Hello everyone and welcome to Green Teen. I first had the idea to start this blog when it came to my attention that I was living an inconsiderate life; one without any thought of the environment. Consistently, I would take extremely long showers, always forget to turn off the lights, and leave the TV on even when I left the house. In my AP Environmental Science class, we calculated our ecological footprints at the starting of the year, and I only made the realization about how unsustainable I was being after I had calculated that it if the whole world lived like me, we would need three and a half earths. Three and a half earths! The truth utterly shocked me for I had always thought I was in the group of people who positively contributed to the environment – I always recycled and I was in Environmental Club. However, as surprising as that realization was, it certainly gave me the will to get my act together and reduce my impact on the planet.  Having done my research, I wanted to start Green Teen because I thought it beneficial to share some easy sustainable tips that I have learned. This blog won’t be asking you to make drastic lifestyle changes for the good of the environment. We all have things going on, and sometimes going the extra mile for the good of environment is an afterthought. So, instead, for people who are lackadaisical like me, I will be providing you with easy ways to live a more sustainable life and counter the negative emissions you spew out.

Contrary to commonly held beliefs, vampires really do exist. I’m not referring to the ones that stalk you when you walk home alone at night because as far as I know those only exist in Forks, Washington. What I am referring to are the vampires (appliances) you leave plugged in when not in use. Vampire appliances are electrical appliances that continue to suck electricity even when they are turned off. This process, in turn, multiplied by the amount of vampires you have scattered throughout your house, sucks unnecessary money out of your wallet. If you want to be a vampire slayer like me and conserve energy and money, all you really need to do is unplug your household appliances when they aren’t in use. This is easier said than done. After you unplug certain appliances like computers, the television set, and DVD players, you may need to reset the settings on them, and that can be a hassle. It is understandable if you want to forgo touching certain appliances like those, but other appliances are relatively easy like coffee machines, toasters, blow-dryers, phone chargers, and even printers. In Envi-Sci, we conducted a personal energy audit of our house in order to see our monthly energy in KWH. We were then asked to enact a plan to conserve energy and reduce our next PSE bill. My family and I came up with a very simple game plan: Operation TOLA (Operation Turn Off Lights and Appliances). For the entire month of January, my family implemented and abided by this plan, turning off lights when we left rooms and unplugging appliances. When the PSE bill came, it was no surprise that it reflected the economical changes we made as we owed sixty dollars less to PSE than we did in December. Breaking old habits is easy and requires little effort on our part. Little things like unplugging toasters can really make a difference and reduce our impact on the environment.