• All right, you know what?
    This pisses me off.

    People giving disdainful looks, saying I'm trying to be "fashionable"
    as they see my shirt:
    TREES ARE 4 HUGGING.

    Oh, I forgot.
    Being a tree hugger is 'in'
    Now, it's a fashion statement.
    It's not about actually caring,
    it's about knowing the hype
    spewing the words "GLOBAL WARMING"
    from your mouth.

    Never mind, "OZONE HOLE IS GROWING AGAIN"
    ('cause Al Gore did say we solved that problem in An Inconvenient Truth
    and we can trust every word the gaz-guzzling-car driver says)
    or "AIR POLLUTION IS KILLING US"
    (especially when we are indoors where there's no ventilation)
    or "MEAT INDUSTRY IS HURTING THE ENVIRONMENT"
    (water pollution anyone? Overgrazing? Undergrazing? Habitat destruction?
    Any of these ring a bell?)
    or "PESTICIDES ARE PROBLEMS"
    (Does anyone here know that there are pesticide free ways to manage common pests?
    We don't always have to spray stuff that can kill!)
    or "ETHANOL IS OVERRATED--TRY USING ALGAE FOR ECOFUELS"
    (Corn may seem cool, but it uses more oil,
    Algae doesn't.)
    or "LANDFILLS RUNNING OUT OF SPACE"
    (Do we really want to have to burn our trash?
    Do we really want Wall-E to become a reality?)

    Yes, I DO care about the environment.
    No, it is not a fashion statement.

    I cared about it when it was dorky to care,
    when that made you a weirdo.
    But you still had legit arguments back then.
    Now?
    No one takes it seriously
    because most of these people
    don't actually know what things like the ozone layer are
    despite the LIVE GREEN and SAVE THE PLANET shirts they sport.

    It was never fashionable in my school
    to say stuff like "DON'T BE A LITTER BUG!"
    But I still took "Earth Day Everyday" to heart.
    People asked me "Why bother caring?"
    when I said the planet was in danger
    that the future could go horribly wrong.
    But even as a little first grader, I cared.

    I didn't get a 4 on the A.P. Environmental Science Exam
    to be cool, or for the college credit.
    I took it because I wanted to learn all I could
    on how to help the planet.
    How it works. How we impact it.
    How to help.

    NOT for a frivolous fashion statement.