About the Blog

As I’ve mentioned throughout this site, I’m very passionate about what I do. It is a driving force in my life, and is highly fulfilling. As a result, I tend to talk about it. At length. To everyone I know. I suspect that this blog will be no exception.

Hopefully, my quirky interests and odd sense of humor won’t confuse/infuriate you. If they do, well, I won’t be offended if you decide to read the musings of someone more interesting than little ol’ me.

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Day Two, in which I feel like a failure before I’ve even begun

11.2.09, 09:35pm | Environment, NaBloPoMo, Philosophy,

Gah, my second blog is up so late today! Well, that’s what I get for being unprepared. As it turns out, some of my posts will actually require *gasp* research! Travesty!

My original plan was simple: look at several different environmental/carbon footprint calculators, and along with the original “lifestyle project” from college (more on that below), create a list of different ways in which I impact the environment through the course of my daily life. Then, I’d spend the next 5 days recording every action I took that fell under one of those categories. Easy, right?

Wrong. I found a TON of “footprint” calculators, and far more websites preaching things like “how to become environmentally-friendly!” and “10 easy steps to living green”. Even after I narrowed the list down to a group that I would consider to be reputable (cited sources, provided the math behind their calculators, etc), the task ahead seemed daunting. An hour later, I had come up with my list, but was becoming increasingly demoralized and guilt-ridden. Why did this suddenly seem so HARD?

The last time I took one of these quizzes was in college, for a class called “Conservation of Natural Resources”. It was a fantastic class, that really opened my eyes to the way that we affect the environment around us. For homework one night we were sent to a website to take an online quiz, to measure our environmental footprint. I was shocked to find out that my current lifestyle would require 7.5 earths (basically, if everyone on Earth lived as I did, we would need 7.5 of them to sustain us). What was even more surprising is that my average was significantly lower than most of my classmates, and that our overall average was less than the national average.

This exercise was the precursor to our final project for the class, which was termed “The Lifestyle Project.” You can download the original assignment here. The idea was identical to the project I’m taking on now: create a baseline of your current footprint levels by recording your everyday actions in two of five categories; over the course of the next four weeks, slowly reduce your consumption in those two categories, and record your progress; lastly, write a final paper detailing what you learned and how this project has altered your perspective as well as your environmental impact.

After this morning’s endeavors, I came up with the following list of environmental-impact categories:

Energy Consumption
- Industrial: manufactured goods we buy, from clothing to electronics
- Residential: energy consumed at home, including hot water, electricity, and heating

Food Consumption
- Processed/Manufactured Foods: any edible product that comes in a package
- Protein: beef, pork, chicken, seafood, etc.
- Produce: vegetables, fruits, etc.
- Local vs. Imported: food transported from within a 200 mile radius or further away

Water Consumption

Waste Production
- Garbage:anything you throw away
- Recycling: anything you send to a recycling facility

Transportation
- Personal transportation: riding in a motor vehicle (car, motorcycle, etc), as a driver or a passenger
- Community transportation: using public transportation, from buses to trains
- Vacation transportation: driving or flying over long distances

After I created my list, I decided to be ambitious. “I’ll try to reduce my consumption in three categories!”, I said. Baaaaad move. Recording your data is tedious enough when you’re paying attention to two areas of consumption. Three requires even more work, and it seems like every time you so much as stand up, you’re using resources. But it’s not just the tedium that almost threw me off the horse on the first day: it’s also the guilt. You start to feel guilty for using the bathroom, for microwaving your lunch, and for turning on a light. I began to see the wisdom of my professor’s methodology.

See, just changing one area of consumption is really pretty easy. You make a few changes and *poof* you’re doing just fine. Two areas of change is more challenging, but still doable, and you start to see how they intertwine. Three, however, starts to feel like you’re buried under a big pile of responsibility that you can’t possibly escape from. Not only that, but you feel a bit hopeless too… there’s no way you can change all that at once, so why even try? I was feeling discouraged before I’d even begun.

I think the key to making sustainability approachable for the general public (and for myself) is to start with manageable bites of change. Work from one area to the next, but don’t try to change your entire lifestyle all at once! Becoming environmentally friendly is somewhat like being on a diet, only instead of cutting out certain foods, you’re cutting out habits. Eventually, you’ll have changed much about your lifestyle! But, much like a diet, if you start with too strict of a standard, the changes you’ve made temporarily won’t stick, and you’ll just go back to doing things the way you always have.

So, I’ve learned my lesson. For the next 5 days (not counting today, I’ll restart tomorrow), I’ll be recording my consumption actions in the Food Consumption and Waste Production categories. On Sunday, I’ll share my findings and come up with a course of action. And tomorrow I’ll get my blog up just a bit earlier than this one. See you tomorrow!

I’m glad someone’s checking out her consumption, because honey, I’m too afraid to try. Yikes…

Name: Ro Ro | Posted: 5:27pm, 11.4.09