{"id":6964,"date":"2018-01-25T22:09:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T06:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6964"},"modified":"2018-01-25T22:09:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T06:09:00","slug":"confront-your-consumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/confront-your-consumption\/","title":{"rendered":"Confront your consumption"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Paul F. Davis | Photo Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Most people in the United States know that our shared over-consumption of the Earth\u2019s resources is fundamentally changing our air and ecosystems. <\/span>It\u2019s hard sometimes to not feel downtrodden about our failure to be stewards of the Earth, but don\u2019t feel down; you can make a difference through changing a few habits and being aware of the things you are using. Together we can make a drastic difference in the Earth\u2019s future just by eliminating our use of a few consumables.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t heard, there has been an uproar on social media about our use of straws <\/span>\u2014<\/span> believe the hype. Straws are one of the many wasteful and unnecessary things our culture prides itself on consuming. When going out to a coffee shop or eating at a restaurant, just get in the habit of saying, \u201cThank you, I don\u2019t need a straw\u201d or bring your own reusablez one. <\/span><\/p>\n

But straws are not the only wasteful thing we consume, they are only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg. While eating or drinking ask yourself, \u201cdo I really need that?\u201d Because how often do you really use those plastic utensils, napkins or bags after you\u2019re done giving into your human needs? \u00a0Change your habits, change the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another unnecessary consumable that our culture loves to use are tubes in the middle of our rolls of toilet paper? The tubes make it easier for the paper to turn around the pole in the center. This use of tubes, however, isn\u2019t even necessary. Toilet paper still works to the last sheet without a tube in the center and they sell it for a lower price as well. So college students, go out to the store, Waremart or Roths, and buy some tubeless and more affordable toilet paper. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ever stop to think where all your night-out glitter goes after your evening of debauchery? It often enters our waterways. Those microplastics, any plastic smaller than a fifth of an inch, are one of the worst things for waterways. These microplastics take one of two paths when they enter a river or where ever our waste water enters. This glitter is either mistaken as food by our aquatic friends, any river dwelling animal, or as the microplastic lands on river beds where it slowly leaches out chemicals that are not advantageous for any living creature and sometimes even carcinogenic. So once again, ask yourself, do you really need to use that glitter?<\/span><\/p>\n

Together let\u2019s change our habits and start to ask do we really need this or that, and apply that thought process to everything we use. When we develop this skill, we will use less. When we use less, we have all made a decision to work towards the betterment of our Earth\u2019s future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact the author at pfdavis14@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Photo by: Tiia Monto<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul F. Davis | Photo Editor Most people in the United States know that our shared over-consumption of the Earth\u2019s resources is fundamentally changing our air and ecosystems. It\u2019s hard sometimes to not feel downtrodden about our failure to be stewards of the Earth, but don\u2019t feel down; you can make a difference through changing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}