2nd Place Essay Winner: 15-19 Age Group

"I'M OB$E$$ED WITH GREEN

Scott Symes
Minnesota North Star Academy
St. Paul, MN

What can I do to keep myself going green? Well, I love the benefits of going green, that's for sure. When I say the benefits...yes, I mean the money. Around two years ago, I bought CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) to replace my old yellowish light bulbs. Then I discovered that I can save over $30 per CFL bulb on monthly electric bills and they last a lot longer than typical bulbs! Thirty dollars!!! I can get a new surveillance camera with that money! In fact, the CFLs last 10 times longer than the standard light bulbs and give off a lot better lighting. That's when I became interested in going green. But the truth is that I'm doing it out of fear. Every day, I see the world taking a turn for the worse with everything going on at the same time. Watching Wall-E has made this nagging voice in my head that's saying, "We're in big trouble" grow stronger. I stand at the exit of the theater and I see everyone saying, "Oh, what a good movie!" I shake my head in a pathetic attempt to try making people understand that the ravaged Earth shown in Wall-E is not that far-fetched of an idea with our rate of growing population, pollution, and consumption of natural resources. In 2050, there won't be any resources for the human race. By the end of the 21st century, there will be only one square foot of land per human on Earth with the population averaging between 8-12 billion. Scientists in New Zealand said that the world's population is already 30 percent greater than the Earth's limit to sustain the standard of living for every human on this planet.

Two years have passed and my CFLs are still working and haven't dimmed away. I also have made some improvements in my routines. I only shower about two minutes and brush my teeth at the same time to save water in the morning when I have time to do so. Actually, Jennifer Aniston does the same thing and that inspired me to do it. I throw the recyclables in my garage whenever I can now because it's not that hard to set up a trash bin for the recyclables and another one for the "unrecyclables." It takes me a short hop to get to the garage and perform my good-will act, then I will feel good all day and none of that nagging voice often known as guilt will bother me. I occasionally pester my mother to get solar panels on our roof sometime soon because solar panels can reduce your electricity bill to almost zero and the average electricity bill in American is around $200 to $300 monthly. How could I not love the idea of saving that much money?

Now my family has an organic garden to feed us in the winter without any use of chemicals or company-made foods. As a result, I'm a whole lot healthier than I have been in my entire life since we've planted our garden and harvested it! The best way to describe my feeling is to say no pain, good gain! As I learn more about the "green culture," more new goals simply pop up on my list. One of my goals is to buy a hydrogen car! Hydrogen cars emit nearly zero harmful emissions and if I crash a hydrogen car I'll still have a better chance of surviving than I will with gasoline. The fact is that if I was in a car crash with a hydrogen car, sure, there would be some fire but at least it would go up in the air due to hydrogen's low atomic mass while I would get scorched by a fiery of spewing gasoline everywhere with a standard vehicle that runs on gasoline.

One more thing that I want to have is the greenest laptop, MacBook Air, in my hand. It runs on one-fourth the power of an average light bulb and eliminates the harmful toxins like mercury. It uses recycled glass for the screen and recycled aluminum for the laptop shell. And as a bonus, the packaging is 41% more compact than the original packaging so it means that fewer trucks are needed which is fewer CO2 emissions for the world. It sounded too good to be true so I had to go and check it out in Wal-Mart, and I noticed there was something branded on the box containing the laptop and it said ENERGYSTAR certified. My puzzled voice hummed, "Hmm?" loudly and distracted several shoppers passing by me. They narrowed their eyes whenever they connected with my eyes. I simply stared them down and thought, "I can't help it because it's kind of hard to contain my excitement when I have minor Tourette's syndrome, all right?"

I'd never heard a single thing about the ENERGYSTAR. So, I went online afterward and was amazed about how much greener I can go. It felt like my jaw dropped to the floor or something. I can save at least $200 to $400 or more per month on utility bills if I get an ENERGYSTAR home. Let's see how much money I will save per year... 300 x 12 = $3,600 (that's two 60 inch HDTVs for me) per year! I simply feel good knowing that those green buildings are designed to have a low impact on the environment which greatly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions. An average home causes greenhouse gases twice as much as one car does in one lifetime. Not only will it save me money over a lifetime, but it is 45% more efficient than typical 2004 home models and emits 4,500 lbs less of greenhouse gases. That might seem insignificant to anyone, including me. Then a voice in my head came back and said, "But imagine it happening all over the world every day. That's a lot of greenhouse gases."

After a year in pursuit of going green, my fear dwindled until it completely faded away as it become my new addiction. I'm doing it because I want to, not out of fear. And it's a great career for me because I've never noticed one unique thing about my Tourette's syndrome before-it just doesn't exist when I'm in the forest or surrounded by nature. It must be the magic of perfect harmony with Mother Nature, because I've never found anything useful against my flaw other than taking the guanfacine. The voice in my head's completely gone as well. It feels good to not feel like a freak for once in my life.

There isn't any better time to go green than now. It may be expensive for me right now due to our economic times, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'll save so much more money for the future when I'm old and healthy. I will have plenty of money in the bank. I know I will never regret going green.