Often one civic initiative leads to another, and this is exactly what happened to the Clean Up the World -- a movement that has become an international civil society force to be reckoned with. It came to Ankara on Oct. 23 of this year when Australian Ambassador to Turkey Peter Doyle joined students of Yeni Turan Elementary School in Ankara's İskitler neighborhood to celebrate “Clean Up the World Day.” Let me first recap the facts.
Ambassador Doyle said upon welcoming guests that Clean Up the World Day is one of the world's largest community-based events, an Australian initiative where millions of volunteers clean up some of the vast amounts of rubbish carelessly discarded all over our planet each year. In 2009, an estimated 35 million volunteers from 120 countries have participated thus far. Ambassador Doyle thanked the Environment and Forestry Provincial General Directorate, Ankara's Altındağ Municipality, En Yeşil Ankara Derneği (Greenest Ankara Association), Türkiye Tabiatını Koruma Derneği (Protection of Turkey's Nature Association) and Migros for their support.
Following the speeches, Ambassador Doyle, the deputy undersecretary and the principal of the school joined students in cleaning up an area near the school.
While the schoolchildren happily participated and learned a lot about the values of living in a cleaner and greener environment, the ambassador must keep the wider picture in sight, and this indeed includes hands-on activities on all fronts. I am fully aware of the fact that while our children may enjoy one activity, they may reasonably quickly lose interest in pursuing other “green” pastimes. This implies that we as parents and those whom we trust to teach our children must keep up their interest once awakened. A huge advantage of going green is that it does not need to cost a lot of money -- I am not talking about buying organic food. What I am writing about today is how all of us can contribute to reducing our carbon footprint as well as limiting waste.
My humble add-on examples are as follows. First are shopping bags. Some may argue it looks odd to use the same bag for an x number of times in order to not use the plastic bags that nearly all supermarkets happily give away for free. I disagree and say it looks even more questionable when grown men and women carry multiple plastic bags bearing the logo of their local supermarket, half of them torn, as they walk down the street because what we put into them is often far too heavy for this kind of bag. If going green means looking stylish, please stop using plastic bags. Invest a few Turkish lira in one or two solid and long-lasting bags.
Second is electricity. While of course no modern society can live without it, this does not mean that we have to use it irresponsibly. I am not talking about reading lights or keeping the fridge at a reasonably “cool” level. What frustrates me in particular is the way we use air conditioners. Once outdoor temperatures climb five degrees above average, everyone switches on the AC. Come wintertime and the heating in our apartment complex is not yet turned on? Again, why not use the “hot-cold” AC we originally bought for hot Turkish summers but now use for cold Turkish winters, too? What children need is fresh air, T-shirts in the summer and warm overcoats in the winter.
Third is the way we travel to work and school in particular. Having moved from London to İstanbul, we were of course used to traffic. No wonder our London mayor at the time introduced the system of charging for motorists entering the central district. Coming from a very liberal background, I initially objected to his idea, but having seen traffic in İstanbul, I changed my viewpoint about London, too, and would actually suggest doubling the daily fee to get drivers out of their cars and into public transport. Now tell me that we adults cannot learn while getting older! Children love mommy and daddy's car, yes. But we can teach them how to go by bus as from a certain age. We adults should use more public, less individual modes of transport.
The Australian Clean Up the World initiative shows that individuals can do good for society not by lecturing others but by leading by example, then taking citizens by the hand. The younger the citizens these hands belong to, the better.
Benzer Haberler 
