Environment

This time this is gonna be bit different. Well I'm always writing what's on my mind and I've been thinking about this a while. Especially since I hang out with international students quite a bit and sometimes they aske me things because I'm Finnish. This has come up few times.

Sometimes people get amazed about my environmental consciousness. I recycle. I don't use one particular shop because they move some of their merchandise across the world. If I can, I buy Finnish foods. It's not possible with a lot of fruits and I love fruits but vegetables are always Finnish. I sometimes buy slightly more expensive Finnish items, rather than Swedish one. I love food market in the summer! I have my own bags for carrying groceries. We Finnish tend to know a bit more about recycling, but most don't bother too much with it. If the recycling place is close then yeah. But my apartment building only recycles cardboard, mail type papers, bio, and regular garbage. For glass, clothes, dangerous material and metal, we have special places but they are a bit far off, and some items weight a lot!

I've been raised in a school that was part of something called Globe. It later become ENO, Environment Online. There is a bit of a joke in there, because it was created in a small town called Eno. Anyway. It's about taking environment. We took readings, like lake temperature, how much rains in a day, the air temperature, this sort of thing. Well at least back in my day we did those. It was part of my summer homework! I think it's changed a bit in the last 15 years. We were also taught how to make our carbon footprint as small as possible. I liked all those classes and that it stuck with me. A lot of us haven't been keeping up with this. I like knowing I'm doing my part in this world.

Carbon footprint is about small choices. Walking or biking small distances rather than going by bike. Taking public transportation. Buying local foods. Even growing some yourself. Lowering the room temperature by couple of degrees. Donating or selling old stuff. Recycling, especially bio material.