Conscious Thinking

The more I've been reading all of these articles about sustainability and the environment, the more self-aware I'm becoming about my own habits and how they have an impact on the environment. Every day is full of small choices that may seem insignificant, but over time they could have huge effects. Being more aware of everything that I do pushes me to overcome the laziness that sometimes keeps me from doing small things that are more sustainable.

It upsets me that most of what people hear about the environment and the current downward spiral we are in is negative. It feels like the destruction is happening at too fast a pace for any single change we make to help the planet. But people love trends, and if sustainable changes start to become trends, imagine how much we could help our planet. I will set myself the goal of inspiring some of my friends to make small changes with me. Drinking out of reusable cups, taking reusable shopping bags with me, and unplugging my power strips when I leave the room have quickly become second nature to me. If we can all try setting goals like these for ourselves, it won't feel like we are inconveniencing ourselves, it will just become the new way of doing things.

Where Does This Energy Stuff Come From Anyway

Something that I don't often stop to consider when I flick on a light switch, or turn on the heat in the winter, is: Where is my energy actually coming from? Okay so I realize that I'm using sources like electricity, coal, and oil, but where do we get that? I think if we all understood what these big corporations do to get their coal and oil we might all think twice about giving them our money.

When we pay for oil and coal, that money goes towards the destruction of the Appalachian mountains, and towards dictators, like Gaddafi in Libya. My Eco Rep class recently read and discussed articles about all of the corruption in our country's quest for energy. The articles are "Energy Casualties: How People are Dying for our Energy," by Craig Altemose and Rachel Soule, and "Moving Mountains," by Erik Reece. We purchase oil from countries that have very unjust systems, who we would not normally be dealing business with. For instance, Gaddafi used most of the money from the oil revenue to brutally oppress the people of his country. Thousands of Americans are killed in fuel supply convoys since we are dealing with such dangerous countries. As for the coal, we seem to have no limits when it comes to extracting it. Currently, the tops of the Appalachian mountains are being blown up for coal extraction. This affects the beauty of our environment, as well as the ecosystems, and even communities around the mountains. Over 700 miles of healthy streams have been buried with the waste from the mountaintop removal.

The article about Moving Mountains really frightened me; how could so much destruction be going on in my own country and I don't even know about it? What else are these big corporations keeping from us? I wanted to learn more about this, and below I will paste a link to a website from the Natural Resources Defense Council which has more information about the mountaintop removal in the Appalachian mountains.
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/coal/mtr/?gclid=CNSlg-SY_roCFag7OgodmEQAfA

This all sounds like a lot of scary and overwhelming information. It is, but we can still do something about it. Spreading the word, and getting more people to stand up to the oil and coal companies will put pressure on them to change, and slow down their destruction. I think we should organize predetermined days where for one whole day, nobody purchases gas for their cars or anything. If these organized protests can happen more often, the corporations will lose huge amounts of money, enough to make them listen.

But The Oceans Are Big Enough, Right?

If you're like me and you've ever been out on a sailboat, a cruise ship, a motor boat, whale watch, or any sea transportation, you know that it's hard not to feel tiny out there on the vast oceans. So that means that anything tossed into the ocean will just "disappear" off into the dark depths of water, right? And it probably won't gather somewhere in a large mass of garbage, or make its way into an animal's digestive system? Sadly, this is far from the truth.

Kimberly Amaral writes about this in her article, "Plastics in Our Oceans." The plastic debris that finds its way into our oceans is extremely dangerous to ocean life. The first thing that many people do not realize is that the garbage actually does end up in large floating masses. The ocean has currents which concentrate trash in certain areas. One of these areas is called the North Pacific Gyre, where some of these currents meet. This led to the buildup of the Eastern Garbage Patch, a dense mass of plastic debris floating west of the United States that is over twice the size of Texas. Plastic bottles are a huge portion of this garbage patch. Even worse, the caps from plastic bottles are very deadly to animals, as they resemble food. Mother animals think they are doing a good thing by feeding them to their young, but the plastic bottle caps are ruining their digestive systems.

I love using my glass eco jar! It carries hot and cold drinks :)

I was so appalled when I read about this, that humans have created such a big mess in the environment. Since the plastic bottles seem to be one of the biggest contributors to this, I have set myself the goal of not purchasing any drinks in plastic bottles. Instead, I carry around a reusable water bottle with me which I can fill up with my own drinks. I will work towards not making any waste from buying drinks. At Dunkin' Donuts, I brought a reusable mug and the store gave me a five cent discount. As a nation, we could have such an immense positive impact if everyone simply began using reusable cups more often. It's not a difficult habit to get into, plus I have a glass container that I also use, and I swear drinks taste better in glass! Eliminating waste from plastic bottles can be a huge step towards saving our oceans, the marine life, and keeping our beaches beautiful places to visit.

Looking Back on Conversations With Mom

There were so many times when I was younger that I had a conversation with my mom that went something like this:

Her: "Okay so I know we've been buying these granola bars for years, but we need to switch to this other kind because I just read online that there's actually high fructose corn syrup in them."
Me: "But Mom, we just switched to this kind a few months ago. You have to stop changing your mind about what's healthy and what isn't. Can't we just stick with one thing?"

The same thing would happen with everything from shampoos, to dish soap, to all sorts of products we buy for the house. And when I was younger, this used to annoy me.

As a much more informed person today, I finally feel like I'm seeing how much effort my mom put into finding safe and environmentally friendly food and other items for my family. While I found it aggravating that she kept researching the ingredients in our products rather than just seeing the "eco-friendly" label and buying it, I now realize that she was steps ahead in the environmental sense. This led me to question why we should have to jump through hoops just to find out if companies are really selling us what we think they are. I know this relates to my earlier post about greenwashing, but I think it proves that if we are willing to dig around and learn which products to trust, we can show manufacturers that we won't fall for their tricks anymore. It will increase the pressure on them to have environmental integrity so that people keep buying their products.

Our Economy Isn't Helping the Problem

Here's a disturbing fact: 3/4 of what is taking up space in our landfills in the United States comes from products and packaging. And the majority of these are things that were used only once before being tossed. It makes me worry about where we're going to keep putting all of this garbage. I imagine a future Earth where the entire inside has been hollowed out to bury trash, and all that we live on is the shell of a planet.

I've started paying attention to how true this is of my own habits. After my last trip to target, I took a look at how much I threw away as soon as I got back:
There was all sorts of plastic wrapping on makeup and cleaning products. I bought a lot of food for my dorm room that came in small, individually-wrapped packages. And then there was the fact that I had forgotten my reusable bags in my room so I had to get some plastic shopping bags, too.
So overall, I concluded that I waste a lot when I shop.

What can I do to change this? Stop shopping altogether? There should be a way to waste less without giving up shopping for practical items. I think the real problem comes from the economy. Unless our economy can eliminate the need for circulation of toxic and cheaply-made products to the consumer, the path of destruction will continue to grow. Yes, I can try to change my habits, buy less plastic-covered stuff, but in today's economy it's hard to buy the things we need everyday in anything but that. So maybe it's our economy that needs to adjust. If the manufacturers were made responsible for taking care of all the waste that comes from their products, I'm sure they would hasten the transition to more sustainable methods. I'll have to take some time to reflect on how I, personally, can take part to put pressure on our economy to step in.

Lost in Labels?

I like to think that when I buy things, I am conscious of choosing items that are less harmful to the environment. I choose things like "organic" shampoo and "eco safe" household cleaners. After learning about a concept known as "greenwashing" in my Eco Rep class, (greenwashing is when companies put labels on their products which make them sound as if they are safe or environmentally friendly when that is not really the case), I realized that I never actually stopped to learn if the products I buy that have these kinds of labels are truly reliable. While reading an article recently, "Greenwashing" by Richard Dahl, I discovered that there is a website in which you can search by label, category, or certifier to find out how meaningful different labels are. What's the point of buying the more expensive, "environmental safe" version of a product if it's just as bad as the regular one? It's important to know which labels to believe and which ones are scams.

This sparked my curiosity so I decided to explore the website. I highly recommend checking it out:
http://www.greenerchoices.org/ecolabels/

If you've been grocery shopping
before, you've probably seen this
label on food packaging.

 I was very pleased to learn from the Greener Choices website that the USDA Organic label is meaningful and verified, because I buy a lot of food with this label on it. In order to meet the standards for the product to display the USDA certification, the product must contain at least 95% organic ingredients. For food, the USDA standards are strongly enforced. However, the website points out that cosmetics with the USDA label are less reliable because there is less consistency and enforcement of standards.

One thing to watch out for that is shown on the website is the "100% Vegetarian" label. This label doesn't actually get certified by any organization, the companies themselves can choose to put it on without meeting any standards. Since there's no official criteria for a product to be advertised as vegetarian, products with this label may even be tested on animals or contain animal-derived substances.
This really frustrated me. I don't think it's right for companies to be able to slap any vague claim onto their products. They are misleading us as consumers. My goal is to put more research into the actual value of the certified "sustainable" products that I buy so I know exactly what it is that I'm paying for. I won't let them greenwash me!

How Pac-Man Can Teach Sustainability

This past weekend, I found myself wandering around Boston at 1am in the rain with some of my friends searching for a dry coffee shop to duck into, (A rather long story involving some misinformation about the open hours of a certain place). It wasn't a complete loss, however, because while we were out we happened upon some very intriguing sculptures.

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the spheres are actually models of the globe, with powerful images painted on them.

 

The can in the upper left-hand corner represents the chemicals and pollution we dump into our oceans.
(My interpretation of the Pac-Man and other video game characters is that
the video game consoles were very toxic to the environment
when they were disposed of).

 

I apologize for the poor photo quality, these were taken on my phone, and the glare from all of the surrounding lights was horrendous.

Stumbling upon this reminded me of a discussion I had in my Eco-rep class last week about how the arts can be so influential in revolutionary movements. They can be used to our advantage to help advocate causes like learning about climate change and pollution, in a very unique and eye-catching way. Everyone who looks at this sculpture is free to interpret its message in their own way, which makes it more effective because they're coming to their own conclusion rather than being told what's happening and what to think about it.

I got to thinking about how even by being creative, I can do something to make a difference in this movement. A new goal that I have from this experience is to create some artwork portraying the harm being done to our planet.

To Recycle or Not to Recycle?

Confession: I'm addicted to Chobani Greek yogurt.

And as a person trying to reduce her impact on the environment, I always recycle the plastic containers that my yogurt comes in. However, I came across something recently that shocked me; sometimes recycling certain things can be more harmful than just throwing them away. How is this possible? Isn't it better to reuse things than to put them in a landfill where they won't decompose for thousands of years? Rachel Cernansky explains this seemingly absurd statement in her article, "When Recycling is Bad for the Environment."

Does this mean that even recycling is a lost cause? Of course not, it just means that it is crucial to be educated about the process so that what gets recycled is actually helpful, not harmful, to the planet.

In fact, Cernansky points out that our current level of recycling is as helpful as removing 39.6 million cars from the road. But that number can easily be much higher if more information about recycling plastics is offered to people. What makes the recycling of plastic much more challenging than recycling glass, metal, and paper is the inconsistency of its make-up. Different types of plastic contain different additives, so they cannot all be melted down together to make new material. Companies put a number on the plastic container, usually inside the 3-arrow recycle symbol, depending on which type of plastic it is. For example, water and soda bottles are plastic #1, whereas milk jugs are plastic #2.

 I had never realized there was so much more to it than just throwing all plastics in the recycling bin in order to help the environment; learning about the different types and whether or not they can be recycled in my area is crucial, or else I may have kept causing more harm than good.

Starting Small (But better than not at all!)

In my blog, I plan to share information about living sustainably. Some of it will be information that I research, and some will be ideas and things I come upon on my own, or learn about in an Eco-rep class I have at college. I'm all about finding little things I can change in my habits towards more environmentally friendly ways, and if you think it's something that you're willing to try too - go for it - that's the goal! This will be a sort of log of my self-improvement through more sustainable habit changes.

I personally started small - by vowing to turn off the power strip in my room when I'm not using it and when I sleep. Ever heard of vampire power? Despite the fact that the term sounds cool, it's actually the sucking of energy into cords and gadgets plugged into outlets, even when they're done charging or not being used. In Nathan Chandler's article, "How Smart Power Strips Work," he mentions that on average, power strips cause between 5 and 10 percent of the energy consumption in households! As long as they're turned on, they are drawing energy, and sending that lovely electric bill up higher.

So my phone charger, coffee maker, and desk lamp which seem so innocent sitting on my desk have been stealthily sucking power all this time...

Forming new habits takes conscious effort, but after a week of pivoting at the door to run back and turn off my power strip, it's started to come naturally. It feels accomplishing to make small changes. And my life isn't being inconvenienced in any way by pressing a button right before leaving my room or going to sleep.

So what goals would you set for yourself?