“Well, I guess we’re screwed.” I thought to myself in fourth period Environmental Science that Tuesday morning. We had been watching a documentary about the current state of the Earth for the past two days and I was feeling a bit hopeless about the future of our planet. Through the atmosphere of the class, I could tell I wasn’t the only one concerned and a bit hopeless. Since we were splitting up the documentary over multiple days we didn’t see the resolution of, “Here’s what you can do to help!” for at least a week.

I went home knowing I needed to study for my econ test but feeling like, “What’s the point? The world’s ending. ” And while I realize that’s not exactly the best attitude, that’s how I felt in the moment. 

I was simply angry about the state of the Earth and that no one was talking about it or doing anything about it. But at the same time, I didn’t know what I could do. So, growing more and more frustrated, I decided to call it a night. 

I walk into science the next day ready to be sad. Our teacher announced to the class that it’s the last day that we were watching the documentary. 

Finally, we had reached the conclusion with positive ideas and what we can do to help reduce our carbon footprint. 

One suggestion stands out to me: take one day a week to not eat meat or cheese. 

If just one person were to do this it would help immensely. It was the only suggestion that I could do for myself as a teenager. I can’t convert our home to only solar power and I can’t switch to an Eco-friendly car. But this, this I could do. I went home and told this to my parents. They decided that would join me. We decided we would start having meatless (and cheese-less) Mondays. 

As it began I didn’t notice too much of a difference it was just something I had to make sure to remember. While making my lunch, I would have to remember not to pack anything with meat or cheese. 

While the switch isn’t massive and I’m certainly not single-handedly solving global warming, at least it’s a nudge in the right direction.