Service Learning Project

My service learning project involved my whole fraternity going out one morning to plant trees on UNT campus. UNT requires all greek members to do at least 5 hours of community service to ensure that North Texas greeks give back to the community in some way. Early in the semester after our initiation we had a weekend event with others to plant young trees. It felt kind of nice to do community service again. Other than waking up at 7 in the morning it was actually fun. although I'm sure it took us longer than the average landscaper to plant a tree I still felt like I did something for my community. The weekend before earth day we all were debating what we should do to not only get sorority girls to come out and have fun with us, but also get those 5 hours of required community service at the same time. When I was younger I actually got into trouble for having fireworks in my possession which landed me 10 hours of community service in a library. That didn't really benefit anyone other than the local librarians with organizing the books. Working outside felt good and although it was just a few trees I still felt like I gave back in some way. In the piece titled Environmental Justice, Robert Melchior Figueroa poses questions such as, How are environmental benefits and burdens distributed across populations? In what ways are citizens compensated for inequities in environmental burdens? The questions are touching the issues of how each of us is turning the effects of our own carbon foot print. The biggest and most important question is, What are the acceptable moral, social, and physical criteria for the distribution of environmental burdens? I drive a honda accord to and from work and I choose to walk to class. This is one of a number of different ways that my family and I contribute to the number of already polluting carbon emissions. I was curious what my actual carbon foot print would be. It turned out to be 5.8 tons of CO2 emissions per year. A total of 300 trees can counter balance the amount of pollution one person produces in a lifetime. In order for me to efficiently to reduce the total carbon emissions I create I would need to plant 295 more trees. It is something to think about for future reference.

-Mark Wagner