[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] so what do you think is the major cause
[speaker001:] well I I definitely think it's our the cars we drive and
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I think you know everyone has good intentions and and thinks well I should carpool and I will and but that we just have so many different interests and so many different things we have to do it's it's a bother to have to pick somebody up and if you have a doctor's appointment or something and they have to get another ride home or
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] you have to arrange it's just a hassle and I guess we're not willing to do that
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but that to me is probably the thing that needs to be done or to start using public
[speaker002:] now do you live in a major city
[speaker001:] Dallas Dallas area I live in Plano
[speaker002:] in Dallas okay
[speaker001:] which is just a a suburb of of Dallas do you live in a major city
[speaker002:] right uh I live in Raleigh North Carolina
[speaker001:] oh okay
[speaker002:] and probably not quite as big as Dallas but uh
[speaker001:] no well myself I I go to Richardson which is a I teach school and so I don't commute that far it's only about four miles but the majority of people that live in this area go into Dallas to work and and when you if you go out on the freeway and you look you see almost every car is just one passenger
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and our public transportation system's a joke so people just don't bother to take that because it's inconvenient we don't have any kind of a a train or uh you know anything like some of the big cities do
[speaker002:] oh um-hum right
[speaker001:] we're supposed to get one but it's you know way off in the future
[speaker002:] way off yeah
[speaker001:] but no it's just it
[speaker002:] well I've found the easiest way is to is to ride bikes in Raleigh anyway and
[speaker001:] oh is that right
[speaker002:] I used to live in Colorado and it was even more of a bigger deal there but um
[speaker001:] sure
[speaker002:] I ride my bike everywhere in town well there I probably wouldn't ride it to the the opposite side of town but I can ride it to downtown with no problem at all
[speaker001:] how large is Raleigh
[speaker002:] it's about two hundred and fifty thousand
[speaker001:] so it's pretty big yeah
[speaker002:] uh the diameter of the city is probably it's got a belt line around it which is a a diameter of about ten twelve miles
[speaker001:] uh-huh and so you ride your bike to work and everything or aren't you oh well that's great
[speaker002:] right which is about three and a half four miles
[speaker001:] see that's that isn't even I mean I'm not sure that a person even a percentage of of of people in the Dallas area ride bikes to work you know I just don't think they do I never see anybody
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum
[speaker001:] um another thing that that I think our my family's real conscious of is is is to stop using aerosol cans and you know uh you know get another find another way instead of
[speaker002:] right yeah that one so easy I don't know why people won't
[speaker001:] you know the pump I know it really is and we just need not to buy the stuff and those businesses will have to change you know the corporations and so forth have to change if you don't buy it they're not going to make it so
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] yeah that is an easy one
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but uh you know and I notice probably a lot of uh commercial pollution and and factory pollution in Dallas you can see it some days it's really bad
[speaker002:] yeah you can see it in Raleigh it's ugly
[speaker001:] yeah it's yeah it's awful it's nothing like California where the smog is constant but it's still there and you know it
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] if we I think if we really realized how much we do breathe in that's unhealthy we would immediately do something about it but I don't think people realize how unhealthy the the air is
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that's what you said you're a school teacher
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] um how much how how much education of air pollution and all that do you
[speaker001:] well I think I don't see I only teach English and and uh but the science teacher I teach fifth grade and we're departmentalized and
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] the science teacher does a really big unit on it and I think the kids are more informed than adults are I mean and
[speaker002:] right yeah I would I would agree with that because I've done actually I've done some volunteer teaching on on uh ecology and all that at at a middle school
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um the the kids knew well the teacher the science teachers were pretty sharp too but the kids in general know more than adults do about it
[speaker001:] uh-huh they do they do and they and and I think that they are they care a little bit more and I think as adults we need to care because it's the the future for our kids and I
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know I mean my kids are much more aware than I was at their age about things like that and I think it's it's definitely has to be that
[speaker002:] right well it probably at your age it wasn't a problem
[speaker001:] no it really wasn't it wasn't a problem it I mean it probably I'm sure it was beginning to be a problem but people were just weren't
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh aware of it like they are today and I think that's where it has to start with the kids because it's going to be their world soon and I think it and and we're real big on you know Plano which is a small suburb of Dallas about a hundred thousand
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum okay
[speaker001:] um I think we're more than that about a hundred thirty thousand now but um they're really trying their best to start recycling and things like that that will
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and we just we have separate garbage collections now for plastics and cans and newspaper and which I think is I mean that's that should be just a way of life for everybody you shouldn't even complain about it you should just do it
[speaker002:] right right I think they ought to well the way it used to be was that you had you had to take your recycles to a special place it should be the other way around where you have to take your non recyclables to a special place and then people would
[speaker001:] uh-huh that's true
[speaker002:] would have an incentive
[speaker001:] you're right you're right
[speaker002:] yeah Raleigh has has curbside recycling which is really nice
[speaker001:] well you know it just has to be when you consider the landfills we we're not going to have any soon and it's
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] it's ridiculous but the thing the quandary that I'm in is that that we had a great big article in in in the newspaper last week about I've been real big about going to to the store and asking for paper instead of plastic well
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] that is really controversial because some scientists you know f eel like plastic I mean paper is worse than plastic it's just it's just a real um debate about which one is is the best really the best thing to do is to bring um you know a cloth bag yeah
[speaker002:] yeah yeah your own bag I do that sometimes but I I forget a lot
[speaker001:] do you yeah I see that's what I do too I forget and and besides when I go to the store I have a family you know I I get maybe ten twelve bags of groceries and that would be a little a little expensive although you know I'm sure some
[speaker002:] yeah I think I I don't know I think the paper's still got to be better because well the the major problem with paper usually is when they bleach it the dioxins they just usually end up getting dumped into the water supply
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] but um the grocery bags with them being colored or being raw paper I don't see that much of a problem as opposed to a petroleum product I mean tree trees can grow back if if they're handled in the correct way but the petroleum products like plastic I mean they're going to run out of oil whatever they're going to do
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum
[speaker002:] it doesn't grow
[speaker001:] yes that's right that's right you're right
[speaker002:] I mean that's that's where the main that's where I see that paper's got to be better
[speaker001:] uh-huh well you know and they say that you know plastic is recyclable but not many people use them again you know
[speaker002:] no it's and plastic like that is not a hundred percent recyclable it they lose a lot and it takes a lot of energy to do it
[speaker001:] yeah that's true sure sure I think that you know I think that it's tremendous the research they're doing on all of this because I think we need to to know and be more aware of it so we can do some changing but
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] the majority of people are so lazy about it that they're not willing to to sacrifice a little to to make the world a better place and it's kind of sad because especially if you have children and because you know you want
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] your kids and their kids to to be able to
[speaker002:] have a nice place to live yeah
[speaker001:] be a part of a yeah a world that's halfway decent and you know just in my lifetime I've seen such a change in the environment and it's scary because by the time my kids have kids and they're growing up it's going to be a completely different world you know and it's it's scary so
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know like I I know that I need to carpool and I don't and uh and I you rationalize and say well I only am four miles away and that it's no big deal and
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah
[speaker001:] well you know but
[speaker002:] I guess the the first step is to find a happy medium I mean you could easily say well we should go back to living in caves but no one's going to do that so I think you need to make compromises slowly enough people adjust to it
[speaker001:] and uh
[speaker002:] right right not too slowly but
[speaker001:] well you know just yeah just with with our thing in Plano it had when recycling garbage it hasn't it hasn't been that long and it was just uh really an easy adjustment for most people but there was a few small percentage that griped and complained and wrote
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know letters to the editor and you know like it was some real great big deal inconvenience and
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] but it seems to me you should just be able to give up a little bit to make the world better but some people don't think that so
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and some people don't and some people I think really believe and maybe they're rationalizing but they really believe that everybody's making a bigger deal out of the problem than it is
[speaker002:] no way yeah
[speaker001:] and that and that it's right no way it's it's there and we've got to face it
[speaker002:] I think they're not making a big enough deal about it
[speaker001:] that's right I think in some cases they aren't
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I see I wonder how I wonder how much the laws that Congress passed several years ago are really enforced as far as big companies and
[speaker002:] yeah well I think there's a lot of violations that slip under the table
[speaker001:] oh I think so too and I think that they're not fined the way they should be or they're they pay them off or whatever so they can get away with it
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I I was born in Ohio and when um when I was young we did we did a lot of fishing and on Lake Erie and I I mean when I went back
[speaker002:] um-hum right
[speaker001:] I just couldn't believe the difference it's just terrible the way it's polluted because of of big corporations that dump and you know and you just feel so bad because at one time it was a wonderful beautiful lake and now it's a mess
[speaker002:] right hum I've I've never known it to be one so I guess I'm a little bit younger than you
[speaker001:] yeah I when I was little my dad had a boat and we would go fishing on Lake Erie and it was beautiful
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and it's not beautiful anymore so and that's
[speaker002:] um