NIU

green products

Posted by Stacy on Thursday, May 08, 2008 4:31 PM

Every once in while my totally cynical view of my generation is shifted to one side because of some type of new contribution I see somewhere on campus. The newest group that I have seen is a great group of kids who are working for a cleaner environment around our school football games. These kids have been going to all of the sporting events now to compensate for our school's lack of an environmental initiative. Our school does have a great program higher up in their objectives like designing new green products, but they don't work enough on a grassroots level. That is where I think it would help students to have such a model like our big, well known university. We as individuals need to know that we can help this problem facing our planet on our own and we don't have to just sit back and wait for some bureaucracy to tell us what we are going to be required to do next. That is where I think groups like this are inspiring and extremely breathtaking in this time. I see in stores all of the new green products, but I don't see the human face to the philosophy. At the same time, many of these products that market themselves as "green" are in fact just a case of someone jumping on a fad or a buzz word. Even though I am quite cynical about my generation's contribution thus far, I still feel that there is a spark about us that could become something great. We need to take full hold of what is going on around this planet because it is a matter our survival and if we do nothing then nothing will ever be done again. I don't think i could bring myself to end an entry this way so I will simply end this entry on a good note. Since those kids began their campaign here on campus, three other student green organizations have since begun and now are registering over three thousand members. So I think that people are really moving at the grassroots level, but we can't let it die there or on the shelf with the last of the organic soaps.