"Going Green"

       In light of our previous focus of on self-reflection and personal values, I opted for a more concrete topic for Wednesday's Girl Talk meeting. The topic was "going green"! Environmental preservation is a vital but often overlooked topic, perhaps because it can be difficult to practice conservation of natural resources where they appear boundless. We have clean water at the touch of a faucet, cool air at the click of a button, endless appliances the require electricity, cars in need of gasoline, and loads of trash that disappear from our lives when we visit the transfer station. But in reality, the absentminded ease with which we utilize the resources of the earth is taking a toll.

At our meeting, the girls exhibited hugely diverse levels of knowledge regarding environmental preservation. Some of the girls were very aware of environmental issues and strategies for combating those issues. Others were confused by the concept of "going green". I was very happy to see that this varied dynamic allowed the middle school girls to learn from one another! The high school mentors lead discussions on the basics of the water cycle and protecting watersheds; air pollution, ozone, and global warming; reusing, recycling, reducing, composting, and landfills; renewable and non-renwable energy sources (oil, natural gas, carbon, and nuclear energy); etc. Once all of the girls had a better understanding of environmental issues, we read through a list of ways that kids can go green. After we read through the list, all of the middle school and high school girls selected five ways that they were going to adopt a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

Following our discussion, the girls planted some flowers outside the middle school. The flowers were kindly donated by Lovell's!

I look forward to wrapping up the year at our final meeting on Wednesday, June 10th!
<3 Paiton

P.S. Two of the ways to go green that I personally circled were learning how to compost and making my own household cleaners! If this interests you, check out these links:
Composting
Cleaners