For almost half a century now, April has been environmental awareness month. This tradition started in 1970 after the first official Earth Day. The University of Alabama has a beautiful campus. The fact that our campus has so much green space is a privilege that students at many other colleges around the country are not afforded.

In spite of this, environmental awareness on campus is severely lacking. We drive from campus to the Strip, we litter the grounds with aluminum cans and glass bottles and we use plastics incessantly.

Often times we do these things without thinking. In the spirit of environmental awareness month, we should take a moment to reflect on how we treat our environment. Both on campus, and around the world. There is no reason to demonize someone for grabbing a bottle of water with a sandwich at the Ferg. But instead of tossing it in with the rest of the garbage, be sure it goes into the recycling bin. It’s not hard to find one; they are placed all around campus. Better yet, why not get a water bottle to carry around? It could save you upwards of a dollar per drink. One bottle may not do much damage on its own, but the number of bottles used adds up.

By doing something as simple as recycling or eliminating bottles from daily use, we will be able to not only reduce the amount of carbon released into the air, but also keep harmful chemicals from dyes and plastics from being released into the Earth.

Not practicing some degree of environmental conservation and awareness is, quite simply, irresponsible. We owe it not only to ourselves, but those around us, as well as those that will come after us to make a conscious effort to make decisions that will have positive, or at a very minimum neutral, impact when environmentally sound option are available.

What reason is there to not try and help conserve the environment when possible? I, personally, cannot think of any.

Sometimes there isn’t always an environmentally friendly option available, but with groups on campus like UAECo and UA Recycling, and easier access to green products, the ability to act as a responsible citizen are becoming increasingly common. Nobody expects you to switch over to entirely solar power, or forgo using plastics entirely, or even stop using fossil fuels.

But, simple actions like carpooling, recycling, riding a bike or shutting off electronics when not in use are – and should be – expected of people. We live in a day and age of environmental concern, and for good reason. We only get one Earth, it’s best for everyone if we are able to keep it in a condition conducive to keeping humans alive.

This Earth Day, April 20, try skipping the normal 4/20 activities and going out to give back to the Earth.

Zach McCann is a junior majoring in philosophy. His column runs biweekly.