AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2007
12
PHOTOGRAPHBYLEEBLANKENSHIPEMMERT
In themidst of reading somany
green stories, I took a few trips
thatbrought theenvironment to
the forefront ofmymind.
Every year, my family —my
mom, dad, brother, sister, and
brother-in-law— takesaChrist-
masvacationtogether.Thisyear,
though, instead of taking it in
December, which makes the
most sense since it’s a
Christmas
trip, wewent inAugust.Wehad
decided to take an Alaskan
cruise, and we figured that the
temperatures would be more
agreeable (read: not so cold) in
August. I’ve only recently re-
turned from thatglorious trip to
someof themostbeautiful scen-
ery in theworld.
I’ve been fortunate to have
taken two other trips toAlaska,
as well, including one toDenali
National Park. Many places in
Alaskaare remoteandchalleng-
ing to get to, like Denali, but
they are so rewarding in terms
ofwhat you can seewhile there.
Our cruise stopped in Skag-
way, where we went zip-lining
through the Tongass National
Forest. At nearly 17 million
acres, it’s the largest national
forest in theU.S. It is, asyoucan
imagine, pristineandbeautiful.
I also traveled to Kenya this
year. It is another place where
you can find evidence of the
earth’s natural beauty, but that
beauty is counteredbywhat our
world could become if we don’t
properly take careof it. There is
so much in the United States
thatwe take for granted— such
as water — that is in no way
guaranteed forAfricans.
These experiences made me
realize that we should produce
our very own green issue. And
aswegatheredour facts,figures,
and stories, things like carbon
footprints, globalwarming, car-
bon emissions, and the health
of our world took on a deeper
meaning.
But it’snot all badnews, even
forme— and I happen towork
for an airline
and
a magazine.
In fact, AmericanAirlines has a
lot of goodnews about its envi-
ronmental efforts (see page 103
to learn more). And there are
plentyof thingswe canall do to
combat the effects of our day-
to-day lives without spending
tons of timeormoney.
Forexample, Iusea foamcup
for my coffee every morning.
Why? Because it’s convenient
andIdon’thave towashacoffee
mugafterward. In fact, there’s a
mug sitting in my office right
now that is itself a science ex-
periment. But if I were to just
stop being so lazy and quit my
foamhabit, Iwouldoffset some
of the damage I wreak on the
environment.How easy is that?
One of the guys I work with
chooses neither paper nor plas-
tic when he goes to the grocery
store; he carts the goods to his
carand thencarries them inside
by hand when he gets home.
That said,healsodrives towork
with a bike rack on his car,
whichmeans he gets worse gas
mileage. In many ways, being
green issimplyamatterofmak-
ing smarter choices.
And I believe that just as
we’ve come light-years since the
days when people would throw
out trash along the highways,
oneday soon the issues of today
will be things of the past, and
we’ll coexist with the earth in a
most hospitableway.
There has been a lot of talk about the environment late-
ly, and nearly every magazine I read has had an issue ded-
icated to it. But none have answered my most burning
question: Will global warming affect Chicago’s winters
enough that I could actually live there one day? Now, be-
fore you pick up your poison pens, wait just a minute. I’m
only kidding — just going for the laugh here. Seriously!
GoGreen
Sherri Gulczynski Burns
Editor
Half the forests that originallycovered48percent of theearth’s land surfacearegone.
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Disposablediapers take200 to500years todecompose.
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