Every day should be Earth Day

Earth Day was celebrated on the University of Northern Iowa campus with a week of events including an inter-dorm competition to conserve energy, called UNI Unplugged.
   
According to the UNI Unplugged Web site, all nine dorms participated in the competition, with Shull Hall winning by reducing 24 percent of its energy consumption, and Bartlett and Bender Halls coming in last with no improvement shown. 
   
This is just one example of how Earth Day was celebrated in the United States, by focusing on conserving energy. The UNI Unplugged Web site encourages such tactics by providing advice on how to reduce energy consumption. Ideas included putting computers in sleep mode, unplugging unused electronics and washing clothes in cold water.
   
While the UNI Unplugged competition demonstrated the power of such tactics, it is a fact that the United States, among other nations, is lucky to even have energy to waste frivolously. According to MSNBC's article "Could you live without electricity?" 1.6 billion people in the world have no electricity in their homes.
   
While that, in itself, doesn't seem like a big deal, the alternate fuels people use to serve the same functions as electricity is. According to MSNBC, those individuals burn wood, dung and coal to heat their homes, methods that lead to air pollution.
   
According to the World Heath Report 2002, sponsored by the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution from burning such products contributes to 2.7 percent of the global burden of disease.
   
Such problems have encouraged the United Nations to seek to expand access to electricity to every individual in the world.  According to the United Nations Web site, it believes that unless significant steps are taken to expand electricity access, the number of people who have to seek alternate forms of energy for heat will stay stagnant over the next two decades.
   
"Energy services are essential for meeting basic human needs, reducing poverty, creating and accumulating wealth and sustaining advances in social development," the UN said in its release announcing the April 28 UN Energy Summit. "Access to adequate, affordable and basic modern energy services is thus crucial to achieving sustainable human development."
   
These issues show that regardless of political affiliation, electricity is a valuable resource and is a privilege for anyone to have. Making a bigger effort to respect the resources used to fund electricity wasted on a day-by-day basis is something all students can commit to.
   
For 20 tips on conserving energy, visit the Ecomall's Web site at www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/20things.htm.