Apr 22 2009

{One Life To Live}

Posted in The Great Outdoors

We only have one life to live and it is important that we make it the best one…ever.

I’m taking cardio kickboxing these days and my instructors tell us just to do our best. Our best today might not be our best tomorrow, but it was the best we had to give at that moment in time.

Today is Earth Day and in celebration of our most incredible planet, I want to encourage you to be the best steward you can be everyday. That means considering our choices and choosing the choice with the least impact. We are human and will not always make the best choice, but we can try our hardest.  Every step forward is a step towards making a better place to live today, tomorrow and for our children.

Photography has caused me to look very closely at what is in front of the lens. Reading about our choices has made me understand what I see through the camera is not always going to be there unless we make changes in the way we consume our resources.

Here are some staggering statistics from Chris Jordan, a photographer who has visually demonstrated these statistics.

*Americans toss 106,000 aluminum cans every 30 seconds.

*1 million plastic cups are distributed on US airline flights every 6 hours.

*We run through 2 million plastic beverage bottles every 5 minutes.

*We discard 426,000 cell phones every day.

*We use 1.4 million brown paper supermarket bags each hour.

*We use 60,000 plastic bags every 5 seconds.

*We use 15 million sheets of office paper every 5 minutes.

Take a minute to think about all the resources that go into creating one plastic bag or one beverage bottle and shipping it to your nearest retailer. Those plastic bags and bottles will be here for a very long time and our grandchildren will have to deal with those choices.  Something to think about.

So, this Earth Day, take a moment to think about the best choice you can make.  Think about what and how you consume.   Something I heard over and over in the military…ignorance is not an excuse.  Therefore, educate yourself on the impacts of your choices and consumerism.  It’s the only way…

Peace,

Jessica

Posted in The Great Outdoors

1 comment

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Megan - April 25, 2009 - 11:52 pm

The airline cup statistic reminds me of a time when I was feeling expecially green and had brought my trusty pink waterbottle on the plane with me. I asked the stewardess if she could just pour the water into the waterbottle instead of giving me a cup. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Here, you can have two cups of water, it’s okay,” and proceeded to hand me TWO plastic cups of water. I considered making a scene and lecturing, but with Federal Marshalls possibly aboard disguised as, possibly, my seatmates, I just kept my mouth shut and pretended to be grateful for my TWO cups of water.

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