Finale

This paper contains some guiding principles and a non-exhaustive set of suggestions for improved environmental citizenship. The principles are more important. All our lives are different, and explicit techniques that work for me may not even apply to you. But the principles are universal:

• Think globally, act locally.
• Think about the true costs, environmental as well as monetary and temporal, of your actions and weigh those against the benefits. Particularly eliminate waste, for which there is no benefit, by definition.
• No use is better than re-use, which is better than recycling, which is better than throwing it away.
• Good environmental citizenship frequently will save you money and/or wear-and-tear on yourself.
• Good environmental citizenship spreads. Your children watch everything you do. If you are conscientious about preserving the world we depend upon for our survival, they will be, too. Your extended family, friends, and neighbors observe your behavior, too, and some will emulate it.

I hope this paper helps you to make consideration of the environment a habitual, daily practice, and thus aids you in your goal of becoming a better environmental citizen. While all of us would say we care about our children and grandchildren, we are currently not moving in the direction of leaving them a clean, safe, stable environment. Those of us who realize this must work hard to each do our own part, both because our small individual contributions sum to a large one, but perhaps more importantly, because it serves as an example to those around us, our kids, our friends, our associates, of the importance and small price of good environmental citizenship.