Going green has become fashionable

"Reduce your carbon footprint!" "Go Green!" "Wind energy!" Save money and save the planet!"

It seems that these slogans supporting environmental causes are everywhere nowadays. This week our reporters followed a couple stories on the environment. The stories focused on air quality and even how having hens can help you save money and help the planet.

Being an environmental studies and journalism major, I believe that the attention to these stories by the news media reflects the interest of the country in environmental issues. From small student-run media outlets like The Rockbridge Report to The CBS Evening News, journalists are running stories on alternative energy and other environmental issues.

Public interest is needed to spark a change in our energy use and our environment, and the public surely has begun to be interested. And not just in a superficial way. Going green has become fashionable. Cars, clothing, electronics, you name it -- if it's green, it's most certainly cool.

The new MacBook by Apple is advertised as the most green laptop on the market. What does that mean? Who knows? But it sounds cool. If this keeps up, the environment can change without people even knowing it, and that's a good thing for all of us.

- Michelle Boniface