Look around: You might see planet love everywhere you turn

ELOY, Ariz. – It’s Spring Break and, like many of my fellow students, I am on vacation. In looking for things environmental, I found them in a most unlikely place: the budget motel in which I am staying. This Americas Best Value Inn belongs to a chain of hotels owned individually as franchises. So, each hotel has its own quirks. This one has a pleasant quirk: a tendency toward environmental responsibility.

Don’t get me wrong: This place is far from the greenest of the green, but with compact fluorescent light bulbs in every fixture and recycled toilet paper in the bathroom, it is more environmentally friendly than many hotels.

Rain Breeze Eco toilet paper contains at least 30 percent recycled fiber.



Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about 25 percent of the energy of a comparable incandescent bulb and last many times longer.












This unexpected planet love got me thinking as I toured the some Native American ruins in Coolidge, Ariz. Where else can I find environmental responsibility around me as I travel?

I found it at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Right outside the entrance was a little bin nailed to a post with a sign that reads, “Recycle Brochures Here.”

"Casa Grande" means "Big House" in Spanish and was first called that by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, an early Spanish explorer, in 1694.

I’m sure it is a cost saving effort, but it also saves paper, which saves trees, which helps save the planet.

There was plenty that was not environmentally responsible: dozens of cars and RVs in the parking lot, all waiting to spew engine exhaust into the air; and electricity in use without benefit of solar collectors.

The site helped me, however, reflect on how much society has changed in the 600-odd years since the Hohokam people left it.

Back then, people were practicing methods that shaped the land for their uses, but they didn’t have engines to fill the air with pollution. They lived in smaller communities than we do today. For the most part, light came from the sun, rather than coal-burned electricity generation and a light bulb. Food was grown to feed the community, rather than to make extreme profits. Even their dwellings were from the earth and so, many hundreds of years later, do they return to it.

In some ways, people of this area are starting to wake up to the dangers global climate change has in store for us. In the Casa Grande Dispatch, there was a story Sunday morning about how the city of Casa Grande, Ariz., is planning new biking and walking paths to offer the 34,000 + citizens an alternative to driving their cars. This is a great step in the right direction, especially since the city does not have in-town public transportation.

Erosion in the form of wind and rain has carved the face of the Big House since its abandonment in the late 14th century.

I hope that we can return to some of the methods the Hohokam used – not out of necessity, but because it’s better than what we’ve got going now.

All photos by Jennifer Tramm