University of Virginia Library

Concern: Key To Environmental Conscience

being careful not to contribute to its further
quality degeneration. Take fewer showers.
Never leave the water running. Use cooking
water for your plants (it's full of nutrients).

The average American produces 1800
pounds of trash in a year. A great deal of
reusable material gets dumped and left
unused. So begin by cutting down on your
level of consumption – don't buy anything
unless you really need it. Don't buy
disposable goods, buy durable ones and
reuse them. Avoid plastics and aerosol cans
altogether.

These are just a very few of the things
that any University student could do. The
important thing is to always be conscious of
the environmental consequences of each
action. For instance, if you decide you enjoy
water activity, take the environment into
consideration and use a canoe instead of a
power boat. The essential ingredient is
concern – concern of the kind that will
cause us to open up our private worlds of
security and convenience and become aware
that the way we choose to live inevitably
affects our world.