Recently, people all over the world have been trying to make our planet a better and healthier place to live in. When our planet is healthy, it makes it a safer place for humans to cohabit. While this idealism, mostly referred to as environmentalism, is not new, there are many recent occurrences that thrust the Green Movement in to full speed. These few directions gave our world a head's up about the dangerous possibilities of what could happen if we do not begin to take care of the planet that so graciously lets us live upon it.
Al Gore restarted the conversation about global warming and its effects on the planet with his Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." The documentary covered the world's ever-changing climate and how global warming had a large part in these results. This is the documentary that once again had everyone talking about how they could do their part to prevent these stresses from harming their planet farther and start trying to undo the effects. This once again began the buzz of the Green Movement that was so prevalent in years past.
The growing Green Movement really gained steam though when people started to see the effects of it hit their wallets. When gas prices rose to prices that had some United States citizens paying almost $100 to fill up their tank, people started to ask, "What can I do to change this?" Gas prices fluctuate due to several factors. The price of the barrel and the refining costs are usually the main causes, and if these prices go up, so does the price of gas for the consumer. However, if a disaster strike, whether it be man-made like 9/11 or natural such as Hurricane Katrina, the price of gas will sky-rocket. In response to the high gas prices people began driving hybrid cars that need less gas and give off few emissions. People also began walking more places to avoid having to pay the high prices. All of these these things are moving the right direction towards a cleaner planet, but with gasoline being a limited resource, there are still pieces to this puzzle that need to be put into place to make transportation a cleaner and less expensive option.
Andrew Stanton's PIXAR movie, "Wall-E" was an eye-opening visual experience for those who still had not seen the light about helping the Green Movement. Released in 2008, this movie was hardly for the younger audience. Wall-E is a garbage-condensing robot that is attempting to clean the planet to make it livable once again. The planet had become one large landfill and humans were living out in space because Earth was unsafe. The message was to begin using more items that will dissolve in compost and start using plastic items so Earth has less trash. Stanton wanted this movie to be a warning about what could possible happen to Earth if human continue to be so wasteful. This began a large movement of people using reusable bags when they went shopping and not using the tiny plastic bags that they are given at the grocery store. Some stores have even begun to reward customers for using them by taking a few cents off their purchase. This has created much less waste, but pushing to have consumers use only reusable bags would be a victory for the Green Movement.
People are now aware of the steps that they need to take to make this planet a cleaner and safer place to live. It is only a matter of following through with the steps. Our planet is a beautiful place and should be respected as such. People should enjoy taking part in this growing Green Movement, knowing that they are not only doing something good for themselves, but also the world.