Bikes not cars

Image by dave_merwin

At about half past five in the evening I made my way towards the ground floor of my building through the elevator. Once I was down I got my dark blue bicycle out of one of the many garages of my building.

I jumped on to it and began to ride it all around the colossal compound.

I soon realized that one of the cars parked in the parking area was making a peculiar sound. When I went closer to the car I found that the car was also releasing tremendous amount of hot air. I then finally discovered that the air-conditioner inside the car was on and the hot air was all the wasted energy that was being released.

The driver sitting inside the car had turned on the air-conditioner as the climate outside was quite warm and humid. I thought about how warm it was for a second and said to myself, 'Let him be, he could have been out the rest of the day, melting in the heat'. But when I turned back and saw all the other drivers sitting outside their cars, showing absolutely no sign of getting bothered by the heat, I thought again. 'Hey I am out in the heat as well and the place where I live has never really had a cool climate', I said. There was no need for him to use the air-conditioner when the car was'nt even working. He was wasting the petrol, releasing harmful gases into the air and wasting energy. This is precisely what leads to climate change. No wonder it was such a warm day. So many people in the world would be doing things like this that harm the environment.

I was surely going to do something about it and I had to do it quickly. I gathered all my courage, went up to him along with my bicycle and knocked on his window.

"Excuse me. Could you please turn off your air-conditioner? It is creating a lot of pollution", I said. "Certainly. I will just put it off", said the driver very politely. I was thrilled. He had agreed to do what I had asked him to do. I truly felt like a young, responsible citizen working for the environment. I turned my bycycle and began riding it thinking he would put it off immediately. When I came back on my next round I realized that the car was making the same sound again. I soon figured that the air-conditioner inside the car was still on and the driver had never bothered to put it off. I was furious. "The man had'nt kept his word", I said to myself.

I went up to him once again and in a very firm tone asked him why he had'nt put his car's air-conditioner off. He got the message and realized how angry I was from my tone. Once again he said he would shut it. I trusted him and turned back with my bicycle and continued to ride it.

When I came back on the next round I saw that the driver had put off his air-conditioner. I was very happy. I thanked him with a wide smile on my face.

Today, was just the beginning. I will continue to work in favour of the environment for the rest of my life. Yes, today I can proudly say that I am an environmentalist.