How green am I?

I’ve seen a lot of new initiatives on TV lately, not always though, it’s like whenever they remember about these problems that the news start promoting green fairs or events that contribute to change people’s mentality about pollution issues.

Personally, I’m not very aware of this, I mean, I do walk a lot instead of using public transport whenever I can, and I do recycle my clothes, but it’s not something that makes me so proud to share, maybe I consider it too normal and not too “green”. Anyway, my mom is very aware of it, I’ve seen her using her bike to go to work instead of using the car, and she constantly recycles milk cartons and glass bottles, so she’s the green one. I’m more like a brown or gray person yet.

Even my father works on that area in his job. He’s in charge of the enterprise’s environmental regulations, making sure that it’s not breaking any law, and he always tells us about how difficult it is to keep the carbon footprint and toxic emissions at lower levels, but they are working on it as a factory (it’s a glass container manufacturer) to contribute to the environment.

Everything my parents are doing, I’m doing it or trying to, because it’s part of my learning process as long as I live with them. So I too recycle bottles and stuff, because of my mom and dad. But, I haven’t ridden a bike since I was 9, and I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to do it (despite of that saying: “you never forget how to ride a bike”), and I’m also scared of cars. I mean in Santiago, everything goes so fast, that lots of bikers die or get hurt because of that… which is not very encouraging. But as I said at first, I love to walk

I haven’t joined any eco-organizations because of what I’ve been saying all along, this pollution issue hasn’t become an important matter in my life yet, maybe I will start paying more attention to it… I understand it is a major problem for everyone and all that, it’s simply not my first priority right now.

Also, I believe our society needs more incentives, like more fairs and outdoor activities to value what we are losing to pollution. Santiago in particular needs more “green spots” (where to recycle) and to keep adding bikeways so there won’t be so many car-bike accidents.-