What does it mean to “go green”? Why is it so important but yet, no one makes a real change? Is it that we society is unaware or ignorant of what is happening around them? Companies should adopt more environmentally friendly packaging because if we continue on the path we are on right now, the green grass we may see will not exist, the air we breathe will not be fresh, the colorful nature we are surrounded by will cease to exist and so much more will change. We know that there is such a thing as man-made climate change and it is a huge problem for the future of not only humans but animals, plants, and all of nature. Humans have already done so much damage on this Earth. We have built factories that burn fossil fuels and pollute the air. Many of us drive our cars letting the carbon dioxide in the air we breathe. Companies cut down and burn forests for housing, living, and expanding. We have landfill sites all around America that sit piled up with all the uneaten food, plastic bags, water bottles, and so much more hazardous waste. Mounds of it. The rate of climate change is increasing due to our behaviors, our ignorance, and also our unawareness of this issue. We are ruining the only home that we know. To get our attention, artists by the name of Andrew Boyd and Gan Golan altered the Metronome displayed in New York. For over 20 years the Metronome was one of the biggest, famous art projects in New York that puzzled people. It used to tell time by counting the hours, minutes, and seconds to and from 12 AM. That has now changed. The time was altered by Golan and Boyd in an attempt to urge people to begin understanding how time is lost with global warming and climate change. It now counts down in time. The numbers tell how many years, days, hours, minutes, and even seconds that we have left in this world before the “deadline”. This is now called “The Climate Clock” to urge the public to combat this issue of ruining our own home. If people become aware of what is truly going on around them, we could save our planet. The littlest things would do so much. If we attack this issue by using environmentally friendly packaging, we can recycle that waste material which would allow us to use fewer resources for the packaging. We can decrease the amount of waste we see in those landfill dumps. Recycling is an easy and efficient way of preventing more pollution, saving energy, and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions we hear about on the news. Another benefit of having companies turn to environmentally friendly packaging is that it actually makes the manufacturing process more efficient while reducing the negative risks that companies prove to have on the environment. We already have so much waste on this planet. Why should we create more and ruin our only home?
Essay by: Renata Wingert
Arizona State University