Wrecking the Environment Part 2

In my last post I ranted about how our air quality stinks and we're still not doing anything about it. I got some good thoughtful comments (thanks!). A couple of the writers felt the onus should not be put on private citizens. Carrie said, "I find it incredible that pressure is constantly put on the average citizen, when big business and government is taking little to no responsibility. The main culprits are the energy plants, factories, and other industrial facilities. If they start cutting their contribution to the problem, then I think the average citizen would follow suit."

I appreciate the argument but I don't agree. We've been talking about doing something for such a long time and the situation continues to get worse. I can't see us making any real progress until more citizens take this situation seriously and take more responsibility. We must take the lead. We elect the government. We work in, live next to, or own stock in the polluting companies. They're not doing it. If we want clean air, we're going to have to force it to happen.

As an idea... I emailed the president of my company suggesting that we set up an environmental task force to evaluate our impact on the environment and propose solutions for improving our record. I suggested that the task force might look into issues such as getting water coolers and reducing our use of plastic water bottles; reducing paper waste; examining alternatives to salt in the winter; looking into car use when getting to work and the alternatives; and recycling more IT equipment. I also suggested that we post an environmental mission statement and a statement of our improvement on our web site. Why not?

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