Sunday, Sept. 05, 2004
New driving laws are environmentally unsound.
Remember way back in the glory days of the mid-nineties how there was this giant conservation movement geared towards small children? Okay, so maybe some of you over the age of 20 or so might not know what I'm talking about, but those of you that I went to school with do. Remember those assemblies we'd have to sit through that taught the values and importance of recycling (anybody remember the three r's?) and conservation? Remember that freaky woman with the puppets that came and talked about the rainforest, and how it's bad to cut down trees? Remember that man who played the flute along with a Michael Bolton song (he kept it in a spray-painted pringles can) and showed us a slide show on the Amazon?
I miss those days. I miss those days when we'd get out of class, and all have to sit indian-style on the gym floor and listen to people drone on about how you're supposed to turn off the water when you brush your teeth, or not stand there staring inside the refrigerator. I miss those days when people would strongly reccomend you bring your own canvas bags to the grocery store and car-pool. Hell, I even miss the head-first guy that came in with his Golden Retriever and show awesome powerpoints on the importance of wearing a helmut.
What have we now that is anything like that? Envirothon? To an extent, yes. Environmental Science class? Yes, we discuss these things in class, but it's not exciting anymore. It's all repetitive at 9am and makes you want to stab yourself with a pen just to see if anyone notices. Science club? Don't make me laugh! We have nothing compared to what we used to, and that makes me feel kind of sad and nostalgic.
I'm excited about going to the Environmental Symposium in October with both Bio II and Envirothon. The guy that created Earth Day will be there, and I hope to network quite a lot. That's what most of these Envirothon things are- do you realize? It's all networking. Getting to know the IDNR, the County Agricultural board, the people at the Illinois Museum, and even the people who write our tests. The best example of this I can think of is the man (wasn't his name Kenny or something like that) who wrote the wildlife test last year. He came in, and we listened to his song and dance, but we did one of our own-- we asked about a million questions and joked around quite a lot. We talked with him about Monty Python and old Looney Toon reruns. We talked and we laughed, and we had a great time with this guy. When it came time for the envirothon competition, this man came over to our table and said a brief hi. He even winked at Mark, though he didn't notice. Is it a cooincidence that our first team got first place? I don't know. I hope so. Not that I'm discrediting Hailey here. Not at all. In fact, I'm proud that she got the best score on the test.
I haven't learned anything from Envirothon other than basic conservation skills and how to network. Well, those are really the only things that I've retained.
And oddly enough, I have this conclusion for you; the graduated license programs are environmentally unsound. When we were children wasn't car-pooling encouraged? Less exhaust from less cars and what-not? Yet, they do not give us, the youth of America a chance to car-pool by instigating this stupid six-months restriction. How dumb is that?
theparisian at 1:18 p.m.