Let's Save The Oceans And The World With A Little Change.

America is a land of abundance. We are approximately thirteen percent of the population of the planet and leave behind twenty-five percent of the world's carbon footprint through rampant and out-of-control consumerism. For years, in America, we have lived by the motto that “bigger is better. But, is it really better or just a sign of success and wanton recklessness. While there might not be “tons” that we can all do as individuals, there are many small things that can be done by all of us that would help in every area. Some of those things are as small as changing what we buy, how we buy it, what we drive, what we worship, and generally, just thinking before we act. If we stop treating the world as if it will forever exist in this abundant fashion then perhaps we’ll reverse the damages that have been done to our world, specifically our oceans. Here are a couple of things that I'm trying to do as my part of helping with this problem.

Consider this. The paper plate is a hallmark of a busy society. We’ve all been there, crammed with extra work, struggling to make ends meet, exhausted from working overtime or a second job, and trying to work toward some other goal besides the ones that our bosses have for us. We get behind on housework, we fall a little behind on dishes, we’ve worked ourselves to the point we just can’t fathom standing a the sink, or we just don’t want to do dishes. It’s your day off and you’re strolling down the aisle of your superstores, your Walmart, or your favorite grocery store. You pick up item after item and eventually your cart has paper plates. Just by cutting your paper plate sizes down from the ten to 12 inch to the 7 or 8-inch plate, you’re helping to cut down on the need to kill more trees for our mass consumerism of paper products and if you stay consistent you’re going to be indulging in smaller portions. Take a look at the plate the next time you go out to eat. On average, they’re twelve and thirteen-inch plates. Most of us probably don’t need to indulge to the level that we’re consuming a full twelve to thirteen inches of food for dinner. Enter the threat of a global food shortage or even the emergency one that we saw last year during the pandemic when meat and food processing plants were closed and people were buying everything in sight. By shrinking your plate size, especially with paper plates, you’re helping the environment, helping control your waistline, and helping to ensure that there’s enough of that abundance for years to come. I’ll point out that you’ll save some money as well, as the smaller plates are cheaper.

"Paper" plates come ultimately from paper and paper comes from trees. Most of our paper products, other than recycled products, are from trees. The beautiful part about trees is that they are a partner of the ocean, a protector of sorts. The United States system of sewers leaks more than 860 million gallons of raw, untreated, sewage waste for context, that's enough to fill 1300 Olympic-sized swimming pools. With heavy rains come flooding and runoff that makes its' way to the closes bodies of water. Our wastewater is getting to the oceans.

Trees help protect our water from sewage runoff by keeping stormwater out of sewer systems. There are three things that trees do to protect our water.

1. Interception: Rains fall and some lands on leaves and branches of trees. The more tree coverage the less the rain reaches the ground. The thicker the cover of the trees, the slower the rains hit the ground and the slower the runoff flows.

If you've ever seen your manhole covers spewing water up and out onto the streets then you understand how this works. All that rainwater is making it into your sewer systems and those systems aren't designed to handle heavy rains unless you're one of the lucky few living in an area with updated infrastructure.

2. Infiltration: Rainwater that makes it to the ground gets absorbed by the surrounding soil. Tree roots then absorb/soak in the water from that soil. More space is then left in the soil to absorb more of the falling rains. More stormwater in the soil leads to fewer surges in the sewer system.

3. Transpiration: Water that is stored in trees gets released back into the atmosphere as vapor. As water moves out of trees and back into the air, more water can be soaked up through the trees from the soil.

Save some money, get skinnier, protect our trees, protect our food supply and help save the world. It sounds like an easy thing to do if you want to be part of the solution rather than the problem.

I'm a huge fan of 1990s automobiles and I always will be one. It is where I fell in love with SUV models. They're the most versatile of the motor vehicles. Attractive, sporty, functional, or just for a pure "badass" aesthetic, they worked well for the time. I bought my first one in 2002 and while I loved it, when I look at the gas prices today, the effect of carbon emissions on the environment tells me that the gas mileage wasn't helping the environment or the long-term sustainability of our resources.

Updating came time and with time, like anything else, comes change. Not only had the times changed but I had changed with them. When we think about the future, past ourselves, we start to think of our children and our grandchildren's futures. Sure, it would be easy to go and buy a nicer, newer, Suburban, or Expedition, or even an F-150 which I don't particularly need. But, the amount of gas I use now, as someone who travels for work, is getting to be quite expensive not to mention the effect it has on the environment.

It looks nice, doesn't it. In a perfect world, this would be the size of vehicle I would choose. It has certain advantages to it that just aren't there with the mid-sized or crossover models. The ability to seat seven, the heavier duty tow packages, but it's only going to get you about 19 MPG combined city/hwy and there are others out there that do the job. Sure, they don't all have the monstrous size, they don't all have the excess room, they won't all tow everything you can imagine, but for day-to-day use, they are good vehicles.

So, I went with the smaller modeled SUV Crossover, the Chevy Equinox.

I can still do most everything I want to do and the Equinox is a good, dependable, attractive vehicle that gets a combined mileage of 28 mpg and while it estimates 32 mpg on the highway, I'm getting closer to 35 mpg. When you're driving a couple of hundred miles a day or on a bad week, 1500, you're spending a lot less on gas than you would be in a full-sized and you're not leaving the carbon footprint you would have in a full-sized.

While America continues on to remain the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the grandest of consumers in the world, protecting our planet should be the one endeavor that no matter where we live, no matter what country we are from, no matter how rich or poor we may be, or what color or ethnicity we come from, we all agree upon. For years I've looked for little things that could protect us from our own self-harm, just to do my part. What about you?

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