Our Environment, Not "the" Environment

AIRE has been in the news a lot; it's catching on.  The timing is good and the energy (no pun intended) to change is in the air.  Hopefully we will all have the opportunity to promote the message of greenhouse gas reductions in one way or another: blogs, conversations with friends, letters to legislators, emails to associates, presentations, etc.  As we do so I recommend we adjust our nomenclature and replace "the environment," "the climate," the planet" with "our environment," "our climate," our planet."

Words can be powerful tools.  This relatively small change carries strong meaning and reflects more accurately our close relationship with nature.

Try it out.  Get in the habit of checking yourself as you write and talk, using "our" instead of "the."  It took me a few months for the change to become habitual, but now it is.
Thanks for helping to protect our environment.

Steve Offutt
Arlington resident (and Director of Transportation Projects for AIRE)

Comments

[art painting]

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.