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Denver, Colorado
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Discover how wasting less improves your life.
I recognize that I make a lot of trash each day. It's not that I mean to do it, but our disposable society has made me numb to the fact that I could reuse plenty of things I simply chuck in the garbage bin.
And before Monday, my biggest fear for the week was dealing with the smell of my trashcan—that is, until I realized just how much trash I make, and the impact it inevitably has on my city's landfill.
On Monday, I packed a lunch (tuna sandwich with an apple and a can of juice), and thought I was doing a splendid job of not creating additional trash. After all, I was reusing a plastic sandwich bag and I planned to recycle my empty can of juice.
But as I ate my sandwich, I realized that my lunch itself was pretty wasteful —after all, the bread I used came from a plastic bag, the tuna came from an aluminum can, and all the veggies in my sandwich live inside a plastic bag in my refrigerator.
As I pondered the amount of waste one simple, packed lunch was producing, I came to the realization that more than half of trash I was making is plastic—the one thing that will likely last the longest in my city's landfill. I began to worry less about the smell my apple core would leave behind and worry more about all the plastic that will be sitting in the outskirts of Denver for who knows how long.
It made me start thinking about the glass bottles that must be sitting along with all the plastic bags, and of the aluminum cans that are piled in with the glass bottles and the plastic bags. I started to realize how my trash can is really just the beginning of a journey for garbage, and how its ultimate resting spot is anything but disposable. I mean, not all of the garbage in our landfill will decompose. In fact, I'm sure almost all of it won't, if my buying habits are in any way indicative of the typical American's.
So what have I learned on Day 2 of No Impact Week? That intentions are a great start ... but my disposable mindset is so deeply engrained in my basic habits, and those of other consumers like myself, that making a big change is likely going to take a lot of time and effort.
-Marcy Miranda
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn calories, not fossil fuels.
Having fun with No Impact Week. Yesterday (Day 3) was my day to blog from FSTV, and being in the media biz, I couldn't help but vlog. I am a big, big fan of the bicycle commute, and I can think of 150,000 reasons why you should ride a bike to work, but I'll let the riding (and the video) speak for itself. The thing about TRANSPORTATION DAY is it's got the word SPORT right in the middle of it. Now believe me you, there is no SPORT in gridlock traffic! Feel the freshness, ride a bicycle today and everyday forth!
-Alexander Maness, Production Coordinator
More stories from No Impact Tuesday: Transportation]]>
Stanton, Kentucky
I'm John Rausch, a Catholic priest with the Glenmary Society and director of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA). I've never blogged before and don't know anything about Twitter or Facebook. I don't even have a cell phone.
I am participating in the No Impact Week because this forms part of my spirituality—that which centers me, gives me life, and connects me with you and creation in the web of life.
I come with a faith perspective, and confess to you that this coming week I will drive about 700 miles doing my ministry, yet I will be mindful and aware of how much I am consuming.
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
Today, I drove about 200 miles from Abingdon, Virginia to Stanton, Kentucky, where I live. Friday, I drove my Honda Civic (36 mpg) to Hazard, Kentucky (75 miles) where I carpooled with Sr. Robbie Pentecost to drive the last 125 miles in her Toyota Prius (50 mpg). Today, Sunday, we reversed the drive, so nearly half the trip meant carpooling.
Observation: While looking at the carbon footprint of how much we drive, we need to include some grid about why we drive. If your mother is seriously ill, you may need to drive 300 miles by yourself to see her. Alternately driving 100 miles for some sporting event may need a closer examination. For essential driving, we rely on community members to contribute some of their "carbon miles," so others can bring compassion to outside situations.
This weekend was CCA's annual meeting. Folks who attended dealt with people incarcerated, environmental problems, drug addiction, health care costs, and poverty issues. Dealing with issues in Appalachia requires me to drive 22,000 miles a year. My carbon footprint may be big, but the region is ever expansive and demanding my driving. Since this meeting is annual, and not more frequent, I see this face-to-face interaction as contributing to greater community and shared responsibility.
I don't buy a lot. I cook for people as a ministry to those in ministry. When we think of cutting back, we sometimes overlook the gift of friendship and how it inspires us to do more with less. I'm aware of what I am consuming, but struggling this week to find a healthy balance.
Your brother, John
More stories from No Impact Sunday: Consumption
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
Today, Monday, we look at trash. How much comes wrapped in cellophane, cardboard, and plastic! As consumers we need a knife, scissors, or quick dexterous pulls to release what the wrappings hold. Nothing in a store goes without packaging, bar codes, or produce numbers.
Today I purchased a few items for a dinner with friends for tomorrow. The scanners beeped with each item and recorded the price. Efficiency needs exactness, hence the need for waste—not like the farmer eye-balling the product, weighing it, and throwing in some freebee. In paying, I mention "keep the change" and we all receive justice with a spirit of neighborliness.
In living in a rural area, I must cart my trash to the dump and recycle next to it. I create one 13 gallon plastic bag of waste per week and I deposit any vegetable matter in my compost pile in my yard. When I recycle I count the beer cans and containers that passed through my kitchen in that week (or probably two-week) period. Recycling is like an examination of conscience for Catholics. The evidence of extravagance must be carted off, perhaps denied, but still carted off.
I look around my office filled with piles of papers and magazines. I write, therefore I must read. I hold on to past periodicals because there might be an article that could later inform my writing, but the flaw in that thinking lies with not knowing where I read a particular article or derived a relevant fact, and so I cannot find it amidst the clutter. Paper can be recycled, so this Monday pricks my conscience that I need to clear clutter and cancel those publications that no longer seem that relevant.
Today, I drove 141 miles round trip to meet with a committee person to plan an interfaith prayer service on top of a mountaintop removed area. We usually define trash as that which we throw away. The electricity used to power this computer that transmits this blog came at the cost of trashing a mountain in Appalachia. To me, trash no longer looks like cellophane, but needless computers left on all night and lights not turned off.
Your brother, John
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn carlories, not fossil fuels.
This is "transportation day" for our No Impact Week. Happily, today I did not crawl into my car. Frequently enough I don't drive to town just to fetch the mail, which means about a 5-mile round trip. I get my mail from my post box when I return from one of my trips however many days later.
Today, after three days on the road and yesterday a total deluge of rain, I needed to wash my clothes. Although this house has a dryer, for the past four years I have saved 4.5 pounds of coal per load to generate the electricity to heat my dryer. I hang my clothes to dry—solar powered. My friend, Robbie, bought me a collapsible drying rack—best gift I've gotten in a century! On decent days I still put the dryer in the sun out back, and on cloudy days I'm prepared to drag it back in.
This No Impact Week is playing on my mind. I spent an hour today cleaning my office by throwing away two stacks of old newspapers and magazines (I think I'm one day behind in terms of "trash day"). I will recycle another day, but today I decided not to drive at all.
Today I provided hospitality. Tonight I had three guests for dinner: a priest, a Brother, and a justice worker. Usually I provide meat as the entree, but tonight we went vegetarian because of No Impact Week. I planned a linguini with pears and gorgonzola, but because I refused to drive, I substituted fettuccine, apples, and blue cheese.
My observation: Folks like coming together. Food prepared with love satisfies. Hospitality makes the Gospel concrete. Two of the three guests are staying over in my guest room and on my futon.
My point about ministry: All are welcome in this place!
Your brother, John
More stories from No Impact Tuesday: Transportation
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
Hi Everyone,
Today I got word that my friend Billy died. He died of cancer of the appendix, a rare cancer, but he also was a person in recovery for over 20 years. I find myself wrapped in this No Impact Week trying to cut back from physical things, and yet from my intimate circle, a friend has passed. I need to reflect about the mystery of life and death in the context of this week.
Billy had a process addiction, not one to alcohol or drugs. We, as many commentators admit, are an addictive society. I preached one time we in the U.S. are addicted to militarism, and people like popcorn jumped from the pews and left—22 complaints on that sermon alone!
Billy's addiction was a process addiction. People who cannot control their credit cards and desires share part of that kind of addiction. We are asked to buy locally and control our desires for exotic foods, but we are addicted to our power of purchase: We got the money, so Chile should deliver the asparagus in our mid-winter.
Today we think about food and how to buy locally. For many counties in eastern Kentucky, i.e. central Appalachia, there are no farmers markets. We have obesity and diabetes, but few farmers markets. In Stanton, where I live, a dozen farmers bring their produce three days a week, but except for one friend, Roland, few plant exotic varieties of vegetables like paw-paw and Japanese eggplant. While many people in urban areas have access to markets and diversity, many in small towns deal with what farmers have traditionally grown, and the season is June to October.
My answer to buying and eating local today got replaced by eating out of the local refrigerator, i.e. left-overs. Living as a one-person household curbs one's ability to buy fresh for the future. I try to invite folks for dinners, but I buy foods when they are on sale or marked down. I want to raise a garden, but I'm on the road a lot and the critters who own the forest appear nightly appareled in bibs with knife and fork. The struggle over local food really deals with the priority of time to plant, or seek out a farmer, or give in and do the convenient.
My friend Billy lived the 12-step program. He didn't take the quick fix, but sought out the appropriate route of recovery. I will pray Vespers for the Dead tonight, because Billy reminded me that we can all go from the addictions of comfort and convenience to the liberation of health and spirituality.
Your brother, John
More stories from No Impact Wednesday: Food
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
Living in Appalachia, I know of no issue more volatile than energy. Around the coalfields, vehicles display stickers saying "Friends of Coal." If the people living in coal communities had a friend, that person would confront the industry about the adverse health effects and ask why 60,000 children each year in the U.S. have brain damage from mercury spewed from coal stacks. They might ask about the 30,000 premature deaths from coal, the 700 deaths per year from black lung, and the respiratory sicknesses from air-borne coal particulates. Coal is a sunset industry, but the world's demand for energy increases each year. Renewables just cannot keep up with the explosive energy demand in China and India.
I try to use natural light when I can—open the shades and work by the candle power of the great Sun-Candle. Wash gets open-air drying with winds blowing my underwear all over the place (laugh time for my friends!) I try to turn off lights and counsel friends to unplug computers overnight!
A few years ago, I preached in the coalfields that the sale of Hummers was on the decline because gas prices were increasing. I challenged the congregation to make their decisions based not on economics, but on the moral imperative for the care of creation and the common good. A couple got up and walked out—obviously, strippers (strip mine folks) who could not listen to anything that assaulted the status quo.
Second story: I rented my house in Stanton in 2001 when another priest and I established a religious community. Steve went to the electric co-op and got us hooked up and put his name on the contract. A few years later he moved out, but I continued paying the bill each month that came to our address, but under his name. Two years ago, Wendell Berry, the well-known environmentalist, John Paterson, M.D., and the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth asked me to join them in a lawsuit against the local electric co-op building a large coal-fired plant ten miles from my house.
I suddenly realized that I might not be a co-op member because Steve's name appeared on the bill. So, a Friday afternoon I called the co-op, dropped by their offices, and signed a contract. Basically, I joined the electric co-op on Friday and sued them that next Tuesday. Eventually, we won—they canceled the coal-fired plant!
Appalachia has been described as a mineral colony for the rest of the U.S. There are few jobs because the coal industry, now highly mechanized, has determined what can and cannot happen. Coal is the only game in town, but we need to expand the town! Wind and solar would do well in these mountains, but we need the capital investment and the political will to pull this off.
Meanwhile we endure mountaintop removal (MTR) for cheap electricity at the expense of community and creation. My admonition: Turn off whatever you can!
Your brother, John
Soak up the benefits of using less water.
When we think of water in eastern Kentucky, we think of mining. When companies do mountaintop removal (MTR), they expose the minerals to the rains that wash into the water table and pollute healthy streams. Low-income people need to add bottled water to their list for survival—an unnecessary commodity that comes because of corporate greed.
Just so folks know that I'm keeping up with the program, I collect the water that I run before the warm water cuts in when I'm doing dishes, and use it to water my plants. The commode mellows when it's yellow, otherwise I flush for safety and health. Living alone allows me to monitor my usage regularly.
While I seriously can cut back in numerous ways in terms of water usage, I see corporate use and pollution as the main struggle for a healthy water supply. MTR pollutes streams and cracks existing wells (from blasts). If I put a jar of orange water on the table, people know that's filled with iron, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and selenium—bad stuff! When I take people to the pond site where we could have drawn that water, folks could look around and see five trailers ringing that pond, and each trailer loaded with middle school kids ages 7-11. I then ask—where do kids play?
Currently the EPA is being assailed by political folks because the restrictions are costing jobs. No, the EPA is creating jobs because companies refuse to act responsibly and police themselves. EPA represents the common good. Without clean water we die. Without EPA we have no clean water. I'm willing to show anyone orange streams from mine acid drain off and offer them a drink. Please don't take me up on my offer.
Your brother, John
More stories from No Impact Friday: Water
Discover the benefits of service.
Hi Everyone,
Saturday is Giving Back day, so for me I got to preach about No Impact Week to the Catholic congregation in Prestonsburg, Kentucky—all 25 of the folks.
Prestonsburg is 75 miles from my house, and after the 5 p.m. Saturday Mass I drove another 125 miles to Gate City, Virginia, for a meeting on Sunday night. This actually saved an additional 125 miles of driving because Prestonsburg was en route to my next appointment.
This week I logged 550 miles of driving: a bit higher than normal, but better than a recent 5-week period of 750 miles per week! I do more conference calls than in the past, but religious services and large meetings require driving. Curiously, many of my meetings that require excessive driving deal with care of creation.
In preaching about No Impact Week I realized that some bloggers were very concrete about food or travel or trash. I tended to be more philosophical (one of my editors called by stuff "dry.") I know that the YES! literature emphasizes that simplicity brings a greater freedom and happiness, but I have his feeling that without a spirituality, that quest for less will not last. During the anti-war days of Vietnam many of my friends burned themselves out with demonstrations and actions. Only the ones who saw the war as part of a bigger picture of violence were able to maintain a balance.
By "spirituality" I mean the vertical of life, that which speaks from the core, the "attached" to the reality beyond the self or small circle of people. Spirituality gives meaning and purpose, it integrates mystery. People like poets, mimes, artists, and composers point to it as the realm beyond the flesh and blood.
My point: Without some spiritual grounding, living a simple life will get boring and dull, perhaps even spawn a spirit of despondency and envy. A healthy spirituality brings joy and excitement, happiness to be alive, to be one with the trees and birds, to be grateful for life in general.
I'm grateful to YES! for offering me this opportunity to blog. The writing made me reflect, and I became the greatest beneficiary of the work. I look forward to my next and last blog, which I won't be able to send unless I discover some Internet connection. In Appalachia many places lack adequate infrastructure and that remains a big hurdle for social and economic development.
Your brother, John
Valle del Yeguare, Honduras
I am a 24-year-old research assistant for Zamorano University in Central America. Born in Nicaragua, I have lived in Honduras since 2005. I'm currently studying the economies and vulnerabilities of coastal communities. I'm intrigued by life, and trying to survive the attempt of figuring it out.
I joined the No Impact Week Experiment because I feel the urge to act. I've been fascinated by human nature and how we relate to our planet, but most of it has been reflection.
Lately I got more actively involved in the topic by participating in the Environment Plenary at One Young World Summit 2011. I've been highly influenced by YES! Magazine's ideas on the possibilities of the New Economy, so this is a perfect time to officially join this enthusiastic community. I am very intrigued to see how the changes will apply to the context of a developing country since many things are different already. Can´t wait to start!
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
Hello everybody, I am very happy and honored to join you! First I need to provide some background about our teams in Honduras.
I started with the idea to sign up for No Impact Week alone since I read about it in YES! Magazine. But I invited my Honduran family and, as eco-conscious as they already are, they liked it very much and immediately jumped in!
We have Namig (we are housemates), Oliver (her son / my baby brother), Alejandra (our friend, coworker and neighbor) and my mom (she is joining from Nicaragua). We are the Sanders-Herrera Family team. On Saturday we screened the No Impact Man movie and presented the No Impact Week challenge to our sophomore students. Five more friends joined us: Naffie, Mario, Monica, Alejandro, and Diana. They formed the Zamorano University team. We will be working as one team, but we are different. I'll tell you why.
We live at Zamorano. It is an agricultural international university, with students and staff from various countries from Latin America. As so, our team members come from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and the Netherlands.
The family team lives off-campus, about 2 km away.
The University team lives on-campus. It's a boarding school (this is not common in Latin America, by the way). We are located at the Yeguare Valley, a rural area 30km from Tegucigalpa. As you will see through the week, this will have many implications on how we conduct the experiment.
Today's challenge on consumption was fairly easy for us. Why? Because we already live isolated! (This is the first time it looks like an advantage.) We go to Tegucigalpa once a week to do the shopping. I basically shop for food or things like toothpaste. Namig buys many more things for the family, same with my mom in Nicaragua. But they did not have a big issue staying away from consumption for a week because we can survive with what we already have.
The kids (the students) can only go off-campus during the weekend and were pretty much OK with not buying anything new (great thing about being on budget). Mostly we do not have that much of a shopping addiction—or shopping opportunities for that matter—so we did great today.
In addition, many of us are so excited about this project that we already started to do some of the extra challenges! For instance, some of the kids have already left the meat for this week. (And some others struggled to do so, but could not say no to the only-once-a-week-available homemade food. Fair enough.) Mario even skipped lunch because he missed the dining hall schedule and was not willing to produce trash by buying at the food stand. Namig took a preparation tour to the supermarket to anticipate which of the products we usually eat are local or not. And at home we are getting the candles ready for tomorrow night.
What I am not proud of today is my trash bag. OK, it's not even a bag! It's a trash registry. I spent the day out, and I had to eat out of course and I was not ready. So I have: foil paper, a carton cup, an iced tea bottle, a yogurt container, a polystyrene plate, a plastic coffee cup, a straw, and about five napkins. Everything used for slightly more than 10 minutes!
What a true mess.
And I saw this TV program at NatGeo where they show the urban divers at Mexico City going into the sewage full of trash to clean the pipes, which makes me feel even worse. Moral of the story: get ready! Because the simplest adjustments like carrying food clothes and a cup could have saved such unnecessary harm. I'm taking note for tomorrow.
Luckily the day ended up with some improvements. We met with part of the team at the café on campus to review the day. By then, we were all with our travel mugs.
See you guys tomorrow!
More stories from No Impact Sunday: Consumption
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
The overall outcome of today's challenge was 9 out of 10—yet not as easy for us as yesterday's challenge. We had to think twice on many occasions. For instance, I was not that aware of the tiny bits of plastic I discard during my morning routine, which I happily skipped today. But we unavoidably ended up with the plastic seal of our natural yogurt container. And midmorning stress-related unexpected hunger left Namig and me with a cookie package (local bananas were a car ride away). Talk about trade-offs!
The team on-campus on the other hand did great!: Zero trash by saying no to snacks and fast food, even when they were offered it. Actually, they are very much of an inspiration to me. At home we've been fairly eco-conscious for some time, and some more since we moved to the house. The Zamorano team were inspired from scratch by the movie and they dealt with skepticism from colleagues during the day. Yet they are always so enthusiastic about the challenges and take things as far as they can!
We had two things to reflect on Day 2: First were our product choices. We have no farmers market culture around here, which is somehow ironic because rural is still the rule in Central America. We do have traditional markets selling fruits and vegetables, but it isn't usually the producers who sell there but the retailers. Most producers lack the means and infrastructure to take the produce out of the field by themselves.
In addition, our tropical weather makes it necessary or at least preferable to immediately process perishable products like dairies and meats. Agro-industry, food processing, packaging, and the whole value-added philosophy is the tendency. As a result, even when most of our food is local, it is generally packed. Not to mention other non-food items.
Eco-labels are relatively new as local trends, mainly in Costa Rica or for export goods such as coffee. Wouldn't it be great to have more environmentally friendly products made in Central America? This could represent an enormous opportunity for our local industries.
The second issue was our solid waste management program. While there has been an on-campus classification system with separated bins for "paper and carton," "glass and aluminum," "organic" and "other" for more than five years (a local advantage we are very proud of), classification rates have been consistently declining and essentially everything is now mixed up. This made us think about what will happen to our behavior once we finish the challenge. As in this case, just putting our trash in the right bin will not be enough. We will be working this week to find an answer for this question.
We also met for feedback and ended up brainstorming about what we can do at the Giving Back day. We think that in order to make an impact, we have to share the idea about what this project is about.
I have to admit that at some point, while looking at the big picture, I felt somewhat overwhelmed. How is it possible that this idea, which makes perfect sense to us, makes no sense for others?
But as I reviewed the outcomes of the day—not only in terms of the trash produced but in terms of feelings—I remembered why I'm doing this: I'm grateful because today we did not cause unnecessary harm to the planet or to others. Because the extra time we took to reflect on the things we really needed made it easier for us to actually identify them. Because we had the chance to know each other better as persons and as teams.
Then I recall the quote that impacted me the most from the movie: "The most radical political act there is, is to be an optimist". And I cheer up. Ready for tomorrow!
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn carlories, not fossil fuels.
Transportation at Zamorano is fairly easy, nice, and green. There are bike lanes and bike parking all around the campus and most places are a ride away. Underground tunnels cross the Panamerican Highway and connect one side of the campus to the other to make it safe for pedestrians, bikers, and electric utility vehicles to cross. Regular cars are required to circulate at 20 km/h. Students take the most advantage of this. Unfortunately, most of the staff, including me, does not take advantage of these facilities, driving cars everywhere.
To go to Tegucigalpa there are two options: take a bus or a car. However, the bus system is not that fun to use. Well, it's fun if you are looking for an interesting local experience but not fun if you are running late for work. The stop is hardly recognizable, unless you know it's there. The schedule isn't exactly reliable. No buses depart directly from here.
You need some practice before getting familiar with the time ranges. A time range goes like this: "Bus passes between 7am and 7:20, sometimes at 7:30 or more." And the discarded U.S. school bus units are usually crowded. Because of this, when most people are presented with the option, we take the car. Getting around the city is just about the same story.
I believe this has a significant effect on people. By not meeting regularly—on the same buses or in the same public spaces—we interact less. And for that, we care less about others.
As you can guess now from this review, the Zamorano team had no problem undertaking today's challenge. They already bike or walk all the time while on campus.
At home it was a bit harder. We had to take our car to campus because the Panamerican Highway is full of freight trucks running at high speeds which could easily throw little 6 year-old Oliver or naturally unbalanced me out of the way. At least we got to carpool with friends.
Once on campus, we were able to take the bikes and ride around. It was fun, relaxing, guilt-free, good for our joints. But we need to get better at handling the load. Either we reduce the things we carry or we find a way to adapt the bikes to fit our needs. We will have to update this post to see how we do during the weekend, when facing the city.
Transportation in the developing world: I knew our system had still a way to go, but after looking at places like Amsterdam or Zurich I realize really how far behind we are. No, actually, I realize the endless possibilities that a safe, reliable, and comfortable transportation system represents for a city and its residents. How vibrant communities become both for locals and foreigners with this single optimization.
I trust we'll get better at this. We have plenty of opportunities to advance and models to build upon. Our whole society could greatly benefit from this. Meanwhile, I'll improve my skills as a bus rider and carpooling coordinator.
More stories from No Impact Tuesday: Transportation
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
The greatest thing about changing what you eat is that, because food is such an essential part of your life, it represents not just an improvement but a statement.
The food challenge for our teams has been one of the hardest. But the results have been meaningful. The team on campus had the willingness to give up meat from Day 1 or 2. Every day, they have a single-food menu at the dining hall. Changing to self-prepared local food would imply buying packed ingredients at the supermarket and wasting their food ration at the hall. So their contribution is focused on less impact by choosing vegetarian.
This hasn't been easy. The menus are good but they are designed to have meat as the main course and side dishes do not compensate for the protein loss. And by tradition, we have a taste for meat. However, guys have been brilliant at this, doing with plain salads, rice, potatoes, and soups for a week.
To better understand where their food comes from, they will be talking with managers and cooks from the dining hall researching which ingredients are local, how much trash is generated, and how waste is being managed. We believe it is our responsibility to be aware of this, as most times it is within our freedom to handle it.
At home it is easier because we cook for ourselves. Mom already shops at the traditional market in Nicaragua. I became vegetarian about five months ago and have received a lot of support from the family in Honduras. This week the menu has been vegetarian for everybody and the emphasis is on local. We said goodbye to cereal and hello to granola; goodbye to pears and hello to bananas, papayas, and watermelons. Luckily enough, most of the food here comes from Central America, the area we have chosen to define as "local."
But the issue has been the packaging. At the supermarket it is something that follows you around, even for hardly necessary items such as packed local peppers, beans, corn, and tangerines.
For our teams in particular, this challenge represents an important reflection. We come from an agricultural university. We are not only the consumers but the future food producers, processors, packagers, distributors, and traders. What will our role be?
Profit, yes, it is compulsory. But how will we influence the life of the people and the spaces our products reach, beyond profit? We need to ask these questions because even if we do not, we will have an impact.
I think there are few things that represent our stand in so many political issues as much as food does. Our choices both in production and consumption represent who and what we support: which productive systems; which ways to manage our natural resources, our land, our water, and our energy; in which way our people will grow. And we have options. We exercise this vote daily and we can change it—make it better—as soon as we want.
More stories from No Impact Wednesday: Food
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
Frankly, there is one thing I like a bit less about the energy and water challenges: I feel like I am less in control. In our countries, we cannot choose where our energy comes from. In the case of Honduras, energy comes from hydropower which is at least a renewable source, although sometimes criticized because of the loss of ecosystems, lands, and settlements associated with it.
Other green sources like solar panels are not widely subsidized. This makes them relatively expensive as an alternative to the regular source (although they do make an attractive option in areas where there is no electricity). So if we want to reduce our energy impact, the choice for now is to cut back our consumption. And since easy and abundant electricity and water facilities have become so deeply embedded in our modern lifestyles, it means getting out of our comfort zone.
While I can feel certainly good about not making trash for example, as trash is clearly an unnecessary harm, I am more in a debate when I have to choose whether to use the warm water or not because I strongly dislike cold water. It's as if in these challenges the lines between our true needs, our preferences, comfort and luxury become even more diffuse. The cost-benefit analysis becomes more complex. And the final picks become more personal.
In our teams as well, the strategies have been diverse. The campus team has worked in their context. While they can't control how energy is being used in common areas like classrooms and dining halls, they have reduced standby power consumption by unplugging cell phone and computer chargers that used to stay plugged in all week long. They have also reduced their reliance on fans, microwave, lighting, and their time online. They have unplugged some common-use appliances like washers, water dispensers, and hall lights—not to the pleasant surprise of their roommates. But they are building habits. Yesterday, Naffie's roommate went back to the room before leaving to classes because she remembered she had left the fan on.
At home, Namig decided to go for cold showers and no appliances, a bet I have not been able to match. After a deep and honest review I chose my keepers to be warm water and hair straightener (for bangs), which I would minimize as much as possible but would not completely quit. While I am aware I'm not being fair with the whole idea of the No Impact Week, I don´t want to make a hell out this. I want to adopt practices I can keep on with once the week is over. Am I being too weak?
On the great side, we went without light bulbs last night, lighting our house completely with candles which was very nice, even when I was not able to update the blog on time. The house looked great (although the pictures look way darker), we did some fun cooking for the No Impact Dinner we are planning for tomorrow. We rarely watch TV but I am usually hooked up on the computer until late, and as this wasn´t the case yesterday, Namig and I had time to talk. Maybe we will keep a weekly candle night from now on.
Once I think about it, it wasn´t so bad, there are many things that are within our hands. Let's see how the water challenge goes.
Soak up the benefits of using less water.
Being on No Impact Week, we've become much more aware of how we use our resources and we've reframed the way we think about what it is to waste. Clearly one of the greatest advantages of our times, which we tend to take for granted, is to have running water in our taps. But this privilege can give us a false sense of abundance. While water might in fact be abundant in the places we are living, it is unfortunately not a service that everybody can enjoy.
Just 30 km from here, in Tegucigalpa, entire neighborhoods experience chronic water shortages, having water available only during a couple of hours a day. We own our fellows in scarcity the responsibility to use water properly.
It is hard for us to eliminate most of our water uses which are pretty basic already, but we have made them a lot more efficient. We have cut back the time of our showers to about three minutes of running water, either by being extremely fast or by picking water on a bucket to shower patiently but without wasting. We have done the same when brushing our teeth using a glass. I have introduced some sand-filled bottles in our toilet tank to reduce the water volume it takes to flush. And Namig has lowered the flow of most of our water pipes.
One of the largest savings has been to become more efficient at dishwashing. We do not have a double sink to soak dishes but we've used less water by removing everything mechanically and using water just for rinsing. Now we are amazed by how much water was used every time we washed dishes the regular way.
Another great highlight from yesterday was that we organized a No Impact dinner with the teams. All the food was local, vegetarian, and cooked and served with as little electricity, water, and resulting trash as possible. Choosing a vegetarian diet for the week has also contributed significantly to reducing our water footprint. However, it has required an enormous amount of willpower for the team on campus. We decided to prepare a true vegetarian meal for them so they can be sure that choosing vegetarian does not have to be a sacrifice but that it can be certainly delicious.
The menu included a vegetable, white sauce and cheese pie, curried beans, local salad with yogurt dressing (no olives, no mushrooms), homemade whole grain bread, local cheesecake and watermelon juice (ultra local, as they are cultivated in our university fields), candles, reusable plates, and no napkins.
Everything was amazing, although the menu turned out to be a bit veggie-full for the audience. But they liked the experience and were happy to leave full for the first time in the week.
And the cheesecake that was a hit. It was worth the complication for Namig to figure out how to make a cheesecake using ricotta (from a reusable container), sugar, eggs and no condensed milk at all.
The fun thing about the meeting was that we talked about the experiment—with our usual updates and anecdotes, but we ended up talking about just any other thing that came to mind. At one point we said "You really get to talk about anything when there is no light, right?"
And my mom arrived from Nicaragua to join us for the weekend. We had a good time.
You see, I'm very grateful for our No Impact Team. They've really known how to make a fun and interesting experience from this.
More stories from No Impact Friday: Water
Discover the benefits of service.
Our Giving Back day has been postponed. Weekends in our University are rather hectic. Students are allowed to go out and they use this opportunity to visit the city, buy what they need, party, and clear their minds. At home, we would usually go to Tegucigalpa to visit the supermarket and all the other stores for the things we want and the things we need (which now we know are different).
As so, some of the guys from the campus team had already planned activities in town with their colleagues. And for those of us staying here, we did not want either to burn fossil fuels or to generate trash by consuming things. We realized too late that the idea to bike from the campus to our house, challenging the freight trucks to celebrate Moving Planet Day needed more time to organize. Student bicycles are not allowed to leave the campus without the corresponding permits. So we decided to hold an Eco-Sabbath weekend starting today, sharing family time and eating leftovers from yesterday's dinner.
But that was not the main reason to postpone the Giving Back day. Being a mixed team including faculty members, students, and family, it would be hard to arrange our schedules to go somewhere else to volunteer. Plus, there is a lot of work to do right on campus and it makes more sense to start with our own community. The project we came up with was to work with the community kids.
There is an elementary school on campus were most kids from the faculty and staff go. Both the teachers and the students are very proactive and we figured out it would be the perfect place to get more people enthusiastic about this No Impact philosophy! And by gaining kids attention we can extend the message to their families.
Our idea is to hold a consumption awareness session. We would visit the 5th- and 6th-grade kids on the first day to tell them about our experience in the No Impact Week day by day, with lots of visual resources, and to orient them on how to collect their trash for one day. Two days after, we would visit them again to analyze their trash bags by separating items according to the time used and by classifying them as dispensable or indispensable. Later we would discuss measures on how to reduce our footprints.
The school principal immediately supported the idea. But we were only able to schedule the sessions two weeks for now. Anyway, we really love the idea and we are very excited about it! (even if it's not on the right day.)
And as for a giving back treat, my mom is embroidering some beautiful cloth napkins for each of our team members. Paper napkins no more! A No Impact permanent practice we are eager to adopt.
Take a break from it all. Ohm Shanti.
I'm very excited to write this post! I'm also somewhat sad that the experiment is over. I think I'm going to miss it. It has been a really positive experience to participate in the No Impact Experiment.
While on our Eco-Sabbath, we are still having some delicious leftovers from Friday which seem to taste even better. My mom and Namig are working on the cloth napkins. We will have some friends for vegetarian pizza in a while. And, realizing how hard it is to stay away from the computer even for one day, I want use this time to reflect on the highlights of the week. What have been the hardest, easiest, the keepers, and the going-backers for our teams?
To start with, I have to mention how grateful I am to have had such an amazing team. The No Impact Week can certainly be a great experience for anyone, whether with company or on your own. However, not only did our team members make it easier for us to make the experiment work in an environment for which the No Impact philosophy is brand new, but each of the them was so inspiring in their own way as well! They gave the best of themselves day after day.
From our feedback meetings I have realized we've gone through a mix of feelings and context-related difficulty levels as we confronted each challenge. Those feelings and contexts defined both how easy it was to adopt each new habit (and get rid of the old ones) during the week, and how easy it would be to maintain those new habits once the experiment is over. To review the outcomes of the week, I tried to classify the challenges within those axes. Here is the view:
Challenges in which we usually enjoyed the benefit of the old habits but not the habit themselves.
Challenges in which we usually enjoyed the old habits themselves
|Challenges in which the context we live in supports the new habits
|(1) Transportation (on campus)
(3) Eating local
Eating vegetarian (off campus)
|Challenges in which the context we live in does not support the new habits
|(2) Trash
Transportation (off campus)
Giving back
|(4) Electricity
Eco Sabbath
Eating vegetarian (on campus)
The first box is about challenges in which the old habits were easy to kick out during the week because they created unnecessary harm (although they made our lives more comfortable). They are also the challenges where the new habits will be easy to maintain now that the experiment is over because our context supports them. These are the definite keepers. They include mainly the on-campus transportation challenge, thanks to our fine campus bike lane system.
The second box is about challenges in which the old habits were easy to kick out for the week but where new habits will be harder to keep because our context does not support them. These will be the keepers, but with extra effort. We felt great about getting rid of old habits like trash, overconsumption, fossil fuels, and not giving back. But the ways our lives are wired mean we need to work some more to deal with the status quo—and change it—perhaps by designing an adequate lobbying strategy.
The third box is for challenges in which the old habits were not as easy to get rid of because we actually enjoyed how they spiced up our lives (for instance, eating imported goods and meat). But they are challenges where the new habits will be easy to maintain thanks to the options available, as the wide arrange of local foods and vegetarian recipes. These will be the more conscious going-backers. Sure, we will go back to olives, mushrooms, and hams to enrich our salads at home. But we might stick to the healthier and less energy-intense local choices whenever possible.
The last box is for challenges in which the old habits were not as easy to get rid of because they make our lives a lot more comfortable. And the context, well, does not help either. These included: meat on campus, and easy access to electricity, water, and connectivity. We did well controlling our consumption during the week, but I think these are the challenges where we can get more creative at finding post experiment alternatives. How about meatless days, renewable energy systems, water collectors, and a more responsible system for administrating time that leaves space for the things that really matter?
There are ways to address the challenges that we did not get to explore this week. Next time we get involved in the experiment, as we certainly plan to, we would like to create an aromatic herbs nursery with our yogurt containers and to explore mitigation options for our remaining carbon emissions. Moreover, we want to have a stronger promotion strategy to get more people involved in our teams. And we already have pending plans such as our consumption awareness school session, figuring out where exactly food comes from at the dining hall, and an environmentally friendly sharing afternoon we want to invite our community to.
Once we were done with the experiment, understanding that our happiness and satisfaction levels actually increased during the week, we realized that the No Impact lifestyle is not a matter of privation. It is a matter of choice. A matter about achieving the same standards of life or better in a more efficient way.
The experiment extended our awareness on the things we do, our perspective of what we think is possible and our conviction about the meaningful things that are within our hands. We encourage anybody to engage this experience to see how far you can take it. We can assure you that there is a lot to win.
Chicago, Illinois
Hello from the South Side of Chicago, where I'll be spending my No Impact Week. I've been making changes in my life recently, and I'm hoping that No Impact Week will take it to the next level.
I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, but what is life without something new, scary and challenging?
I work in media, which nowadays is probably one of the least environmentally friendly careers you can pick. Every day, I'm constantly plugging in, linking to, and killing away many hours of electricity and battery life. Each office I've worked in has killed a lot of trees in the amount of paper it leaves behind; and most late nights at work call for whatever Grub Hub says is open, instead of a farmers market or homemade meal.
It begs the question: Why do No Impact Week at all? Well, if not now, then when?
I feel myself becoming too tied to gadgets, to driving, and this modern way of life that leaves less time for simpler things. I know there are things I can do, but putting it all together and being persistent have been the hard parts for me. This will be an even more Herculean task because my sister and niece are visiting from out of town this week, and trying to leave a smaller carbon footprint becomes even tougher when also keeping track of a 2-year-old.
But she's a big inspiration to push forward with this. I think a lot about how the world will be when she's older. Will it be better? Will it be worse? There are so many big problems out there that I almost feel helpless in being able to do something about them to make things better for her. But not this. I see it as not just something that can help the environment, but also one more important thing I can teach her.
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
Day one wasn't so bad. The weather was cloudy and rainy, so that took away any motivation to go out. Even if I did, I don't think I would worry about purchasing something I didn't need.
Bills and student loans can make you think twice about buying what you need and not buying what you don't. Today's goal made me think of my consumption habits the past few days and I was surprised at how minimal they've been.
On Saturday, I helped take my family out to dinner and, later that night, I went to see a movie (no purchases from the snack bar, of course.). The day before, it was a 1 a.m. trip after work to Walgreens to buy my sister some contact lens solution. Recently, I tried to remember the last time I used cash, or went to use an ATM. It's been at least a month, surprisingly. I don't know if it says more about me carving out a new way of life or just the times we live in today.
If there's one really bad consumption habit I need to kick, it's been food. I would describe myself as the poster boy for eating like a college student long after I was a college student. Whether it is late-night fast food runs or buying a few too many items not on the shopping list before going to the grocery store, I've been there. And it's shown up in my waistline and bank account statements.
But a few months ago, I decided to change that. So far, and 40 pounds later, it's been a pretty amazing thing. I've never felt better, and it's turned on this risk button inside me that's pushing me more out of my comfort zone. Maybe it's kind of what brought me to No Impact Week. I'm excited to see what this week brings and read other people's No Impact experiences. Godspeed.
More stories from No Impact Sunday: Consumption
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
Coming into Monday, I was pretty nervous. I kept thinking, "Uh oh, here's where this thing is really gonna kick me in the butt." But just like Sunday, it made me realize how much I've changed a lot of my habits lately. Although I couldn't quite make the goal of no trash for the day, I came pretty close: four small pieces of garbage. There were some things that were just unavoidable, such as dental floss and that teeny, tiny piece of tissue paper I used to blow my nose.
My big accomplishment was making use of the regular plates and utensils at home. I don't know how, but over the last few years I've become a slave to all things plastic: plates, forks, spoons, cups, etc. I would even get at mad at a restaurant for forgetting to include a plastic fork with my order. Who does that?
It became even worse once I was on my own. It was the stereotypical life of a young single guy, with enough paper plates to write a book and an assortment of plastic forks collected from the likes of Popeyes and fine Mexican dining.
The weird thing is that it's not how I was brought up. I actually enjoyed the process of eating with a regular plate and fork and then washing it so well I could see my reflection. It made me think how easy it is to fall into a bad habit, but also how easy it can be to get myself out of it—as long as I put in the work on my end to do it.
Oh, and don't get me started on paper towels and napkins. I've been guilty as charged quite a bit on that end, but getting better. Yesterday, I was able to use not a single piece and—as the song goes—I feel fine. It's just another habit I have to break.
It's like when you're in a restaurant, more likely of the fast food nature, and you pack your tray with extra napkins, and you end up using only one or two. I always know I don't need the extra napkins, but I would always think, "You never know." As if some catastrophic sneezing attack, drink spill, or nose bleed will occur, and I need to be on napkin standby. But it never happens, and if it did, I could simply just walk over and get the extra napkins if I really need them. Plus I'd get a little exercise out of it at the same time.
It really is about the simple things. In time they add up and make that bigger impact on our lives and others that freeze us early on when we consider something like the environment. At least that's how I see it. I don't know. I'm such a work in progress.
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn calories, not fossil fuels.
I get a big, fat F for Tuesday. My means of transportation remained the same as always: my intrepid Dodge Intrepid.
It's not that I didn't want to give it up for a day. I did. In fact, I often think about how it would be to give up my car and what it would be like. But my current predicament and other unfortunate circumstances put that on hold for the moment.
My current job is 12 miles away from my house. During normal business hours, it could be a simple commute by train or bus, but my hours aren't that normal. They're from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., and last night, I worked until 2 a.m.
You might ask, what about carpooling with a co-worker, or getting a ride from someone else? Well, all of the other co-workers on my shift live farther north of me, past downtown, and the only one who gets off at the same time I do lives the farthest north.
I considered a car sharing plan with my mom, but she gets off work an hour before I start and because of rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments, she can't go up and down the subway steps like she used to. It's not the worst of situations, but it illustrates the limitations we all have in trying to do No Impact Week, especially those who are poor.
Here in Chicago, about 400,000 people live in food deserts—areas that have no or very limited access to fresh foods. Think about that number. That's bigger than the populations in Miami, Cleveland, Oakland, and Minneapolis. How would they be able to participate in buying nothing but organic or locally grown food for one day—let alone make it a regular part of their lives?
The neighborhoods that do have greater access to fresh foods can be too far to travel. Many bus lines on the South and West Sides have reduced service; fares are up; and gas is higher and higher. Not to drop another number on you, but I must, because it's not just in Chicago, it's everywhere. There was a recent Brookings Institute report that showed how hundreds of thousands of households have both no car and limited access to public transit. And even many people who have access to transit can't get to most jobs in their area within 90 minutes.
But getting off my soapbox and back to life, the one big factor that keeps me from taking the late ride back by train is safety. I'm reminded of what my mom will always say when I go out with friends: "Be careful. There's too much going on out here." Indeed, there is too much going in some parts of Chicago, including my neighborhood, Chatham.
A brief history of Chatham: Newspapers will say that it's known for its black middle class and well-kept lawns and now it's turned to hell. That's way, way oversimplifying it. It's home to the second largest concentration of senior citizens in Chicago and has called Mahalia Jackson, Ernie Banks, and former U.S. Senator Roland Burris residents. There's a lot to love about it—a rich history, and overall a nice place to raise a family.
But it's been rough for long while out here, and we were raised early on to watch our backs. My mom, my sister, my grandmother, and I have each been robbed within a one or two-block radius of our house—and this was long before Chatham grabbed headlines for its violence over the last year or two.
Every week, there's a community flyer about break-ins, stickups and gangs. It's gotten to the point where some people feel like they need a gun to take out the garbage. Even my mom applied for a gun license. All of this runs through my head almost every night on the drive home. Many times I circle around, and drive through our alley to make sure no one is around. I pray that a neighbor is coming home at the same time, so I'm not the only one getting out of my car. It's not an ideal way to live one's life, but it's home.
Now don't let my story paint me as a pessimist who thinks No Impact Week can be only be done in certain places. Even with the limitations and adjustments, there's still a lot that I and others who find themselves in the situations described above can do. A lot of it starts with those everyday habits we fall into.
But I also feel like it points out how connected a lot of these issues are. We make the mistake of thinking one has nothing to do with the other. What do the environment and urban violence have in common? Well, it's a cause and effect. Because of one problem, some people are unable to fully tackle the other. Connecting those dots, I believe, can go a long way in getting more people involved and painting an even fuller big picture.
More stories from No Impact Tuesday: Transportation
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
Here's a day where I could have done some better planning ahead of time. I didn't stray too far, but I also wasn't able to keep Wednesday's grub locally grown either.
My main dish for the past few days has been a wheat pasta and baked chicken combo (using no plastic fork) my mom cooked up on Sunday. The ingredients weren't local, but came from the Food 4 Less just four blocks from our house. It used to be that after the day the meal was cooked—or sometimes after the next day—I would move onto something else and not touch Sunday dinner again. Many trips home after work consisted of getting dinner on the go chocked with all the bad stuff doctors warn you about. How times have changed. Overall, I'm more patient with my food habits. I don't give in to impulse or eat it just because it's there.
Changing my food habits over the past months has been one of the best choices I could make. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was hard. It still is, but I take it one meal, one day at a time. As I wrote about a little earlier, it's resulted in me losing 40 pounds so far. I don't think I've ever been as selective in choosing not just what to eat, but also how much. It almost makes me feel like a student again, studying all these food chemicals and calculating calories, sodium, and sugar intakes.
To go the straight local route feels like that huge next level of a video game I know I have to reach, but not before I conquer that tricky path preceding it. It's always exciting to daydream about getting there, but it's still one meal, one day.
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
I've gotta admit that Thursday was kind of fun. I thought it would be harder than it actually turned out to be. What made it easier, I think, is the change in habits I've been making the past few months. Things like not watching TV were easy when I was downstairs in my domain – not so much upstairs with my niece who wanted her daily fixings of Yo Gabba Gabba and Sid the Science Kid.
I've been weaning myself off TV for a while, actually. I had the misfortune of growing up with one in my room, and it became great to have around for a 7-year-old who was afraid of the dark. As I got older, it became that classic background to whatever else I was doing. I wish I had a dollar for every moment I turned on the TV not to watch it, but to channel surf over and over and over again.
But now, I'm much more picky about when I turn on the TV. It might be as little as once or twice a week.
The biggest obstacles I had to face Thursday were my trusty fan and radio. They've probably been my biggest energy drainers over the years – even more than TV. It's mainly because I have this weird sleeping habit where I need noise or something going as I'm sleeping. A fan, a radio, or both have been my constants for a long time, regardless of the season. I had already been experimenting with cutting out the radio over the past week, and it hasn't been that tough. My main use for it recently has been when I work out. I found listening to the news to be not only a good exercise companion, but also a better timekeeper than looking over at a clock every two minutes.
But taking that and the fan out of the equation for a day? Not bad at all. The silence was a little refreshing, especially when working out. It was as if an even bigger calming came over my mind. Going to bed was just as simple too. I could always go to sleep without either if I were in a hotel, so I knew nothing was stopping me from doing it at home. It was just a matter of…habits.
More stories from No Impact Thursday: Energy]]>
Erin Collins
Dubbo, Australia
A couple of years ago, I was living outside of Delhi, India, in a community of formerly destitute people. My life with them made me realize the effect that Western lifestyles often have on the rest of the world, and especially on those living in poverty.
Now that I'm back in Australia—in a town of about 40,000 people on the edge of the outback—I want to learn how to better live lightly on the earth, without destruction. I've had both times where I was depressed about it and didn't try as hard, and times when I've been quite hardcore, but I'd like to find a balance between idealism and inertia.
I'm doing this challenge because I know I need a bit of a shake up again, I know I'm becoming more and more unconscious of my 'impact' the longer I live at home in Australia, and I'm looking forward to spending a week examining myself (in a playful way) along with everyone else who is taking up the challenge!
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
I'm really looking forward to this week. And I'm also wondering if I'll need a holiday afterward because it already feels kind of intense.
Just one day has left me reeling a bit because when you start to carry your rubbish around; and then go into the cheap shop to by "essential items" (see list below); and then come home to notice how you tend to reach for the hot tap by default and how much water is going down the loo ... So much is automatic and it's a challenge to actually think about it!
Just the anticipation of the challenge over the last week has been good for me—it's agitated me and got me thinking. Good stuff.
Sunday was really great: After a cultural festival, a dig in the community garden, and a bag of my collected rubbish, I was cycling home (unfortunately uphill) and my neighbor passed me in her car. She stopped for a chat because we haven't actually seen each other for the past week. Better than just passing in our cars and waving!
Never say Never
After an intense time working with the poor in India, I embarked on a bit of a journey with some friends, trying to make sense of the world and its inequalities and our part to play in it. I was pretty active and passionate about things, and at the time I made a lot of "never again" statements.
Now, back in Oz, I feel like I'm doing all those things: I'm living alone, working full-time, driving my car to work most days (all of 5 minutes), buying things wrapped in plastic, getting more and more possessions as time goes on.
I've tried to be a bit 'conscious' about my consumption, but if I look hard at myself, I'm slowly getting lazy and comfortable again. That's not to say that being crazy hardcore about these things is right either—I actually think that the "never" statements can be harmful because when you inevitably go back on them (and I think there's some universal law that says you will), you feel like a failure.
And there are the shades of gray: I live alone because I feel somewhere inside that I need to for a while—for my mental health. And working full-time again has turned out to present new challenges and room for growth that I didn't expect.
The system certainly isn't perfect, and so many things frustrate me. But hey, maybe I have more chance to grow by being in a challenging situation than the ideal life of living off the land in self-sustainable communal bliss.
Final thoughts on me vs. consumption
This is fun!
More stories from No Impact Sunday: Consumption
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
I like how this challenge is making me horrified about "normal" things. I was horrified as I peeled a sticker off an apple, horrified by the pile of uncollected paper next to the printer at work, horrified by my hand reaching for a paper towel to dry off ...
Spookily—to extend the horror theme—a recycling program started at work today. For me it was also a significant day because after weeks of thinking about it, I finally took my food scraps to work to give to a colleague who has chooks. This has a rather exciting spin-off for me: It means that there is no excuse for using plastic bags to collect my rubbish (excuse being that they neatly contain oozy foodstuff). I got so good awhile back at using my reusable shopping bags that I actually purposely didn't use them so I could get plastic bags because I had run out.
So a lesson learned: There are a lot of hungry chickens out there who want my scraps. A decision was made today from all of this (along with the first colleague with the chooks) that we would start a scrap bin in the kitchen at work and see how it goes. A little bit of horror goes a long way!
This week has happened at "that time of the month" but thankfully I started using reusable alternatives to disposable pads and tampons years ago. I remember the pivotal point of decision with that was when I was in India and had the (extremely horrifying) realization that whatever I put in the rubbish bin there would invariably be opened and touched and sorted by a poor rag-picker. I couldn't wish that on anyone. I'm also glad that I didn't have to carry anything like that around with me as part of the challenge!
A few "highlights" from my rubbish collection:
Things I'm thankful for:
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn calories, not fossil fuels.
I own a car. And frankly, there is a list of excuses for having one here. I've got good friends who live out of town and riding my bicycle 30 km just ain't gonna happen. My parents live 250 km down the road and to coordinate with the bus or train times I need to take a 4-day weekend. And up until recently I hadn't really thought there was a good enough alternative for getting home after dark.
For getting around town there are good options. The bus isn't really a good one unless you don't want to go out on Sundays and don't want to stay in town past 5.30 p.m. Walking is good—I already try to walk to work (sometimes) because 20 minutes walking is a great way to frame the working day.
But Dubbo is rather sprawling and the best way to get around in general, I think, is by bicycle. Because the very good bike that I bought a few months ago hasn't seen much of the road, I decided prior to No Impact Week that I would leave my car at home for the whole week (at least until Saturday) and cycle everywhere: to work (2 km), the community garden (5 km), one evening meeting and whatever else comes up. Simple, right?
A quick "up to speed" on the harsh reality of cycling in Dubbo.
1: Magpies. If you've never been swooped everyday for weeks in spring by a deranged magpie trying to protect its young, you don't know how traumatizing this can be. Happily the cable ties projecting from my helmet like antennas seem to have worked at deterring them so far.
2. Snakes. This is no word of a lie—my friend Bron was cycling today and nearly ran over a big brown snake. Luckily it was slithering fast. Not sure how you can avoid snakes except for keeping an eye out for them!
3. Potential for knee grazes and ankle bleeds (probably more to do with me than Dubbo): Yes, this happened yesterday close to home. I was signaling whilst slowing down whilst looking behind etc etc and went all wobbly and fell off in the middle of the road. Ouch!
4. Cat heads. Not the furry kind—rather, the freaky, can-stab-through-your-thong-(flip-flop)-through-to your-foot variety. Described as "thumbtack-like," I have shredded tubes on these before.
Well you would think that with all these reasons why cycling in Dubbo is probably more hazardous than wrestling crocodiles, I would give up. But after three days of cycling at least 10 km per day and only actually experiencing number three above, I think I'm hooked. I feel good, I love the feeling of physical exhaustion when I hop into bed, I love riding under the stars in the fresh air at night, and I love being less in my car. And there are pluses about Dubbo: It is relatively flat and the wide roads mean nice big shoulders, even if there are not many bike paths.
So it's easy enough to reduce my car dependency for myself, but what about for work? Our team of Occupational Therapists travel far and wide to provide a service to a big chunk of western New South Wales. On a big trip this means traveling a minimum of 400 km one way. More regularly for me it means once or twice a fortnight travelling to a town 120 km away. I'm wondering what my profession would look like in a post-cheap-oil future? Hmmmm.
Lunchtime discussions today at work included thoughts on energy use, a toilet cistern that doubles as a handbasin, and whether I would need to put out a bucket and wait for it to rain in order to drink truly local water. I ate my local parsnips and salad with delight (my shop at the farmers markets on Saturday has already meant a lot of local, healthy food). And when I washed my hands I pulled out my little square of old pillowslip that I had in my pocket rather than use the paper towel!
Aside from all the fun that this challenge is proving to be, I have to admit I'm feeling really exhausted. Partly the increased physical activity, but it's also the mental/emotional stuff—thinking about everything I do (and facing a lot of my habits) and blogging about it means sitting down each evening trying to write something coherent and staying up later than usual. But I think it helps with being mindful.
And now, I'm going to steal a line from my fellow blogger, Ta'Kaiya: "No Impact Week can lead to No Impact Month or Year or a complete change altogether."
I'm beginning to hope so!
More stories from No Impact Tuesday: Transportation
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
I read Vicki Robin's article 7 Ways to Cook Up a Sustainable Diet on the weekend and thought it was great—nice and concise and sensible. It planted a few things in my brain for the week: I started sprouting again (for some reason I didn't do it over winter), and I have made a commitment to myself to consider what is in my cupboard as "local" for the next weeks and try not to buy any food except fresh fruit and veggies. I have also tried to 'savor' my food more, and eat slowly. Last night I experienced even more 'savor' as I was sharing with new friends.
I'm not so good with the local food thing, aside from vegetables. Looking at labels, a lot of things are "made in Australia from local and imported ingredients." Even if things are made in Australia it could be thousands of kms away. If I think about things I don't want to give up—they'd be my oats and nuts and tahini (all from the supermarket). But I didn't eat them today.
My local food adventure began on Saturday with a trip to the local farmers markets. Knowing what was ahead, I made a point of asking most of them where their produce was from. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of great local food. Most of my veggies came from Neurea (66km) and some from Cowra (211km). Even more local were the Narromine Oranges, the mushrooms, olives, avocados, and seedlings. Probably the thing from the farthest away was the sourdough bread from the Blue Mountains (about 300km)…I couldn't resist and I needed some kind of "staple."
So yesterday it wasn't so hard to eat local. I made a nice salad for lunch and munched on oranges and apples throughout the day. In the afternoon I did crave a packet of chips (which I don't even want very often), but my colleague Michelle listened to me complain about this and talked me through it. I drank water instead.
Dinner was special. I came home from work (by bicycle of course), to greet two lovely couchsurfers who came to stay the night, Andrew and Nici. After offering them a cup of tea I realized that none of my tea/herbal options could be considered local. It's moments like those when you get close to just bending the rule a little bit….but anyway I searched around and decided to squeeze some very local lemon (given away at a meeting I went to the other night) into my water.
I was all excited because another purchase I had made at the market was "saltbush lamb chops"—a local lamb that claims to be more sustainable because the lambs eat a lot of saltbush.
What's so good about Old Man Saltbush? This is a native plant supplying lambs with a rich source of minerals and nutrients not readily available from other plants. It is a deep-rooted perennial that assists with sustainable land management as it helps to prevent salinity.
I very rarely cook meat (my friend Amy can testify to that: She has supervised my two attempts at cooking meat in seven months) and I know that part of the challenge for this week was to reduce meat consumption. But I was happy to go the other way if I could find something more sustainable. It was a great idea, but it was thwarted when I pulled the meat out of the fridge and smelled it… maybe it was a sign!
Andrew and Nici happily went along with my local rules and we feasted on steamed vegetables (potato, broccoli, beetroot, parsnip, onion, sweet potato) and bread with avocado and olives! It was really delightful to share a meal together as we got to know each other, to savor the food slowly and also enjoy the solitude around us.
Our conversation led us to talk about some of the craziness going on in this world. Wondering about the future, I was reminded of something I felt I've learned over the last years after talking and thinking over and over again about these topics: It's our inner sustainability that matters in this crazy world, and it's the only place that we can start from where all of us have the choice to change, regardless of the circumstances around us. For me, something deep says that that should be a priority. I think that trying to be more aware and present through this challenge helps that, or at least reminds me of that.
I must say that doing this day alone would not have been anywhere near as fun.
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
I experimented years ago for a short time with not turning on artificial lights at all—only using candles when it got dark. I also tried not to have other forms of artificial light (like TV or a computer screen) on either. What prompted me to do that was thinking about how our bodies must be so out of whack when we try to prolong the day artificially (I guess you kind of need to if you live somewhere with extremely short winter days), and our bodies probably don't get all the cues they need to get ready for sleep. Like that it's getting dark.
As I write this, it's 6.40pm. I'm sitting in my dark unit, and the sun has just gone down. There are a few candles lit on the table and otherwise it is just the computer screen (a necessary evil if I'm to write this blog post!).
I came home absolutely exhausted today after staying up late last night and getting up early to write the last post, and thought I'd get an early night. How convenient—the darkness is adding to my sleepiness.
Probably the biggest energy-suckers in my unit are the hot water tank, the fridge, the heater or air-con if I use it, and the washing machine.
Winter is pretty much over, so I thought, why not switch off the hot water? It's a huge tank. I have never run out. I probably don't even use a quarter of what's in there (not sure, really!). But certainly during summer I should be able to get by with cold showers, and will probably even want cold showers (it gets hot in Dubbo). And I usually wash my laundry with cold. And I could always boil the kettle for the washing up.
Well my friendly couchsurfer confirmed that if I flick the switch that says "hot water" it will turn off (for some reason I'm nervous about touching these things without a second opinion) so I will do it….soon….maybe after my next hot shower! I can certainly turn it off anytime I go away, at least.
About the fridge: I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up. But I must say, it disturbed me last night, as I sat at the table with Andrew and Nici—we had a moment of silence before dinner and my ears were filled with a kind of screeching noise that I think was coming from the fridge. It's that constant electrical noise that you don't usually notice. It might be radio waves, etc., as well, I don't know. But it's a shame when you can't have total silence because of these darn appliances!
Right now we're in that beautiful mid-season where I don't need heat or cooling. But I hope this summer I will be able to minimize the cooling… this may be aided by the cold showers.
The washing machine gets used a couple of times a week (lights and darks). I don't have a dryer, so I always hang out my washing on my clothesline—or if it's too cold or raining then it's hung inside and it dries nicely, especially if I'm heating.
On the plus side, I don't have a TV, and I think that has a lot of pluses. TV can be such a time-suck. And an energy suck. I'm just not exposed to all those commercial messages that contribute to the consumption-urge: I totally missed Fathers day this year. and I think it's because of lack of TV and junk mail…and because I didn't go shopping except to the supermarket.
I do still watch the odd thing on the Internet, but I choose it, rather than plonking down and flicking channels and just watching for the sake of it.
Woops! My computer is telling me it's running out of batteries''—and I'm getting very sleepy sitting here in the dark. Goodnight.
More stories from No Impact Thursday: Energy
Soak up the benefits of using less water.
In Australia, being conscious of water use is drilled into you at a young age. To think that some adults actually leave the tap running while they brush their teeth shocks me. There's a lot of education around on how to save water, and during summer we are often under water restrictions (at level 1 you can still use a sprinkler, by level 6 you must use recycled water to water your garden).
During restrictions we also have rules where you only water every other day, depending on your house number. So, it's something we're aware of. You don't want to be caught washing your car with a hose during water restrictions!
Having said all of that, the country as a whole (we'll get to me personally in a minute) doesn't seem to give a stuff when it comes to preserving our precious (finite) water resources like the Great Artesian Basin (GAB), an underground aquifer that is a source of water through springs to much of inland Australia, and a valuable support for wildlife. The Olympic Dam mine in South Australia (mining uranium, copper, gold, and silver) uses 35 million litres of GAB water each day. It's not just Olympic Dam that's doing this—coal seam gas mining also poses a significant threat to this resource. (Don't get me started on coal seam gas mining—they want to cover the amazing Pilliga Forest with extraction sites…it just shouldn't happen).
The water is effectively being "mined," as it is not a neverending supply. As it is mined, the pressure decreases and natural springs dry up. It worries me to read that there is no consensus as to whether the recharge rates of the GAB are equal to the total of discharge rates (via natural discharge and pumping/exploitation). So why the heck are we exploiting this precious resource without knowing if it is just going to dry up one day?
Whatever happened to the precautionary principle?
Australia is pretty much gaga about mining at the moment. It's the lifeblood of our economy, and the government is rolling in revenue from it. But at what future expense, I ask? Do the powers that be just not care about future generations in such a dry land?
I'd say I'm "fairly" aware of water use. It doesn't help, though, that until now I haven't had to pay for water in my rental unit. And money can be a big incentive. But I do have a two-liter milk bottle in my toilet cistern to reduce my flush; I tend to take quick showers; I sometimes reuse laundry water for a second load or to water the lawn; and because I live alone it's easy to do the "mellow yellow" thing and not flush unless I have to.
But in watching myself use water the last days, I realize that most water I only use once, so I have decided to try my hardest to get at least two uses out of all the water I use (except drinking). That means using a tub to wash my dishes (using less dishes would be good too!), having a bucket in the shower, not letting laundry water go down the drain, using steaming and sprouting water to water my plants. Not sure about hand washing, or mouth rinsing water…but I'm sure I'll work it out.
More stories from No Impact Friday: Water
Discover the benefits of service.
I kind of dropped off the No Impact perch yesterday by driving 300 km in order to wade for three hours in the Macquarie Marshes. I suppose you could say it was "balanced" by helping me become physically aware of an extremely important part of our local ecology, and participating in a small fundraiser for people who are passionate about the health of our river systems!
In a way it fits neatly in with this challenge: These people were trying to connect people's lifestyles (in particular water use) with the "bigger picture"—the environment that we live in and which ultimately sustains us.
This week has been a lot about developing awareness for me. But it's probably not going to last if I don't go some step further than just thinking about "lifestyle choices." Because, let's face it—if it's just about little me, or us, trying to 'make a difference' in the face of such huge scary problems on a scale that looms high above us…well, isn't it just all pointless to make sacrifices?
I don't believe it's pointless. Not because I believe that we will actually end up having world peace and no poverty and that my future grandchildren's grandchildren will live on a pristine planet (I can't honestly say I believe that). But because I believe that I have a soul, and that there is some 'connectedness' somewhere hidden within, there is something in me that is probably screaming when I do waste, when I do consume more than my fair share, when I do create problems for the earth by my "little" choices.
I guess it's good to hear this little voice again, to feel my conscience and know that to follow it, whatever that means, will ultimately mean peace, connectedness, and less fragmentation. If we dig deep enough, Something in us just knows.
When I contemplate today's theme—Giving Back—I think of fellow blogger Rebecca's comment that she wants to find ways to "reduce my family's negative impact on our planet while increasing our positive impact."
I think that the name of this challenge is perhaps misleading, making you think of taking up neutral space on the planet…What about making a real, positive, subtle, surprising, soulful and personal Impact?
More stories from No Impact Saturday: Giving Back
Take a break from everything. Ohm Shanti.
There are so many benefits to living a lower-impact and simpler lifestyle. Reading the other bloggers, I can see a common theme of re-discovering neighborhoods, good conversation, peace, healthy eating, and exercise. I guess that it's all stuff that also enriches our souls as well as the more "inner conscience" stuff I talked about before.
As I write this, I'm sick at home, not sure if it's the cumulative "impact" of No Impact Week (I expended a lot of personal energy this week!), but it shows me how easy it would be now to just do things that are easy and comfortable, to keep old habits alive because I just "can't be bothered."
But thankfully this experience has been rather powerful and inspiring, and I hope that I will continue this reflective way of living, making small changes along the way.
I'm already pretty astounded by the number of changes I have already made that I think will stick at least to some degree. Who would have thought what just a one week commitment could achieve?
A big thank you to YES! for inviting me to blog about this experience. The sharing of it has certainly made it a far more intense but also personally rewarding experience. And a big shout out to all the fellow bloggers and participants in this No Impact Week. We Did It!
The YES! Magazine Team
Seattle Area, Washington
The past few weeks have been unusually lively at the YES! office. Twenty staff and interns have joined the YES! Magazine Dream Team for No Impact Week—there's excitement but also apprehension about just how hard this week might be.
Some of us have long commutes to the office. Others have kids. We all have a lot to do every day at work. But each of my 20 team members have contributed stories, ideas, and a sense of adventure as we prepare to step up to Colin Beavan's challenge.
I've already been surprised by the ways in which I've gotten to know my coworkers in new ways, and the week's just beginning. We're already a low-impact group, by national standards—we pick veggies from the garden outside our office every day for lunch, we maintain a lively worm bin for our food scraps, and we sometimes work with the lights off to save energy. Many of us bike, bus, ferry, and walk to work already. We patronize local businesses and bank at local banks.
But we're also used to living comfortable lives. In preparation for No Impact Week, each one of us expressed different concerns: What if I don't own a bike? Is it hygienic not to flush the toilet every time we use it? How will my kids react to carrying trash around? What about all of the takeout containers we use when we're too busy to bring a lunch from home? How will I dry my laundry in soggy western Washington?
This week is an opportunity for us each to explore the ways in which our lifestyles affect the planet, and pledge to take the next step to reduce our impact. The challenges and joys will be different for each of us. But it's certainly more fun when you're supported and pushed a little further by those around you.
Which brings me to…
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
For me, day one of No Impact Week marked the final day of moving in to my new house with YES! web editor Brooke Jarvis and two other friends. We were coming from a house we'd fully furnished from garage sales, Craigslist, and Freecycle. Our friends were coming from a tiny, off-the-grid cabin they'd built themselves.
No shopping this Sunday. I spent the whole day finding space for our duplicate coolers and canning pots, stacking cases of homemade blackberry wine above the bathroom cabinets, and asking myself how I could possibly own so many shoes. The whole day was a revelation that these four people who are pretty into the minimally consumerist, do-it-yourself lifestyle still own a lot of stuff.
By six that night, we still had a lot of unpacking to do, but that could wait. This day is about consumption, isn't it? We'd brewed a keg of scotch ale last month, and a big crock of sauerkraut was ready—made from cabbage my new housemate grew on her farm just 10 miles away.
Our friends were happy to help out with this kind of consumption, and came bringing cheese, meat, and homemade bread for some of the tastiest reuben sandwiches around.
-Jessica Lind-Diamond, Development Manager
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
You can find quilt fats at any fabric store and they are usually very inexpensive. You can also use any leftover fabric scraps you have.
You just cut two squares the same size. I like to choose different patterns, but ones that compliment each other. It's like having two different napkins.
Sew the two sides together, face-to-face, leaving a couple of inches open to turn it inside out.
Clip the corners, turn it inside out, and iron it flat.
Then just using any utility stitch sew all around the edges of the napkin to keep it flat after washing
-Paula Murphy, Fulfillment Manager, and Sara Kirk, Media and Outreach Intern
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn calories, not fossil fuels.
by Derek Hoshiko, Online Audience Manager, and Gretchen Wolf, Office Manager
As employees at YES! Magazine, we often find it challenging to reconcile our personal lives and actions with our organization's image and reputation, and the actions that we advocate.
For example, with 25 people in our office, recycling and composting is challenging both in terms of educating our staff and interns about how to do it, and holding everyone accountable to actually do it.
In the past month, Gretchen has been working closely with a local zero waste group to bring solid waste diversion to our community, and hold workshops and demonstrations on use.
Derek had a life-changing moment at the Hollyhock Summer Gathering last month when two keynote speakers presented the latest information on the plastics issue, including artist/filmmaker Chris Jordan, who gave a very compelling and emotionally wrenching presentation—about albatrosses dying by the tens of thousands on Midway Island, in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, after having their body cavities filled with plastic.
Plastic bits are found on beaches in San Diego, and as far as Antarctica. In some places, the oceans consist of half plastic bits, and half plankton. The plastic will get smaller, but it will never break down.
The flow of plastic into the oceans is increasing, and we need to take a stand—we need to refuse single-use plastic, and to start conversations with business owners, managers, friends, etc. about how we can reduce waste in a respectful and doable way.
The word that comes to mind as I (Gretchen) move through this No Impact Week is "awareness." Trash Day has brought several things to my attention: First, we at YES! struggle with trash disposal just as much as the next guy; and second, the wrappers from my favorite morning Lara bars are taking up way too much space in the landfill.
Truthfully, the conversation for this theme has been happening all month here at the YES! office. The zero waste committee has been helping us improve our systems with better signage—detailing what goes where—and meeting with our staff to answer those tough recycling questions: What do we do with our tea packets, with their sneaky foil lining? And what about our used nose tissue?
We quickly realized that in order to simplify and manage our composting needs, we needed to invest in a commercial composter. But with this decision came the difficult question—what to do with our hardworking worms?
Photo Essay: Follow YES! staff as they descend on local eateries with reusable plates in hand.
One item that was overwhelming our smaller compost bin was our takeout containers—a wake-up call to YES! staff that we needed to rethink how we are getting our lunch items to work. This inspired a BYO container flash mob, armed with plates and homemade cloth napkins, to visit to our local restaurants. It not only brought awareness to our town's establishments, but also inspired a conversation with others in our community—and was a fun bonding opportunity for staff!
We visited three locally owned restaurants and asked them if we could either borrow a plate for takeaway that we would wash and return, or to plate our meal on a dish that we brought ourselves.
I (Derek) have been doing this for years in Seattle, and decided to share the idea with my colleagues. Compostable or recyclable takeaway containers are better than throw-away ones, but not using any is the best.
So the worms are going home with our staff worm wrangler, our local recycler says "no" to used nose tissue, and we will be attempting to convert to bulk tea to avoid those deceptive tea packets.
And that Lara bar wrapper solution? Gretchen googled the Lara Bar recipe and will attempt to duplicate her favorite peanut butter chocolate chip bar from her kitchen over the weekend.
The lessons in this week are still happening here at YES! At the office, as Gretchen gathers the sprinkled flower petals from our recycle bin (with a frustrated sigh) and moves them to our new compost bucket, she's hopeful.
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
In preparation for this day, I realized a large portion of the food I eat needs to take a plane or truck cross-country just to get to my belly. The banana for my smoothie had to hop on a plane from Ecuador, and those garbanzo beans had a long journey from India to get to my salad.
The "but I'm an unpaid intern" line is hardly an excuse for not eating local at YES! because we have a vegetable garden full of kale, squash, and other tasty eats (even hops!)—only steps from our office.
So this week I can at least speak for the YES! intern house on Bainbridge Island, where all five of us interns live, in that we have been making good on our no-impact pact, eating up everything in our cupboards supplemented with greens from the garden.
In an effort to get the YES! staff and interns to eat a local lunch on Wednesday, we had a potluck at work. Not everything was 100 percent local like my blueberry cheesecake bars, which only included local blueberries and eggs, but everything was still 100 percent delicious. And according to Vicki Robin's article for YES!, 7 Ways to Cook Up a Sustainable Diet, "If it is in your fridge or on your shelves, count it as local."
I'd have to say our fulfillment manager, Paula Murphy, wins the award for most local ingredients used in her tasty potato leek soup. Not only the hearty vegetables were local but also the butter and cream! For the recipe, check out YES! Picks: Recipes for Fall.
When I know my food comes from a short distance away it automatically tastes better—and to be fair, it probably is better. This has been the hardest task for me personally but the one I feeI I will most likely incorporate into my routine, even if only little by little.
Thankfully I have the support of my mother, who despite her love of Wendy's chicken sandwiches, has agreed to take a no-impact journey with me on the East Coast. Sharing our successes and meals we've made with local ingredients have added some excitement to our long-distance relationship, and make me feel that much closer to her.
-Jennifer Kaye, Editorial Intern
More stories from No Impact Wednesday: Food
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
Right from the beginning, I knew that no energy day was going to be a one of the biggest challenges during all of No Impact Week, probably impossible to do completely. Obviously, I'm on my laptop as I type this entry. But I think it just makes me realize more and more how dependent we are on electricity—even with mundane, everyday things, like illuminating a room with light, or using my phone to call or text someone.
We were able to make a lot of progress, though. The other day, former editorial intern Robby Mellinger came to the YES! office to build a rocket stove, which was featured in YES! Picks in the Summer 2011 issue. Many staff members contributed something to make it possible: Robby brought a massive popcorn tin, and managing editor Doug Pibel and publisher Fran Korten donated items to the cause.
It took Robby about an hour and a half to make, and it was his first time making one. It's a very efficient tool because it's insulated by ash, and small sticks in tubing produce enough heat to cook food without producing much smoke. Most importantly, no electricity needed!
I helped Jenni Kaye, another editorial intern at YES!, make candles from soy flakes and lavender oil. We filled the wax in old pasta sauce and peanut butter jars that were already in the house. They were surprisingly simple to make, and they smell great! Awesome Christmas gift idea, anyone?
With this combination of great tools, the YES! interns hosted a "no-impact" house party on Thursday night. We utilized the rocket stove by making pasta, and later, smores. Also, we made enough candles to illuminate each room in the house, as well as the back deck where the group ended up settling for most of the evening.
But there was more than just a lack of electricity at that party. I think that because there were few distractions, we were able to have great conversation as friends and co-workers. There wasn't any mingling; we all sat together in one big circle, taking turns talking, and listening when others spoke.
I think with distractions like phones and computers, it's difficult to keep a conversation flowing the way it did last night—especially with 15 people in the group.
It makes me hopeful that others will realize that there are great benefits, beyond saving fossil fuels and money, to not using electricity.
-Kate Malongowski, Editorial Intern
More stories from No Impact Thursday: Energy
Soak up the benefits of using less water.
I make a very poor land creature. If possible, I would rather be in the water. If swimming to work was an option, I would much prefer that than riding my bike.
When I stopped being in the pool all the time, around the time I started this internship and stopped giving swimming lessons, I started taking a lot more showers—two a day—and I still never felt clean (minus the chlorine oozing from my pores). I also wash my dishes thoroughly before putting them in the dishwasher. I would say my water use habits would have put me pretty high in the ranking of water use offenders.
According to National Geographic's Water Footprint calculator, though, I come out below average in every category. Apparently disliking red-meat, being lactose intolerant, and generally being too poor to spend money on many non-food products makes me much more water-friendly to the environment than most Americans.
What the calculator doesn't have is a category for use of public swimming pools. I was curious how much that could potentially add to my water footprint. I was surprised that, according to the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals, pools use substantially less water than a lawn of the same surface area.
So. If my water consumption is, for the most part, so far below average, what could I do that would make a significant difference in my water footprint? Confine myself to one shower a day, yes. Shorter showers, yes. Let go of spotless dish obsession…working on it. Oh, and I could kick the bottled water habit.
Despite what The Story of Stuff claims in The Story of Bottled Water, I think bottled water tastes infinitely better than tap. City water tends to taste like chlorine. The water out of the tap at the intern house on Bainbridge Island tastes like dirt. The filter on the office tap makes for the only good water I've had recently that doesn't come from a bottle. I don't know what the waste stats on Brita filters are, but hopefully are the better of two evils in this situation. I can't go cold turkey and switch to straight tap water, but I can invest in a filter and reusable water bottle.
I do wonder, though, how much of a water impact I make every time I ride the ferry…
-Ayla Harbin, Online Intern
More stories from No Impact Friday: Water
Take a break from everything. Ohm Shanti.
Late September brought warm, dry weather to the Puget Sound area—helpful for those No Impact Week team members who made long bike commutes to the YES! office on Bainbridge Island. Adding No Impact changes to our regular work routines made this a busy week. Staff and interns streamlined our office waste systems, made sustainable community connections, sourced, cooked, and shared local food, made candles, arranged parties, and even constructed energy-efficient technology—in this case, a bright red rocket stove.
After work, and the ferry trip back to Seattle (arguably the world's most beautiful commute), I attended several talks and meetings this week. They're abundant in autumn, the season of mellow fruitfulness and book tours. The pace was a little hectic, but just by showing up I got valuable insight from expert authors and engaged audiences: On Israel/Palestine Monday night, on divisions in labor unions Friday. On Saturday, activists at the GI coffeehouse at Joint Base Lewis-McChord launched a campaign for recognition and treatment of soldiers suffering war trauma.
By Sunday I was ready for a day of rest and the No Impact "Eco-Sabbath," but there was one more significant event on the calendar: President Obama's visit to Seattle. Local groups called for a street greeting to remind the president of the people's "to-do" list: create green jobs, protect Medicare, end the wars, and save the planet.
A storm blew in after a week of warm still evenings. On Sunday morning I walked through wet, windy streets to the Paramount Theatre where Obama was scheduled to appear. The wide intersections at 9th and Pine were cordoned off from traffic, transformed into something almost like a pedestrian plaza. I found activist friends standing behind a cluster of Tar Sands Action Solidarity signs. We huddled under an umbrella chanting "Pipeline: No!" and "There is No Planet B!" for an hour, then took a break at a nearby coffee shop, where the conversation turned to the question of effectiveness. One discouraged friend, a longtime peace activist, wondered if there was much point in a street corner protest far from the seat of power.
But I was energized. I'd gotten an unexpected, and positive, reaction when I passed out Tar Sands Action leaflets to the well-dressed people waiting in line for the Obama fundraiser. "Have you heard about the Keystone XL pipeline?" I asked. "It would be an environmental disaster, and President Obama has the power to stop it."
Several people said this was the first time they'd heard about the pipeline. One woman, reading that 1,252 people had been arrested in front of the White House to prevent the State Department's approval of Keystone XL, said she thought it would be a good idea to get that reported more widely in the media. Several people immediately "got it" when I mentioned the threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, and said they'd go to the Tar Sands Action website for more information. According to my brief straw poll, people need to hear more about this cause.
Dried off and caffeinated, we walked out into the street just as the presidential motorcade rounded the corner. Flashing blue lights, motorcycles streaming past, and then two identical stretch limos with darkened windows. Peering at the first limo, I was sure that familiar silhouette in the backseat was POTUS, but someone said, "No, he's in that other one." I still don't know what I saw. Which was the doppelganger, which the president I voted for?
To find out more, go to www.tarsandsaction.org
-Valerie Schloredt, Associate Editor
More stories from the No Impact Eco-Sabbath
Kathy Kottaras
Los Angeles, California
I'm a mom and teacher writing from southern California.
Having grown up in Chicago, where I watched my father toil to bury his fig tree during the winter months, I'm especially in awe of my arugula and Swiss chard, who laugh in the face of wind and hail. I am trying the No Impact Experiment for the second time. I also blog at plantthisgarden.com.
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
My eggplants are depleted. They spent all summer growing and flowering, only to drop all of their dainty purple flowers, producing no fruit at all. I spoke to the helpful expert at my local gardening store yesterday, and he said that besides the wacky weather confusing the heck out of the poor plants (hot days that encourage growth and bloom followed by cold days that tell the plant it's autumn and the surprise shock of more blazing heat), my garden as a whole could probably use a good boost of nitrogen. It makes sense, since we've powered through six or so seasons of pretty great harvests, through both winter and summer.
This year, however, while my tomatoes did well, and the zucchini spit out a few good fruit, the rest of the garden – the cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, even the easy little radishes – they didn't do so well. I'm still very much a novice gardener, and while I understand peripherally the theories from all those mandatory biology classes I had to take as a kid of a plant's life—energy systems, photosynthesis, etc.—it's an interesting thing when you suddenly have to make conscious choices that will affect the garden's quality of life.
So, I'll be pouring in more humus from our compost bin, amending the soil with fertilizer, and planting fava beans, which return nitrogen to the soil.
I find that the No Impact carbon-cleanse is similar to the process of replenishing my garden. It's the time now to pause, to consider where I'm depleted, what is filling me up with the right kind of energy, and how to restructure my life so that I can pour in some metaphorical nitrogen. Six months ago, I completed the experiment, and I changed many small habits that I still keep—cloth napkins, reusable bags, shorter showers, technology Sabbaths. I'm looking forward to this week to consider which of the old habits returned, and to contemplate where I can still change.
The eggplants are still growing, by the way. They're still pumping out those flowers, teasing me with every one. I guess it gives me some hope. I've read articles that claim that without widespread governmental and industrial change, we have little impact on the future of our earth's health. I suppose there's much truth in those arguments, but I refuse to stop trying here at home. If my eggplants aren't giving up, neither will I.
More stories from No Impact Sunday: Consumption
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
I love to walk. I try to walk a few times every week, usually on the weekdays. I follow the same path through a relatively quiet, hilly neighborhood that leads to a relatively quiet and beautiful city park. I find that when I walk, my mind can wander.
I begin slowly, even begrudgingly, almost as if I have to force my legs to move forward. Quickly, though, my mind moves out of my body into the world. I silently describe the world, perhaps finding words to color the sky, testing my memory of the flowers' names—hibiscus, geranium, iris, oleander, and I remember that it is called dafne in Greek. And then maybe I think about the myth, one of the my favorites, and I see the girl as she turns into a tree.
And then, finally, I focus on my life; I think about concerns, problems, solutions, the parts that are working, the parts that need work. In the book Architecture from the Inside Out, which I recently borrowed from a colleague, Franck and Lepori describe what is called a desire line, which is "the path people mark in the ground by repeatedly taking the same route." I love this. For me, walking is a meditation. It is a time to breath, one of the only times I am truly off the grid, my body moving, my mind listening to the even beat of my own steps, marking my desires into the ground.
So, there I was this weekend walking, specifically so that I could "replace shopping with an activity that [I] enjoy doing more," when I come upon this sign: Garage Sale.
See, I usually walk on weekdays, when I can truly space out. Then, on the weekends, here are these signs, blurring my own desire lines, hell, blurring my own desires.
I was tempted – I really was. But I'm proud to report that I didn't follow the neon signs. I didn't go shopping, even for other people's used stuff. I kept my money in my pocket. I kept walking. And then I went home empty-handed, desiring nothing.
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn calories, not fossil fuels.
I have these really long days at work where I go from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., and I'm running between three classrooms, all on different ends of the campus, teaching and talking for much of those nine hours. By 9 a.m. I'm hungry for lunch, and by 11:30, when my second class gets out, I'm nearly wiped from the sheer amount of social activity.
It's an interesting thing to have to think about getting off the grid, let alone trying to eat well, when I'm running from room to room carrying everything I own in one bag, like a Sherpa.
My goal this semester was to lighten my load, but unfortunately, with such a hectic schedule that goal was nearly impossible to realize. I have to carry my computer, my rosters, assignments, students' paper, books, my lunch, my snacks, and enough water to last me all of those nine hours. Believe me, it's a lot.
I have a giant rolling bag, one that fits all of this, and I pack everything in reusable containers every day.
Since the last No Impact Week, this has become habitual—I bring everything everywhere with me. Colleagues and friends are constantly commenting on how smart it is, how much easier it seems, "how great that you know exactly what you have to eat…" etc., etc.
Quite frankly, it's annoying. I would love to be able to grab lunch somewhere and then toss out the remnants, plates and utensils, without having to give a second thought to it. But I have to admit, I've become used to the reliability of my lunch: no waiting in lines, no indigestion from mediocre food, and the joy of knowing that my food is high quality and tastes great.
To push myself even more during my second round of No Impact, I've decided to eat vegetarian for ten days. I tried it for four months when I was a teenager, but...I'm half-Greek, and honestly, it's hard. I really like meat. I don't know that my long term goal is to be 100 percent vegetarian, but I would like to lessen my impact on the environment by eating considerably less meat.
I started my vegetarian mini-project on Saturday, September 17, the day before the experiment began. This date is important to me since it marked 111 years since my grandfather's birth. He was a vegetarian throughout his life, having made the decision at 17 years old after working the stockyards on the south side of Chicago. He lived to be 97 years old, and he is the only grandparent I was able to meet.
So there I am, day three of my experiment, pulling out my reusable lunch bag, looking forward to the veggie burger that waited inside, to find this:
We accidentally swapped lunches.
Don't worry, I didn't eat it.
I thought about it, but I didn't.
First vegetarian challenge met. Tonight's challenge? Hamburgers.
Send me good thoughts.
More stories from No Impact Tuesday: Transportation
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
Hurrah! Food day! This is my favorite one.
We shop at the farmers' market nearly every week, so much so that we know the vendors by name. I'd say that I'm fairly addicted to the quality of produce available at the markets.
So, for my second run at the experiment, I've decided to try out vegetarianism for ten days. This is tough for me—I'm half-Greek. Enough said, right? I love beef and chicken and pork, and yes, even cute little lambs. It's terrible, I know.
What's especially terrible to most of my vegetarian and vegan friends is the fact that it doesn't bother me that I eat cute, fuzzy, bright-eyed animals. When they read this, they might very well unfriend me on Facebook.
But what does bother me is the fact that that study after study shows that a good amount, 18% according to this study, of the world's greenhouse gases are a direct result of the production of all that meat. Our family does purchase much of our meat the markets—local chickens and grass-fed beef—but I just can't help but feel a bit guilty every time I eat my really delicious burgers.
So, I've decided to complete this 10-day experiment to experience life without them. Today is my fourth day. It's been going well. I've been experimenting the in the kitchen with chickpeas, eggplants, and garlic, all from the farmers market, and basil, from my garden.
The rest of the family is still eating meat. My step-dad has been cooking it for my husband, daughter, and himself. I was worried that the smell might kill me, but oddly enough, it hasn't bothered me one bit.
The other night at dinner, my daughter was eating the skin off my husband's chicken thigh. She pointed to it and asked, out of nowhere, "Wait. Is this skin? Like real skin?"
I looked at my husband, unsure of how to answer. "Yes," I admitted.
"How do they catch them?"
"Um…well," I fumbled. "They just do."
"So this came from a real chicken?"
"Um, yes honey. Does that bother you?"
She thought for a moment.
"Nope," she said, and went back to licking the burnt parts. I went back to eating my eggplant and chickpea salad.
Like mother, like daughter, for now. We'll see what happens when she gets older and is able to read the news.
More stories from No Impact Wednesday: Food
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
(written on September 26th, post-No Impact Week)
I've been fighting a cold all week. Funny thing happens when you get sick. You know that it's your body telling you that you need rest. You know that you've worn yourself out, expending too much energy in too many directions, and the last thing you should do is sit down in front of the TV, especially considering the fact that you signed up for this crazy No Impact project, and because you know it will only suck out more energy. Your sinuses hurt, you're coughing and wheezing, and you should be in bed, in a dark room, propped up on pillows, fast asleep, allowing your body to recover.
Thursday morning, Madeline even tried to make me stop working. She woke up and decided to do the dishes. Seriously. This little four-year-old girl took out her step stool, grabbed a sponge, and started to wash dishes. As she splashed around, I interceded a few times to make sure the dishes were rinsed well enough, and then I proceeded to get the lunches together, cook some eggs, and make my coffee. As I was placing the eggs into the water, she turned to me—my precocious child turned to me and said, "Mom. I told you. You're not supposed to be doing anything. You're sick. Let me do it. Just sit down, and stop moving!"
Is that what I did? Of course not. The other funny thing is that when I completed this project back in January, the energy day was my favorite. I shut off the lights promptly at dusk. I wrote by candlelight. I fell asleep at nine and was awake at five, watching the sunrise, feeling refreshed and utterly divine.
So, I was looking forward to Thursday night. I was planning to stop moving in my dark room, just as I had back in January. I spent the day even more away of the buzzing of energy all around me: the brass din of the leaf blower followed by a rushing wave of a miniature street cleaner while I tried to eat my homemade lunch outside; the incessant buzzing of lights and motors in the hallways at work; even in my small, quiet office, the fluorescent bulbs hum over my head. All day, I looked forward to coming home, turning off everything, laying in a dark room, or under a cloudy sky, feeling my body heavy on earth.
Instead, I plopped down in front of the television and let more energy drain out of me. The flashing images that were saved on my DVR were less "must-see" TV than "could-watch-this-next-week-and-even-fast-forward-through-commercials" TV. I fell into old habits, on the grid, sniffling and moaning all the way through.
That was Thursday night. Last Friday night, I resolved to catch up with myself. I canceled my evening plans, turned off the lights and went to bed. I woke up Saturday morning, the second day of autumn, my sinuses clear, my smooth breath returned to my body, my energy restored. I went outside and sat under the cloudy sky, stretching on my yoga mat, next to my garden. About forty minutes later, my daughter came outside with me. We sat down together, watching the birds. "This is nice," she said.
There's another funny thing, how that works. When we get off the grid, the grid is happier, and of course, so are we.
I should do this more often, I guess.
More stories from No Impact Thursday: Energy
Discover the benefits of service.
We had a lovely weekend, giving back and taking it easy. I'll admit that I did shop (the farmers market—I couldn't last the full nine days), we did eat out once (for hot soup for my cold that continues to haunt my chest), and we probably drove more than we should have, but for the most part, we spent the weekend Sabbath-ing and enjoying time with family and friends. When we did drive it was to my daughter's first soccer team event, to a birthday party, and to Shane's Inspiration playground for the 5K/10K Walk and Roll Event.
I love playgrounds, and to me, they represent some of the best parts of living with more awareness and kindness. I could spend ten hours at a playground, and many days, we do. We bring our lunch, spread out a blanket, and follow Madeline around the park. I've learned to leave my phone in the car, if I can, so that I can just be there, pushing her on the swing, running next to her while she rides her little bike.
Yesterday's event was even more special because we were able to support Shane's Inspiration, whose "mission is to create inclusive playgrounds and programs that unite children of all abilities." They build Universally Accessible Playgrounds so that all children can play together on equipment that is also available for children with disabilities.
More stories from No Impact Saturday: Giving Back]]>
Brooklyn, New York
Three weeks ago, I moved from Berea, Kentucky to Bushwick, Brooklyn. And although a lot is different, I'm thrilled to see many things are the same. In both places, farmers markets, organic coffee shops, and
bike stores are within biking distance.
So what's wrong? Since moving to Bushwick, my carbon footprint, meat consumption, and trash production have grown out of control. I no longer have to drive
to get to a bar, but now I'm dependent on the subway and packaged food. Perhaps it's being removed from nature, or maybe working ten-hour days, but I'm hoping the No Impact Week will give me the kick in the butt I need to get my act together.
Live a fuller and happier life by buying less stuff.
Consumption Sunday is unfairly easy when you're poor. I suppose that's the point—all of these challenges are harder for those dependent on modern comforts. And I passed the test with flying colors, without buying a single shirt or book or Fabergé egg.
But when I looked at all the stuff in my apartment, I realized my poverty was on a relative scale. I've taken, and continue to take, far more than my fair share.
My laptop alone is made of oil, rare earth metals, and whatever LCD stands for. The electricity that runs it is mostly produced from coal yanked out from under my family back in Kentucky. Everything I own or buy is either unnecessary, offsetting its cost by exploitation, or both.
To truly do this week justice will not be easy.
Things I'm looking forward to:
Things that make me feel dizzy and panicky:
More stories from No Impact Sunday: Consumption
Discover how wasting less improves your life.
Nothing makes me want to eliminate trash more than having to carry it. Because I didn't work yesterday, I had an unfair advantage. Today, I didn't fair as well.
The damage:
Delayed damage:
Everything I ate or used came in a disposable container, whether or not it was thrown out immediately after I used it. While it's easy to limit daily trash production by not buying individually wrapped products, the real challenge seems to come with buying goods served, transported, and prepared in reusable containers.
Reusing things a second time is a nice step, a la my use of old grocery bags to double wrap my lunch of cold pizza. But what happens after that? I've been wracking my brain all day to figure out what to do with the grocery bags that now smell like pizza.
Some ideas:
So what to do? I Googled solutions, but all of them eventually ended with the bags in the trash. The basic conceit is that the best you can do is get a second use, which is definitely not sustainable. Failure one.
I was feeling smug about the thermos I brought for coffee today, but forgot about the receipt that buying it created and the wrapper that sweetener left behind. There was a moment where I considered shrieking Nooooo! but I figured the man making my coffee had enough to deal with before I had emotional breakdown in his restaurant. Failure two.
I had a long day and wanted a beer when I got home. But I recycled it! And it was local! Come on! Failure two and a half.
I often wonder what would happen if trash was no longer picked up from our curbs. Would we carry it to the dump as often as it's picked up now? What if landfills all said "We're full," and we had to dispose of our trash in whatever space we lived in? What meaning would the term disposable take on?
Tomorrow is transportation. Legally, I can't bicycle because I don't have head and tail lights and my trip home is after dark. So I've got a choice: take the subway, or wake up at 4:00 AM, in time to walk to work. Check in tomorrow to find out which.
More stories from No Impact Monday: Trash
Burn carlories, not fossil fuels.
I wish I had a really inspiring story about waking up before the dawn, tearing up my Metrocard, and hiking across the Williamsburg bridge. I wish that I had trudged eight miles through the rain to get to work and eight miles in the dark to get home. But of course, I didn't.
I had planned to bike, but what I conveniently forgot about was New York City law. You can't legally (or safely) ride a bicycle at night without both a headlight and taillight. And I know I should have bought them as soon as I moved to the city. But of course, I didn't.
And just now, I realized that I forgot on purpose. I know, I wasn't expecting that twist either. But it's true. I "forgot" to get lights just like I "forget" reusable bags when I go to the grocery, or "forget" to order the vegetarian option.
But if this is just a question of laziness? Is it that I don't want to spend energy, or that I don't want to spend my own energy?
Today, like every day, I took the subway, which is powered by electricity, which is powered by coal or uranium, which is mined by people who put in a hell of a lot of effort. And those same people are going to suffer through the health effects, and unfair wages, and lack of access to resources. I bet they walk to work.
My laziness is really and truly just a symptom of selfishness. On a finite planet (and we most certainly live on one), if I experience a measure of wealth, someone else will experience an equal and opposite measure of poverty. It's up to us to decide whether or not to forget that.
Tomorrow, I'm checking out the Bushwick Farmers Market at Broadway and Linden. If there's nothing edible there, I have to bike six miles to Union Square to eat breakfast. I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.
Healthy eating can also lessen your footprint.
By 6 o'clock today, my girlfriend and I were dizzy, confused, and suffering headaches. I had scoured all of Williamsburg on my bicycle trying to find a market that sold local eggs, and all I'd gotten for the trouble was a raging stomach. My girlfriend had been napping and just couldn't seem to gather enough energy to stay up. It was at that moment that we decided to bend the rules.
I found a hunk of mozzarella cheese in the fridge that said it was made in New Jersey, justified using oil that we had already bought, and compromised by using free-range eggs from out of state. Now I know the cheese might have been made in New Jersey, but I'm almost positive the milk it was made from was not. How did we sink so low?
Mostly, it's coffee. It's 8:30 p.m. and I still feel like I haven't woken up yet. The first thing I do in the morning, every day, before I brush my teeth or put my contacts in or drink water, is make coffee. Without it, I'm grumpy, unfocused, and I speak in what several trusted friends have called my "superior voice." It's a monotonous stream of sass and pointing out what people are doing wrong, and it's not pretty for anyone. But coffee travels thousands of miles to get to my cup, and I want to prove to myself I can do without it. Which means I'm writing in my superior voice.
This morning, I biked to the Bushwick Farmers Market at its Broadway/Linden location. The vendors had an incredible selection of mushrooms, vegetables, gourds, greens, fruit, and even eggplant for a cheaper price than my grocery store. But when I asked where the eggs, dairy, nuts, oil, meat, and bread were, I was told that those items are usually only available at Saturday's market in Maria Hernandez park.
I had already given up my treasured vice of coffee, and now I had to give up everything else enjoyable?!? Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables. My girlfriend is a vegetarian, so I'm cooking those bad boys up all the time. But I've never sat back in my chair after eating a cucumber and said "Boy, I'm full."
But this is an experiment, and for it to succeed I must adhere to its demands as closely as possible. So I bought $36 worth of the best Bushwick has to offer and pedaled back to the apartment in a hungry frenzy, where my girlfriend and I had a delicious breakfast of stir-fried yellow squash, broccoli, shitake mushrooms, poblano peppers, and green peppers. (Confession: I used non-local oil and soy sauce.) For the rest of the morning we felt great, but by 1:00 p.m. we were considering cannibalism. We tried to quell the fire by scarfing down tons of wonderful local apples and pears. But it persisted, to an extent that by 6:00 p.m., we were in the state I described earlier.
So I lightly coated some eggplant and squash slices in oil, sprinkled them with Cajun seasoning, and grilled them on high in a cast iron skillet. At the same time, I shredded some greens, minced an onion and a few cloves of local garlic, and threw them all in a pot with a little water.
When the eggplant and squash were done, I threw some eggs in the skillet, soaking up the browned and spiced oil, and scrambled them. I put the eggs, squash, and eggplant on giant leaves of greens, sprinkled with mozzarella, and garnished with thin slices of tomato.
It was spectacular, filling, and a compromise. We bent the rules with the cheese and blatantly broke them with the oil and Cajun seasoning, and it was worth it. Unfortunately, it seems as though we've already eaten all the food I bought today except for some pears and apples...and a cucumber.
It seems a large part of living with no impact requires having one person make it their job. If I didn't work, I think I could provide for myself, my girlfriend, and my roommates, if someone else footed the bill. But I have a job, and surviving on the meager provisions we have left and not drinking coffee tomorrow is going to be a huge test of my willpower. Perhaps when the caffeine leaves my body and I find a place that sells local beans, it won't be hard anymore.
Tomorrow is electricity, which I'm so on board with. I'm on the computer the entire day at work, and coming home, lighting some candles, and taking it easy sounds like heaven.
More stories from No Impact Wednesday: Food
Replace kilowatts with ingenuity.
Today was an absolute wash, so I'm going to do you all a favor and skip it. I'd like to take a moment to kvetch.
In Kentucky, I only had to bike a mile to work. The farmers market was closer. If it wasn't open, there was an organic market the same distance as work. If that wasn't open, there was an Amish market less than two miles away. Failing that, there was an employee-owned grocery store an equal distance away.
Granted, Berea is much different than the average Kentucky burg. But that doesn't negate the fact that living with a small footprint is harder when you're new to New York. I have to weave through psychotic drivers if I bike, and walking only takes me to a grocery store. If the subway is off the table, what am I left with?
Really, it's not that much different than living up Stinking Creek, in Knox County, Kentucky. Just to get to the grocery store, we had to drive fifteen miles. Sure, we lived on 250 acres and I could have grown my own food, but there were other obstacles.
As a teenager on the creek, I was convinced eating anything grown in my mother's garden would kill me. The vegetables and gourds weren't perfect shapes like their supermarket counterparts, there were spots where bugs had gotten to them, and worst of all, they were grown in the same dirt that I walked on. And yet when I hit college, I did a complete 180. Probably because that's what my friends were into, but mainly because it seemed like the most logical path to take after learning about the state of the world.
A couple of years ago I taught Upward Bound, a prep program for potential first generation college students. Despite the fact that these kids were from Eastern Kentucky, few had ever spent time in a garden, let alone a farm, so I showed them Berea College's gardens and greenhouses. And they all seemed stunned to realize that things they ate grew from the ground.
The disconnection is frighteningly widespread, and, I'm convinced, not at all accidental. Until I had my reawakening in college, I felt the only safe foods to eat were processed or pasteurized or made with preservatives. Who told me this? First, McDonald's, Kellog's, Tyson, but mostly the school cafeteria.
What is always the "safe" option in the lunch room? Chicken patty. Always delicious, and that's simply fact. What are the things to avoid? Green beans, carrots, and the fruit cocktail. How can you blame a kid for wanting to eat the food that is consistently better tasting than the cooked-to-death "healthy" alternatives. And how does one keep from associating all vegetables with that same experience?
If we go to school to learn, do we absorb everything as a lesson? Are the values of an unsustainable culture institutionalized from an early age? Will I ever stop asking questions? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
Soak up the benefits of using less water.
It's time to tell the truth about yesterday. I had a splitting headache from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. Work was miserable, I was hungry all day, and I couldn't get away from electricity for the life of me. There was a lot I could have prevented, but I already blogged about that. Instead, I'm going to talk about some things that have been simply wonderful.
Today, my girlfriend and I took a walk in our neighborhood and decided to splurge on dinner at Cafe Ghia. The place is located on Jefferson and Irving, amongst some of Bushwick's best restaurants and bars. Like many of its neighbors, Cafe Ghia prides itself on using local produce, meat, and dairy products. But unlike many of its pricier neighbors, food prices float around a comfortable $10.
We started by ordering yellow beets with goat cheese, walnuts, and Bushwick greens, and though it did turn out to be the priciest part of our meal, it was still phenomenal. We followed that with a Havarti and fig jam panini, a cup of tomato pepper soup, and a tempeh reuben. The whole experience was perfect, and instead of wasting half an hour on the subway we got to walk through our community and have a really nice conversation.
Was everything local? Probably not the fig jam. Did we use electricity? Indirectly, yes. Did we produce trash? I'm sure. Did we buy anything new? Not all week. Did we conserve water? Actually, our waitress did spill some...
I've been capitulating all week about what I've done wrong, and I haven't stopped to think about what I've done right. I haven't eaten meat all week, which might not seem that impressive. But I'd like to ask—have you ever eaten forty-one wings in a single sitting? I have, and I was still hungry afterward. Every week, I made it a habit to eat all-you-can eat ribs on Monday, and all-you-can-eat wings on Wednesday. And that was on top of eating meat at every single meal. How 'bout a pat on the back for shaking that?
Okay. Reading that last paragraph over, it seems like a Jabba the Hut monologue. But the point is, I think today should be a day to look back and see how far we've come. For instance, this week, I've produced barely any trash. And, it's not been some horrible obligation. On the contrary, it's been pretty refreshing to see how much I can avoid.
Now, we're not talking about recycling here. If we're counting that, then I am a one man waste-producing machine. But we're not, because we're talking about nice things.
I have had more delicious, fun meals this week than the last few months combined. I've finally started riding my bike places, and I'm taking more of an interest in my community. Really it sounds like some kind of cheesy infomercial, but it's true, and it's because I'm looking at things differently. And while things are happy and I'm patting myself on the back, I'm also going to cut myself some breaks.
I love coffee. I love the taste, the feeling of it in my stomach, and the perk it gives me. So I'm not going to give it up. I did for two days, long enough to feel like I had a brain tumor, but not anymore. I drink organic, fair-trade coffee, and it's very rare for me to buy anything else. I take the subway, yes, because I don't want to be soaked with sweat and rain when I get to work. It produces CO2, I know, but it's still better than driving and I take other steps toward making a positive impact.
In Knox County, Kentucky, I had to drive everywhere. Biking wasn't even an option. Not because the distances were too great, but because the roads were so windy and the drivers so reckless. While pedaling wherever I needed to go would have been a nice statement, it could have cost me my life. And that's a legitimate excuse in my book. Which leads me to the biggest challenge I've encountered: Our entire society is designed to make sustainable choices difficult or impossible to make.
In an age where multinational corporations provide everything we buy, it is not only revolutionary to live simply, it is considered an act of aggression. Suburbs, urban food deserts, and, craziest of all, rural areas dependent on vehicles to access food, are all purposely designed and incredibly profitable for Exxon-Mobile, McDonald's, and the United States government.
Before, revolutions started with guns and anger. But we are no longer citizens, we're consumers. Today, we live in an age where the most revolutionary thing we can do is plant some seeds and provide for ourselves. And there's going to be resistance. From our friends, our family, our mind, and finally the system. The decision becomes: Where do we fit within or without of the grid?
Tomorrow is Give Back Day. I'll be joining the mini-march from Union Square to the United Nations as part of No Impact Project/350.org's Moving Planet. Let's see who listens.
More stories from No Impact Friday: Water
Discover the benefits of service.
Today, my girlfriend, her family, a dozen others, and I joined 350.org and No Impact Man Colin Beavan in a march from Union Square to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in front of the United Nations Building for the Moving Planet Rally. There was a part of me that was expecting resistance and anger, perhaps people throwing fast food out their windows and screaming profanities. But really, there wasn't much of any. In fact, along our march people smiled or cheered, and some even picked up a sign and marched with us.
Not only did we give back, we had a blast doing it. The rest of the day, we hung out in our neighborhood and just enjoyed each other's company. No Facebook, no internet, no distractions.
Today was the Eco-Sabbath and I kept it holy. My roommate, her family, and I spent the morning playing the dictionary game, which is basically a carbon-free version of NPR's Says You. It was an absolute ball and all we needed were pencils, a dictionary, some scrap paper, and the sunlight that came through the windows.
After, we walked to Verde on Irving and Bleeker in Bushwick and shared some of the most incredible pizza I've ever had in my life. The restaurant has one of the oldest brick ovens in the city and one of the friendliest owners in the country. He even invited us to a Halloween party he's throwing just around the block from our apartment. If we had schlepped to Carrol Gardens to have a trendy meal, our wallets would be lighter, there would be x amount more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and we would have no plans for the end of October.
When we returned from lunch, we napped. The best things in life are free, and carbon-neutral. And that has perhaps been the best realization of this week.
As I sit writing this, I find myself impatient to turn my computer off. I want to read a book, or have a conversation, or fix something in my apartment. I want to light some candles and I want to turn the power off.
Tonight, I'll eat a simple meal of beans and tortillas with my girlfriend and her sister. Tomorrow, I'll go to work and continue life as I was living it before this week. But in my bag will be a local pear and a local apple and a paperback novel. I may not bike to work, but I know in my heart that I will soon.
I will not let my Saturdays slip by and after wish I had gone to the farmers market. From now on, they will be planned around a trip to Maria Hernandez Park and a games with my roommates. My Sundays will be spent investing in my neighborhood.
I'm composting, eating locally, thinking about my connection to the Earth, and taking responsibility again, and it isn't keeping me from what I want to do. It's helping me find it.
I'd like to thank YES! Magazine and the No Impact Project for helping me rediscover a passion and join a community in my new home. My No Impact Week has been a blessing, and I hope that I can find a way pass the good fortune on.
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