Living a green life has become a quite popular idea in the past few years. More and more people are getting rid of bad habits that do harm to the environment and dedicate in preserving the natural beauty of our planet. Therefore, when asked the question how green I am, I would like to say that although Im not a fanatic environmentalist, I am doing what I can to living a eco-friendly lifestyle and yet, theres still a lot of room for improvement.
Take electricity use as an example, I always turn off the lights when I leave my apartment. And sometimes when I walk in the hallway and see lights turned on in an empty classroom, I would go in there and turn the lights off to save electricity. Moreover, I only use air-conditioner when it is needed. I am seldom bothered by heat, so Id like to use a fan instead of air-conditioner in summer days. However, cold weather bothers me a lot. With the air-conditioner turned on at 78 Fahrenheit in winter, I still feel cold. Knowing that setting the temperature too high is not eco-friendly, I choose to put a heater near my seat when I study and near my bed when I sleep. I believe that the electricity cost of a small heater is much lower than an air conditioner operating at full capacity.
I am an international student in U of I, so I travel back to China twice a year for family reunion. Its inevitable that the transportation I choose is airplane, which I don't know if it is green or not. As for getting around the campus, my boyfriend drives me to class every day. I know that taking MTD is a greener option than driving a car, but I live far away from the campus; therefore, it takes MTD twice as much time as a car to travel the same distance. Since many of my classes are early in the morning, driving really saves me time and allow me to be less hurried before I go out. One thing I have to say is that I take MTD to go back home when the class is over, it is not because my boyfriend doesnt want to pick me up, but I feel it unnecessary to travel in a car when I am not in a hurry, and driving a car produces more carbon dioxide into the air that worsens the global warming than taking mass transportation.