Sustainable Living: Choice or Fate?

      A few weeks ago, my sustainability class was shown Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth". After that, the political divide was quite apparent. Conservatives where turned off to the idea sustainable living and liberals where singing praises to Gore. Whether or not Gore was trying to simply gain publicity or honestly help the planet, I do not know. The movie did nothing to reach out to those who where already skeptical about the importance of helping the environment.
      When me and my husband got married and moved from our comfortable households into a small apartment last summer, we learned fast to conserve and budget everything. Its not that I was running after him telling him about all the trees being killed every time he used a paper towel. We needed to learn these things. We need to continue to keep track of everything and turn the lights on only when they need to be on.
      The approach we are seeing today regarding education about conservation and sustainability can be effective, but it is not as effective as possible. We are presented with politically contaminated, gloom and doom information. What we are not shown that living a sustainable lifestyle is rewarding, healthy, and far more affordable. Numbers need to be part of the equation and health of people and the planet should be at the core of it too.
      Creating a healthier planet and populous doesn't need to be violent and political. It should be fun. It should be practical because everyone deserves to live on a planet they can feel good about and live in a way that they can feel good about themselves. We must accept that change will not be too drastic no matter how fiery the sermons are or how many bills congress decides to pass. The road to a sustainable life starts with individuals realizing the benefits of conserving resources.