The Red and Black

Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Opinions

Green for the clean

Bye, allergies. Univ. cleaning services switch to using green products.

Who would have thought the University's traditional red and black campus has now gone green?

As of 2006, several University buildings have traded in their usual cleaning agents for more environmentally friendly supplies.

The green-sealed products being used to disinfect campus have already improved air quality and provided a better environment for students and PPD Building Service employees with allergies or asthma.

The Green Cleaning Program has another benefit, too - it's more cost efficient.

Not only are these green-sealed cleaning products compatible with Mother Nature, but they have reduced cleaning expenditures for the buildings that use them by an amazing 20 percent. The University should be applauded for its efforts to save green in more than one way.

Although going green is an admirable feat, the only buildings implementing the new supplies are on North Campus, and we have to wonder, what's taking so long? The entire campus' cleaning regimen won't be completely green-friendly until 2009.

In the midst of the great global warming crisis, shouldn't it be higher on the University's priority list to mandate the use of products that don't use ozone depleting compounds or toxic chemicals?

Students should follow the University's lead, nevertheless, and be mindful of other green-sealed cleaning products when grocery shopping.

For more information on the University's green cleaning efforts, see the Web site at gogreen.uga.edu.


- Jacquelyn Greenwood for the editorial board.

Food for thought

With a food campaign, changing the world is as simple as clicking a mouse.

Expanding your vocabulary not only makes you sound intelligent in dinner party conversations and helps you ace standarized test questions, but it can also help save a life.

FreeRice is a Web site that uses a vocabulary game to help feed impoverished countries. In the free game, a vocabulary word is given and the player has to match it with the correct definition. For every right match a player makes, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. If a player chooses incorrectly, rice grains aren't taken away - instead, the difficulty level of the vocabulary decreases until the player can make the right clicks again. The site relies on advertising revenue to pay for the rice.

The Washington Post reported that since its October launch on the Internet, more than one billion grains of rice have been donated. On one day, more than 77 million grains of rice were donated.

We find this site one of the smartest and easiest ways to help decrease world poverty. By combining Internet accessibility with a vocabulary game, all donators have to do is click a mouse for a few minutes to see the results of their efforts, without having to open their wallets or volunteer their time. For more information, check out www.freerice.com.


- JoAnn Anderson for the editorial board.

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