William Lesser
On a Friday afternoon, sophomores Rebecca Carroll and Amy Mautz sort papers. Papers are collected every Friday to be recycled by the Environmental Club.
To help deal with today’s environmental concerns, both the school and the city are looking to become more environmentally friendly and conscious.
The school’s Environmental Club started a school-wide recycling service that provides classrooms with their own recycling bins in an effort to make a small contribution to a better environment, said senior Ben Scoblionko, a board member of the club.
The city is seeking to do its part as well. Mayor John Brennan said that “the city is hoping to build a new police station on Delmar that would be a green, eco-friendly building.”
Brennan said that the designer of the building hopes the building’s utility savings would help offset the extra cost of building a “green police station.”
While the Environmental Club seeks to make a difference to improve the environment as a whole, there are those who question whether such efforts make a difference.
“I don’t really think [the Environmental Club] makes a difference, but who knows?” sophomore Kevin Bond said.
Although Bond may have some doubts about whether or not actions taken by the Environmental Club make a significant environmental difference, senior Simina Albaiu believes that these efforts do make a difference.
“Of course recycling makes a difference; it prevents us from wasting valuable materials and makes us reuse them,” Albaiu said.
Scoblionko sided with Albaiu on the issue of recycling.
“The school goes through thousands of sheets of paper each week, and recycling these scraps, as opposed to throwing them away, is very beneficial,” Scoblionko said.
What should individuals do to help the environment? Scoblionko said that people should “walk or carpool to help reduce excessive gas consumption.”
Scoblionko added that “students should also make a better effort to be more efficient with their use of paper.”
Albaiu shared sentiments that were similar to Scoblionko’s view on helping improve the current state of the environment.
“People could be less wasteful, not litter and find ways of transpor- tation that are less harmful to the environment than driving,” Albaiu said.
Bond, however, has doubts on what one person can do for the environment.
“I don’t really get what any one individual person can do to help the environment,” Bond said.
Bond also believes that there is not a lot that can still be done to help the environment at this point in time.
“Well, everyone knows we messed up the world, and there’s not much we can do about it now,” Bond said. “No matter what we do, it’s still messed up.”
Some members of the environmental club do not agree with Bond.
Scoblionko said that environmental awareness is an integral part of dealing with most environmental problems.
While Bond believes there is not much that can be done to help the environment now or in the future, he does admit to caring about the environment.
Yet he claims that he will not go out of his way to do anything “radical” to help it.
With Arbor Day just around the corner (April 28), Scoblionko said that he will go out with his girlfriend to celebrate and recognize the environmental holiday.
“We always do Arbor Day big,” Scoblionko said.
The city plans to, as Scoblionko said, “do Arbor Day big,” as well.
Brennan said that by Arbor Day, the city plans to have planted 100 trees to commemorate the city’s centennial celebration and that there will be a ceremonial planting on Arbor Day.
Albaiu said that she does not “disregard the environment,” but she does not care about it as much as she should.
The federal government, meanwhile, is not disregarding the environment, according to the Library of Congress.
A recently passed energy bill will phase out many incandescent light bulbs beginning in 2012 nation-wide.
According to the Library of Congress, the phased out bulbs are expected to be initially replaced by fluorescent light bulbs. These are more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, which are still commonly used in many homes.
However, compact fluorescent light bulbs (the ones that will be commonly used in homes across the nation after the law goes into affect) contain about five milligrams of mercury, according to the Energy Star website.
While this is still a small amount of mercury, Bond had safety and health questions as to whether or not it is a good idea to mandate the use of these lights, and the mercury in them, in millions of homes.
Bond is also unsure as to which bulbs he believes will have a better impact overall on the environment as a whole.
“The mercury in the fluorescent light bulbs is bad, but they last longer,” Bond said. “I guess you just have to pick your poison.” Brennan is in favor of the new fluorescent light bulbs but only if “they live up to the claims of multiyear use and are properly disposed of.”
Scoblionko believes that one of the best ways to help the environment improve as a whole is to avoid using fossil fuels which “pollute the air…and hurt our country economically.”
Brennan shared Scoblionko’s feeling that people need to use more environmentally friendly products in their everyday lives.
In addition, Brennan stressed the importance of recycling and reusing materials as a way to better the environment.
“All people can put a greater effort into recycling and try to use recycling friendly products,” Brennan said. “We as a nation need to continue to recycle and explore a variety of ways to help our environment.”