just try

for my job i create radio programs for people who are learning english all over the world. my scripts can be about anything i want. mostly i choose things that interest me. i write about women's rights. i dabble with health issues like the importance of breast feeding, washing your hands, and brushing your teeth (did you know brushing and flossing can help prevent heart disease?). and sometimes i go wild and write about things like seed vaults, winter counts, and the stardust space capsule. but my favorite scripts have to do with the environment.

recently i wrote a script about disappearing rainforests. yes, yes...this topic has been around for awhile now. we've all heard about the thousands of acres that are cut down each day. we all know not to eat mcdonald's hamburgers b/c those cows graze on grass that used to be forest. but, did you know that the amazon, the greatest of all rainforests, is in its second year of drought? and did you know that some scientist performed an experiment in the amazon, covering a football field plot with plastic so that no rain would fall, in essence creating his own drought? you probably don't care and may even think that that scientist had too much time on his hands. but did you know that all of the trees in his experiment died in just three years and that the lush green forest essentially turned into a desert? this scientist projects that further drought in the amazon could lead to the trees releasing ninety billion tons of stored carbon dioxide into the air increasing global warming by fifty percent. yeah...check the forcast. no rain in sight. kind of makes you think that there may be something to trying to save the environment. i, for one, do not want to move to mars.

anyway, i'd really like to be a good steward of my resources. there are numerous ways that i try to do this. some of them are recent and some of them i've been quite anal about for a long time now. but nothing i do compares to this lady. i've just started a new script idea about "ethical man." this guy in the UK has been challenged to live ethically for one year. now, living ethically could mean different things to different people. in fact, when i first discovered this guy i thought he was going to try to be really nice. but for ethical man, ethics means taking care of the environment and lessoning his carbon footprint. he asked people to write in their ideas about how he should live. and this lady wins the prize.

some of her ideas could be easily adapted into our own lives...like using cloth shopping bags. easy! some of her ideas may seem a little extreme. but, perhaps once we all start trying to lesson our impact on the world her methods may start to come a little more naturally...like only taking two baths a week. that is very natural!

now, where can i get myself one of those thermal vests? -SN