Tree-Hugger

Once upon a time when I was in high school and obsessed about doing all in my power to improve my getting-into-college-resume, I decided I should probably add a club to my already full schedule of choir, yearbook, honors classes, job, etc. With my little group of friends, we decided on Earth club, and the rest is history. Suddenly I was proudly sporting my "One Earth, One Love, One Problem, One Solution" t-shirts, and had a little bit of superiority about the fact that I was doing a little bit more for the earth than all the other 15 year olds. I attended park clean-ups, helped with the school recycling program, and volunteered at earth-friendly community functions, like the time I dressed up in a fish suit and paraded around as Sally the Salmon at Salmon and Steelhead Days and helped kids paint fish scaled and make fish prints. Now, if that didn't save the earth, I don't know what will.
I have to say, all of the green talk lately is getting to me. When people are pushing Sigg water bottles, now the in thing since Nalgene's are supposedly not the best plastic ever as previously touted, I have to think- why don't I just use a glass at home? Why do I have to use this bottle which proclaims my status as someone "doing my part"? Why do I need to buy reusable bags to use if not to make a statement when I've already been recycling my grocery bags at participating stores (sometimes bins are available at Wal-Mart or Albertson's) and re-using them as garbage can liners or for a plethora of other purposes? Why do I need to live on less when I've been living by the pioneer adage "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" for years and years? It just seems so common sense to me. It doesn't mean that I'm not looking forward to upgrading my washer and dryer to a more energy efficient model. It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy good gas mileage just as much as the next guy. But when my hairdresser laughed at me a couple of years ago because I was still refusing to use aerosol hair spray, not knowing that the chemicals I learned about in elementary school that were harming the ozone were no longer used in aerosol cans, I realized that I'm probably already doing my part.
Green was cool to me a long time ago. I think if there's a bandwagon you're going to jump on, this is definitely a good one. But the fact that companies are using it as a tag-line to spur consumers on to buy the next best greenest product really bugs. Be smart, people. It's common sense.
Happy Earth Day.