By Michael Freeman, Managing Editor

Superheroes can leap over skyscrapers, halt bullets in mid-air and save the world. We, on the other hand, cannot – no matter how many energy-efficient light bulbs we screw into our light sockets.

You would think that would be quite evident, but an e-mail I received last month from University Park apartments said otherwise: “Pick up an energy-efficient light bulb for your apartment! Save your place for next year and save the planet!”

I could not tell whether they meant using energy-efficient light bulbs or renewing my lease would save the planet, but I assumed it was the former, especially considering some of ACU’s “green” initiatives.

ACU recently purchased a premium bulb eater, which crushes fluorescent lamps and filters out the mercury for disposal. According to www.acu.edu/green, the 600 million fluorescent lamps sent annually to U.S. landfills produce an estimated 30,000 pounds of mercury waste, much of it in the form of mercury vapors that can travel more than 200 miles. The eater would combat this deadly mercury waste, which is definitely a good thing. Remember all of those news stories that ran recently about people getting poisoned by mercury vapors from landfills?Wait – you didn’t see those stories?Neither did I.

Another environmentally conscious move the university made included building the pond in front of the Bob and Shirley Hunter Welcome Center to capture water runoff that can later be used as irrigation water. However, most of the water that would run off is effluent water ACU uses for irrigation purposes. I don’t know about you, but I’m canceling my pool party by the pond now.

Finally, the university uses HEPA filters on the residence hall vacuum cleaners to help control airborne particles from being reintroduced into the air. Thank goodness for that because whenever I vacuum, I always worry about microscopic allergens floating through the air and not the big clumps of dirt on the floor.

Now, nothing is intrinsically wrong with these initiatives. In fact, they promote good health and efficient recycling. The problem with environmental advocacy lies in looking at initiatives through “green-colored glasses.”

Tossing a couple of plastic bottles or this issue of the Optimist in a recycling bin will not remove toxins from our drinking water or save an animal species or reduce carbon emissions. Even the world’s governments’ efforts of reducing carbon emissions are miniscule considering that carbon dioxide levels only represent 0.04 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere. Get back to me when those levels have at least reached 1 percent, and maybe I’ll be concerned. Until then, I’m not worrying about saving the planet; it will be fine.

As late comedian George Carlin so eloquently said, “The planet has been through a lot worse than us. It’s been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?”

So, go ahead and use your energy-efficient light bulbs; just don’t get too haughty about the supposed difference you’re making. The only people who can save the earth are superheroes like Captain Planet and the Planeteers.and Al Gore.