For the Love of Green

Guest post by Megan:

As I write this post, I feel slightly like an identify thief – I’m not only writing for Trish’s blog, but I’m also lying in her comfy bed since I’ve taken over her apartment this week while she’s away.  On my walk back from work this evening, I even stopped by the bay to take in the view and think grateful thoughts for all things great, as Trish often does.  What can I say?  Like cousin, like… cousin?

The thing I love the most about Trish’s blog is that it’s my positive and gentle reminder each day to keep things in perspective and be thankful for the things in my life that are actually pretty amazing. 

As I was sitting by the bay trying to think of what to write here, I decided I couldn’t resist my always-present urge to tell you how grateful I am for all things green.  Since most of you don’t know me, you probably haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing me not-so-subtly cringe when someone throws a recyclable into the trash or spits their gum out into a patch of grass (totally not cool!).  Caring for the environment has been engrained in my brain since childhood. I kid you not, when I was in elementary school, I was in a club called “Pollution Control Patrol.”  No, seriously, I was - I still have my hand-painted re-useable grocery bag to prove it!  Anyway, now I’m currently studying and working in the environmental field (“field” meaning both discipline and actual fields – today I got to wear my new steel-toed boots and hard hat at work!), so I’m forced to constantly think about the impact humans have on the environment around us.

So, I won’t lecture you about how you should care for Mother Earth.  A lot of people have different passions and causes they care about, and that’s honestly great. But, since you’re still reading (hopefully?), I’ll at least give you a few things to think about and to be oh so grateful for:  

• Access to drinking water.  So many people in the world don’t have easy access to fresh water; many need to travel for hours or even days to get it.  Can you imagine? I can’t think of anything more crucial to our well-being than water.  I am SO grateful that it flows freely of my tap drinkable and in (relatively) abundant supply.  The new documentary Last Call at the Oasis (http://www.takepart.com/lastcall/) is really interesting and addresses the current and future challenges associated with drinking water supplies around the world.  I recommend checking it out! 

• Wastewater treatment. (That’s right, I said wastewater on Trish’s blog. She’s going to kill me!) This topic, related to the one above, is one most people prefer not to think about, but again, it’s SO crucial to a world with 7 billion people.  Waterborne diseases kill millions of people (sadly, mostly children) around the world each year. The book The Big Necessity (http://rosegeorge.com/site/books/the-big-necessity), sent to me by a good friend who knows me ridiculously well (thanks Sari!), is super interesting and extremely informative.  I’ll admit that whenever I was reading this book in public, people gave me strange looks (the cover shows a roll of toilet paper! Ha!). So check out the book, and I promise you, you will be so grateful for wastewater engineers! 

• Clean air and clear skies.  I was incredibly lucky to be able to travel to China a few months ago for a class in grad school.  While there, I observed what everyone that visits China observes: poor air quality. Visibly bad air quality.  This obviously isn’t just in China – Los Angeles, CA; Santiago, Chile; and New Delhi, India are also very bad, to name a few, and people get sick because of it.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.html), outdoor air pollution in cities causes over one million deaths worldwide per year.  Clean air to breathe should be a basic human right, and poor air quality affects everyone.  Much of the pollution comes from vehicle traffic, so riding your bike and using public transportation are great ways to help make us all a little healthier :) 
  

Well, now you know what environmental engineers spend their days thinking about!  Now for some pretty nature pictures as my way of thanking you for making it this far in reading my post, and as my way of trying to convince you to love the Earth as much as I do ;)  

South Africa

Desert in Peru

South Africa

Glacier near Homer, Alaska

An adorable penguin pair in South Africa

Awesome sunset in the lovely state of New Jersey

A pretty tree in Virginia

So, take a minute today to enjoy your natural surroundings and your delicious, safe drinking water and clean air, and heck, you might as well go all out and hug a tree! :)  Thanks for reading and thanks Trish for inviting me to share!

Meg