Lauren Ostrom – features editor.

I am standing in line at the Fred Meyer grocery store, waiting for the cashier to count my change. I look down and see a white-outlined paper by the clerk’s till that gawks, “Plastic bags will soon be charged 5 cents each.” I do not feel annoyed, but a bit of ease comes over me because this is just one more thing I can do to help, if that’s what I am really doing.

I wonder: Is my 5-foot-3-inch little self really making a mark on the world?
I have recycled for as long as I can remember, and it has come to the point where my panties get in a bunch if someone I know throws a piece of paper in a regular trash can. When they aren’t looking, I will quickly grab the crumbled tree and save it for a recycling bin I might see later. This may be borderline ridiculous, and I haven’t admitted it until now . . . oops.
When I brush my teeth, I turn the faucet off and listen to whatever else instead of H2O running down the drain. I do this because I am constantly reminded by the media that this is what we should do, what “going green” is all about.
Having said that, I refrain from using a tray at Dillin every day. No, I don’t expect an award, but after discovering how much water we supposedly save by not using a tray, I make an extra trip in favor of our planet.
I filter my water and never dare to use plastic bottles. If someone in my car sets a piece of garbage outside my car door, I refuse to drive until he or she picks up the piece of ignorance. I even switched to a better gas mileage vehicle that does not pollute as much as my last one. And the last straw may be that I even live in greenest state there is.
But what am I actually doing by changing my ways and promoting energy efficiency?
I do little things every day to make a difference, but I feel like I am one of about 50 students on campus who does these things. Maybe I am just naïve, but I don’t feel as though I am making a difference. The media have covered things we can do to step up to the plate, but are they telling us enough statistics or showing what progress we have made so far, since our economy has become tree huggers?
Like the rest of the educated society, I have seen Al Gore lecture many times in his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and it convinced me to become a better citizen, if you will. I am just wondering what I am doing by reducing my disposals. Am I one of the ants on our planet who is reducing emissions? And if so, am I saving a polar bear that is stuck on a glacier somewhere in Antartica?
Organizations such as the U.N. need to step up their game and let the rest of the world know if we’re doing our part enough, or correctly, if anything.
I will continue to use both sides of a blank sheet of paper and buy LED light bulbs whenever I am caught in the dark. I just need some reassurance from the big guys. But whoever said that helping the earth was an easy task?