Hooray! The beginning of Round 2 of the Tournament! Things are getting pretty serious now! To kick things off, Recycling and Wetland Conservation are going head-to-head in a winner-take-all death match!
Recycling
Well, Recycling, it's great to see you again! Welcome back! Now that we have a little more time, let's learn some more about you. Recycling really started taking off during the 1980's in the US as people started looking for cheaper ways to keep up with the increasing global demand for plastic and aluminum and paper. One of the greatest challenges to Recycling is getting all of the things gathered up and shipped to the processing plant. But as landfill space is becoming harder to come by and Recycling supply chains become more efficient, Recycling is becoming ever more popular.
Green Pride (10/20)
I'm only going to say this once: these ratings are based on the average person's feelings about environmental issues, not my feelings. If I were rating them by my views, all the ideas would have 20 points from Pride and 20 for Guilt and we'd be at a stalemate unless someone (Chris) commented. So yeah, these are what I feel the average person feels.
Recycling, while a big deal 20 or so years ago, has become sort of commonplace these days. Most people see Recycling as some sort of a chore or task, similar to taking out the garbage. Yes, it's probably true that people feel some pride when they hear about how much material they or their city or country or business recycles. But their Recycling practices have become more or less something that people do. This probably also depends on whether the person has curbside Recycling or drop off points, but I don't see it varying too much.
Green Guilt (17/20)
I can't tell you how many times I've called someone out on not Recycling. And when I do that, 9 times out of 10, the person apologizes and feels pretty bad about it. 1 out of 10 people are jerks about it and tell me to mind my own business at which point we usually get into an argument about how he or she is destroying the Earth and how I want my children to not have to wear breathing masks when they go outside to play and how I want my grandchildren not to be born with 5 legs or some crazy mutation like that.
Basically what I'm saying is that almost everyone knows that they should Recycle, but some people don't know how to or are lazy about it.
Reader Comments (2/10)
First 2 pointer!
Wetland Conservation
Wetland Conservation (WC) is back again after taking out LEED Certification in the first round. So let's learn a little bit more about WC. WC is something that's been practiced around the world for centuries but should probably be practiced much more than it is. For example, Lake Superior hit its lowest recorded levels ever in 2007 and the Nile River has been notoriously over developed and diverted in recent years. This isn't just having a harmful effect on wildlife (which I'll mention tomorrow), but people will soon run out of fresh water and that will lead to wars and other horrible things that we all agree we want to avoid.
Green Pride (17/20)
Everyone loves a good story that talks about how some frog or bird or type of grass was saved by some group's conservation efforts. Yay for saving water! These stories make everyone feel proud that their society is on the right track and is doing the right thing for once. And we can all sleep well at night!
Green Guilt (5/20)
Well, we can't really sleep all that well. We're living with our parents and we've got a curfew even though we're almost 30 years old and our girlfriend is pressuring us to get married and move out and build a new home that we can't afford. And land for sale is limited in Florida, so let's just drain off a little bit of the Everglades. Nobody will miss one little house-sized bit of the Everglades, right?
Wrong! Birds and alligators and fish that live in that house-sized bit care. Nobody thinks twice about draining wetlands when it benefits them. And that's how we have gotten into the situation we're in now where we need to be more aggressive with our WC.
Reader Comments (0/10)
They're worth double now, so make sure you comment!
Time to tally the scores!
Recycling: 29
Wetland Conservation: 22
Well, there you have it. Recycling will continue on to the Regional Semi-Finals. Make sure you come back tomorrow to see how (2) Reducing/Reusing fares against (6) Wildlife Conservation.
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