the world, and HIS community, a better place to live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15friedman.html
http://www.indiaclimatesolutions.com/node/27