February 3, 2009

Google Earth Oceans is a green travel tip?

Isn't it interesting that the media now uses the term "green" instead of "conserve or conservation". Is it because green includes more within its definition or is it because the latter is too closely associated to an undesirable word - and why would words like conserve, conservative, or conservation be bad?

Green replaces Conservation
It seems to me that the words "green" and "conservation" mean the same thing and one was replaced by the other for a new generation. I'm not that old but the words - conserve and conservation - remind me of the 1970s, when I was a kid. It was a time in the US when we had to wait in line for gasoline. Where I lived we had to put bricks or sand filled bottles in our toilets to displace water in order to use less. We learned to take "military showers" which meant - rinsing once then turning off the water, lathering down and rinsing off with water once more - using less than 5 gallons of water [or ~ 3.78 liters]. And if you hated this idea or just couldn't work fast enough, you could always sit in the tub and allow the water line to go as high as your knee [pressed flat against the tub bottom - no cheating was allowed].

Green Tips and Makeovers
There are ways we can all be a little more green, traveling locally or internationally. I believe we can change our habits and conserve more. People do it all the time, and not just little kids. But let's start with easy stuff like these:

- reuse your hotel sheets and towels rather than have them changed
- shut the water off when you brush your teeth
- keep your showers short
- turn off the lights and a/c when you leave the room
- bring your own toiletries


And let us take a page from the media and consider a make over for the word "accountability or accountable" just like the media did for conservation. We could create a wave of change that way!

Finally, what do you think of the upgrade to Google Earth... it allows you to look under the waters of the ocean. I'm all for ways to bring people closer to the notion that they need the ocean, and they need it healthy. Our lives are permanently connected to it...


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