Going Green--Ellen DeGeneres

Read The Green Book

“We live in a world where we can get anything we want, anyplace, anytime. And the faster we get it, the better. Wanna make a phone call? Speed dial. Wanna send a thank-you card? E-mail. Wanna go to the corner store? Get in the car. Our world is becoming so convenient that we take it for granted.

I’ve seen people drinking water out of plastic bottles and then not recycling them. That’s infuriating. I know it’s faster to throw it in the garbage. But if you’re going to buy water individually bottled for your convenience, then all I say is, take the time and put it in the can marked ‘Recycle.’ It’s a small thing that makes a big difference.

People don’t realize how little it takes to change our world for the better. Here’s something I didn’t know: I thought that all the oil in our oceans was causes by tanker spills. It’s not. I learned that twenty-four million out of the twenty-nine million gallons of oil that go into North America’s oceans each year are caused by human activities. Twenty-four million gallons of oil! That’s crazy! I usually use it by the tablespoon. What happens is we pour cooking oil into our sinks, top off our gas tanks, and hose down grease from our cars into storm drains, then it goes into our oceans.

We can fix that. Put your cooking oil into a container and throw it in the garbage. Don’t top off your gas tank. Use drip pans when you work on your car, and take used oil and antifreeze to recycling centers. These are things we can do. And I’m also going to talk to Richard Simmons about his oil usage. Maybe we can get those numbers down.”

—Ellen DeGeneres 

Rogers, Elizabeth, Thomas Kostigen, and Thomas M. The green book: the everyday guide to saving the planet one simple step at a time. Three Rivers Press, 2007. 13. Print.