The Power of Habit

Habit is strong. It is so strong that oftentimes people only do things because that's the way they have always done them. Wake up, hit the alarm clock, get in the car, pick up coffee, drive to work.

But, at what point do we stop and think, Ever thought of bicycling? Taking the bus? Making your own coffee?

Individually the benefit to the environment would be minimal, but multiply it by a million and you'd get real change.

Greenpeace is using this same philosophy to help China protect their diminishing forests. China uses 45 billion pairs of disposable wooden chopsticks annually, eliminating an appalling 25 million trees each year. If this astounding consumption continues, in 20 years, China will become a forest-less nation.

The good news is, this deforestation is completely unnecessary. We have reusable alternatives to chopsticks, just as we have green alternatives for just about everything else. The bad news is, we refuse to use them. There habit goes again, closing out minds and driving our actions.

To encourage the use of these alternatives, Greenpeace created a petition for people to pledge their abstinence in using disposable chopsticks. They also assembled a 'disposable forest' in the heart of Beijing to raise awareness of the dangers that can come from following Habit blindly. Stark, leaf-less trees, constructed entirely of used chopsticks, created a message that would not soon be forgotten- change or die.