My day without power!

               Okay, for this week my assignment had me turn off pretty much every unnecessary technological/electrical device in my house for a 24-hour period. I did this on Saturday, November 23^rd as I had all day to do whatever I wanted…and didn't have to worry about scrambling to get any assignment in particular done.  I did keep my cell phone around as it also serves as a house phone just in case of emergencies but I made sure it was fully charged before I started. I ended up not using the phone at all that day. I also used one light on my desk for reading at night.

                The first thing I should explain is that I had to unplug about 5 power strips in just one room alone. I had a good fifteen things connected to them. Most of which have not been used in quite a while. I began to feel a little bad at that point because I had, over time, wasted quite a bit of power usage no doubt from just them drawing energy even while turned off. A good example of this was the Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii I had hooked up that haven’t been played in months. 

                The first thing that bothered me right away was the fact I couldn't just go online whenever I wanted as my beautiful computer of awesomeness was unplugged and I was not allowed to use it of course. For years now I have enjoyed having boundless amounts of information at my fingertips…and today I didn't. You would think I could live without it for a day without complaining…but this was by far the hardest thing about the day. Which really…the day was not that bad. I ended up re-reading a book I liked written by Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he was a famous General turned Emperor in the Roman Empire. He was a stoic philosopher as well and wrote the book as he traveled around conquering peoples. If you watched the movie Gladiator, he was the dying emperor in the beginning. Though the story in the movie of course was not very accurate. The book kept me entertained for some time. After I finished reading it I ran for an hour out in the hills. When I ran up to the top of the first hill the wind was super cold and actually made me run a little slower for quite a while.  When I returned home, I took a quick shower. I made it my mission to get things done in less than two minutes. The cold water was pretty brutal but I was a bit sweaty from the run so it didn't bother me too much. I ended up not going anywhere at all, so no driving.  I did end up turning on the light at my desk so I could read a bit more from various school books. I also was lazy with eating throughout the day…I had cereal and a sandwich. OH and of course M&M’s…with peanuts! I also had no reason to use the AC/Heater…as it was colder than normal but really was rather nice. So even if it was overly cold…I would most likely throw on some sweat pants and be fine. And really I don’t use very much on the norm, so I didn't give up as much as some do who are amazing cooks or have kids. I am pretty simple aside from the gaming and computers.

                As far as my experience, it really wasn't bad. I didn't like not having access to my computer or the internet, but it really wasn't a horrid experience. I felt I wasted quite a bit of electricity on the norm just from having so much plugged in that I never use. I really only ever use my computer, monitor, and printer on a daily basis. Most everything else is not used all the time, and they should remain unplugged, that is something I am definitely willing to change. Even though I personally do not own a tread mill, I realized while running what a waste it would be if I did have one. Not only is it better to run out in nature because you get a better work out, but I don’t have to waste energy nor waste space by owning one. I definitely cannot give up using my computer all of the time, just too much a part of my life! Most everything else though, I could comfortably do without aside from driving to school or the store. Quick showers aren't too bad, but depending on how cold it is…the random hot shower would be needed. But the tip Professor Huff gave in class to fill a bucket up with the cold water as it gets hot may reduce some of the guilt from doing that.

                As far as trying to come up with a way to increase energy efficiency in my home with the stuff I refuse to give up. Well I am a complete nerd so this was an easy one. If you read my introduction when we first started class…I am a pro-gamer of sorts…I mess with my computer on the norm. In fact I built mine from scratch. The best way to save power when using a computer is to alter graphic card settings to a standard of performance rather than quality (Nvidia GeForce cards are the easiest to alter), then set the power settings (via control panel options) for the same (should have some sort of power saver option). That way it draws much less power from the most power draining item in the computer…the graphics card (as well as some other processing components). Some graphics cards do not have this option but the power options always should be there…so long as you run windows. Linux or Mac users probably have similar power setting options. This I can realistically do…although as I am lazy…it might take a lot of effort to make all of those clicks! (I kid I kid). And of course keeping things unplugged until I actually plan on using them, that one is a no-brainer. I already take pretty fast showers, but I could stand to not wait on the hot water as mentioned previously.  

Climate Change

          This week’s assignment is to look into climate change and check into the evidence that supports climate change and the skepticism of it. Personally, I've heard quite a bit about this in many AP classes during High School, and remember there being quite the lengthy discussion about it…many times! The scariest thing I remember from those talks had to do with many of the glaciers and polar ice caps melting, which in turn raises the sea level…which of course then takes away lots of land…and of course lives. Okay, now onto the actual research!

            Probably the most user friendly page (in my opinion), was the EPA site here. It very quickly got to the point that the Earth is warming, and that Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, and is (of course) projected to rise another 2 to 11.5 degrees over the next hundred years. That little tidbit was a bit scary! One to two degrees is pretty nasty already…but possibly a 10+ increase…yeah a little frightening.  They went on to explain that these temperature changes have also been accompanied by changes in the weather and climate such as increases in rainfall, droughts, and intense rains as well as severe heat waves… all out of the norm for the places in which they occur or just more severe.

            It was really no surprise to find that humans are the largest contributor for the recent climate changes. I mean…we do pollute the Earth with tons of carbon dioxide, and the majority of greenhouse cases that come from the burning of fossil fuels…you know that stuff we like to burn all of the time to power things! Add in some deforestation, numerous industrial processes, and agricultural practices that all emit gases into the atmosphere…and well…we can safely say humans are the fault.  But why does putting all of this stuff in the air make us at fault? Well…these greenhouse gases act like a barrier (the EPA used a more comfy term…blanket) around the Earth. This traps energy in the atmosphere which causes it to warm. It is more commonly called the greenhouse effect.

            Many of those same things I learned in my AP classes in High School connected here. Climate change can impact almost every angle in our society. It can affect our water supplies, how we get our food, power and transportation etc etc etc. The list really goes on and on. I literally could go on and on with just how many things it could change around the world. But I already mentioned some scary ways it could above. If that isn't enough to scare anyone (the whole polar icecaps and the flooding of many coastal areas) I mean…if it does reach that 10+ degree mark…more skin cancer and other numerous health issues will be more prevalent.

            While I found the EPA site the most informative in quick to the point information. The Yale site, here, was quite interesting in pointing out just how many people believed that climate change/global warming was happening and how many of those thought it was mainly due to humans. Was a definite eye opener. I at first made some interesting joking comments about common sense…but…perhaps, the people in these studies just never learned or cared about the subject matter. I may not have been had many of my teachers growing up felt strong enough about it to make sure we knew the facts. This leads into the next topic.

            Ahhh, the fun part. We hear the other side here. Now I am a bit biased, as I've stated I grew up learning about global warming and climate change from teachers from elementary school through High School…and now my Environmental Science class. The main argument the skeptics point out boil down to not enough sufficient evidence to 100% confirm that it is a crisis. It claims that small changes in the climate could just as well be natural as they could from human interference from our creation of greenhouse gases. I think a majority of the skepticism exists because if they were to give in to the idea that it did exist that many policies would have to be created and enforced that would change (especially from an economic point of view) many aspects of American life.

            As for where I see the world in fifty years if we continue our path and do nothing to slow the rise of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Well, I do see more of the polar ice caps melting…as well as ancient glaciers disappearing. I also see these things causing the ocean level to rise a bit which may make some islands and coastal areas slowly disappear. Will it be as extreme as that? No idea…but something tells me if nothing is done things will slowly get worse and the world will not be a better place. 

No Impact Man!

          No impact man was a very interesting documentary that followed the lives of the Beaven family as they changed the way they lived to make less of an impact on Earth. They didn’t do it all at once of course and no impact man’s wife (Michelle Conlin) of course was not keen on some of what she had to give up (Coffee anyone?). But the implementation of phasing certain things out of their life was inspiring. When Michelle started to warm up to the no impact style of living, I think I was even a little inspired since she had such a hard time adjusting to it at first. Colin Beaver (No Impact Man) was constantly hammered by the media as sort of a self-righteous author trying to garner popularity through an extreme method. Which seemed to weigh him down through the course of the documentary. 

            A basic summary of some of what he did was that he started using his own bags and would only buy used products with little to no waste involved in those products. He would also only buy foods that fit a certain criteria and usually grown as local as possible. Eventually the apartment would have no energy being supplied to it other than some to power his laptop for blogging via some solar panels. And they started using more man powered transportation methods (IE Bikes). They did whatever they could to reduce the waste they produced, which meant reusable everything, even diapers. And they made their own cleaning products out of a couple of simple ingredients.

            Overall, I liked it and I found it quite inspiring. I don’t think I could do all of what they did, but I definitely could do without a couple of things. 

My Waste!

             Okay, so I have an interesting assignment this week. I am to keep track of the waste I produce in two days and measure/count it. Then I am to research waste-reduction strategies and make a list of as many as I possibly can. THEN (caps for emphasis) I am to implement a strategy or two and see if it will lower my overall waste production in the next two days. I started this Saturday and ended the whole cycle today. I don’t 100% feel that the amount of trash I accumulated throughout the first two AND the last two days really is close to the amount I usually throw in the bin. I ate mostly left overs since I make large amounts of stuff and eat it throughout the week and I made a couple of sandwiches. So even though earlier in the week I threw away some food packaging when I went to Costco and opened a couple of boxes and threw them away, I threw none of that away this week, nor ran out of sandwich stuff to throw away the packaging from that (cheese and meat bags). To measure my created waste I put everything in the seven gallon waste bin in my room. The first two days of waste I put in the bin is as follows.

• Six paper towels
• Four banana peels
• Coffee filter + coffee grounds
• Twelve tootsie roll wrappers, the small ones (don’t judge me there was tons of left over candy!)

                 As we can see by my extreme waste use (sarcasm card raised here). It usually is much more, as mentioned earlier, but this is what I used Saturday and Sunday.  Seems the biggest issue is the paper towels usage, and I know I go through quite a bit of them in a week as I use them to clean spills in the kitchen and many times if I do not have a napkin handy and the paper towel is I use it…such as this weekend. And I usually don’t use bottles anymore, and have a good reason to not use it after learning about all that bottled water stuff from the last blog. So nothing really recyclable in this set.

                When I researched waste reduction strategies…I came across quite a bit of them. The very first page that popped up when I “googled” the term was the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality which can be found here. These mostly apply to businesses but I found a couple that I liked that have to do with things I do that I may not have done in the last four days but definitely apply to me. Also I went here to the EPA website which gave some decent tips as well.     

• Make double-sided copies whenever possible when printing.
• Make scratch pads from used paper.
• Fill the printer with paper already used on one side and print drafts on the other side.
• Rent instead of buying equipment that is used only occasionally.
• Use durable towers, tablecloths, napkins, dishes, flatware, cups, and glasses.
• Buy reusable coffee filters or unbleached disposable filters.
• Reuse trash can liners or eliminate where possible and discontinue use in cans with dry trash only.
• Consider using cloth roll towels, hot air dryers, large paper rolls in restrooms, or buy lighter/smaller paper towels.
• Buy products in concentrate, bulk, and in refillable containers. They reduce packaging and can save you money!
• Feed your soil with compost; make compost at home, or buy it in bags or bulk.

                I could go on but I think these were the ones that applied to me the most. I print quite often and when I do I try to use my black and white printer that can do the whole double-sided print thing. I also have another color printer but it does not do double-sided stuff.

                Okay, I just checked my waste for the last two days and it didn't turn out too bad after implementing some of the waste-reduction strategies.

• Three paper towels (Ripped into a couple pieces to use for my napkin use)
• Three dryer sheets (Had to wash the clothes)
• Five tootsie roll wrappers (Candy was running out or this number may have been exponentially higher)
• One shredded cheese bag (empty of course)    

                The strategies I implemented were really a rehash of some of them ones above. As I didn't go out and get cloth napkins or smaller paper towels, I decided to use what I had but rip it into pieces and use those as napkins instead of using the whole thing, as I previously have been, then crumpling it up and throwing it out. And I took the waste from the first two days and mixed it with the waste from today just now…forgetting to separate them both for a picture…so I have a picture of them both mixed together…BUT I did totally reuse the trash liner in the process…thus using another strategy! And I buried the five banana peels I would have thrown away and am slowly making a little compost mound in the back. Again, I didn't really use anything recyclable so nothing to talk about there.

All the waste from four days.

                As for which strategies I will continue to use…well all of them. Some of them I already use, others sound much better than what I am currently using. Purchasing cloth napkins sounds like a good plan and to just wash them with the rest of my clothes at the end of the week. Continuing to create my compost pile will assist me with my plants as I usually end up paying for garden soil when I plant new stuff…which happens more often than I would like. I already use my messed up prints as scratch paper and I buy in bulk when I know I will use it all.  So these strategies I know I will continue to use.

Amy's Farm

                    On November 2^nd, I went on a little excursion to Amy’s Farm in Ontario. The trip here had to do with a required class field trip, which there are multiple but we only have to choose one. I got there a bit earlier than everyone else as I don’t like being late if I can help it. And ended walking around petting the random Horses and Cows near the parking lot. All of which were extremely friendly especially the Cow “Donut” who attempted to lick me multiple times and follow me if I moved away a little. 

Donut

              When everyone arrived Timothy, who volunteers at the farm, started the tour. Now I am supposed to write about some stuff I learned…well…I learned quite a bit. It’s more of picking and choosing what to write about. Such as how different types of cows produce creamier milk (I really had no idea about any of that). It was a humbling experience to realize how little I knew about what happens on the farm. We were given a quick tour of the Turkey area (which they all looked delicious of course) then the Quail area, which they only take the eggs from them…not eating the bird. I have had quail eggs when having Asian hotpot dinners, and I did wonder where in the heck they farm these things…question answered! 

 

Delicious Turkeys

            We then took a look at some of the horses and cows near the parking area, and found out that they actually take care of the animals for other people, and feed them mostly weeds (the safe edible kind) and other produce that is not used. We even got a demonstration on how to milk a cow. The pigs amused me as some seemed friendly, but others (namely the gargantuan male separated from the other pigs) seemed bitter and angry. I don’t think it appreciated being looked at as it made amusing grunting snorts. 

Angry bitter pig!

           Then we made our way to the areas where things were planted, and there was a plethora of information gained here. Lots of information about how they plant to how to see if a plant isn't doing well, and one of the most informative bits of information, that insects feed on the plants that aren't doing well and what the plant does in response to that, which in turn makes the plant a little weaker.

Random Food

            As this is getting rather lengthy I will stop there. But there was quite a bit more I could ramble on about that I learned, and Tim did an amazing job as our tour guide. I may just have to visit again! Very informative tour.