"No Impact Man"

I receive daily updates from the New York Times in my email and like to glance over the headlines to see if there are any news items of interest to me. Well, being that I'm interested in environmental concerns and issues, I was attracted to the article, "The Year Without Toilet Paper" by Penelope Green. This article is about a middle-aged man living in New York named Colin Beavan who is trying to lead a life that has no net impact on the environment, hence the name of his experiment, "No Impact Man". His no “net” impact concept entails that he and his family (wife, 2-year-old daughter, and dog) don’t contribute to the production of trash, carbon emissions, and toxins in the water, don’t use elevators or the subway, don’t purchase products in packaging, don’t use plastics, don’t use air conditioning, don’t watch TV, don’t use toilets, etc. Included in the article was the link to the fellow's website/blog: "No Impact Man". On his website, Colin Beavan explains his reasons for starting this project and what he is trying to accomplish. He also routinely comments on his blog, documenting his experience, and answers/responds to question/comments left by others on his site.

I was really interested in Colin Beavan and this experiment that he's trying out because instead of talking and complaining about the negative impact we humans have on the environment and how we need to be more environmental cautious, Colin Beavan takes matters into his own hands and sees what happens when he gives up all the comforts of our current lifestyles that are actually harmful to the environment. Here are some questions he asked himself at the beginning of his experiment:

”What would it be like to try to live a no impact lifestyle? Is it possible? Could it catch on? Is living this way more fun or less fun? More satisfying or less satisfying? Harder or easier? Is it worthwhile or senseless? Are we all doomed or is there hope?"

Colin Beavan completely changes his lifestyle for this cause without knowing how things will turn out, something that not many would do nowadays. This is what our society needs to do in order to solve our problems; instead of pointing fingers and just talking about our issues, we need to make changes and follow through with them.

The 3 "C's"

These are the three "C" words that I feel sum up the aspirations of people in our society today: cash, comfort, and convenience. We seem to be very centered on earning money so that we can afford items/services that meet our needs for comfort and that make our lives more convenient. We invent more technology and try to find new ways to reduce the amount of work we have to do. Instead of using a mug or bottle to drink from, which we can then wash and reuse, we use plastic cups and bottles. Instead of walking or biking a few blocks to school or to the grocery store, we drive carbon-fueled cars that release harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Instead of reading the news online, we waste tons of paper to print newspapers.

I feel that our society is becoming more and more lazy, trying to find and invent more ways to reduce the work we have to do and add to our comfort and convenience. We are coming up with all these ways that are suppose to make life easier and reduce the amount of time we have to work so that we have more time for leisure and to enjoy life; however, what is actually happening is that, now, with all the new technology advancements, it's a constant race to see who can be the most efficient, who can become the most advanced, get the most work done, the fastest. Why can't we just settle for what we have? What's wrong with that? It seems that with every step we take in advancement, we take three steps back towards failure. We create things intended to improve our lifestyles, but they come with detrimental consequences. Overpopulation. Overpollution. Waste. Hate. War. Violence. Life could go on without humans; humans could not exist without nature. We must preserve nature, out environment. We need to take action, be proactive, become educated, concious, aware citizens and live sustainable lifestyles.

However, we can't just settle for what we already have; we always want more and have to have more. A burning appetite that can never be suppressed. It's like what they say in economics, the "desire" for resources is always greater than the availabilty of them. See, technological advancement really isn't making our lives easier, but more stressful, because now we are expected to get more done in the same amount of time because now we can accomplish more than before. We can travel faster, get to places faster, prepare meals faster, everything is ready and available at the tips of our fingers. Cars, trains, ships, subways, airplanes; elevators, escalators; telephones, cellphones, email, computers, printers; microwaves, refrigerators, toasters, coffeemakers; washers, driers, dish washers, vacuum cleaners. Instead being able to complete the same amount of work in a shorter amount of time, with our new technology we have to work just as long and harder to accomplish more than before.

Survival of the fittest, it's about outdoing the other person next to you. It's all about being successful, achieving a higher status in society, which many people these days correlate with the amount of money you have. Our society is so caught up with money, but really, who needs money? Sometimes I wish I could live in the wild away from society where eveything our society is based and dependent on now has no value. However, I don't think I'd be able to survive ; I don't have the necessary survival skills or smarts to last living in the natural world after being pampered by the material items and technology in our society. And I bet it would require a lot of hard manual work...

#1 Item Crowding Our Landfills?

Did you know that the number one item crowding our landfills is paper? This is hard to believe when you look at how thin a single sheet of paper is, but when you step back and look at how much paper we use every day, and then multiply that by a whole nation and 365 days, it's almost inconceivable. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, "on average, it [paper] accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill's contents...Newspapers alone can take up as much as 13 percent of the space in US landfills. Organic materials, including paper, do not easily biodegrade once they are disposed of in a landfill. Paper is many times more resistant to deterioration when compacted in a landfill than when it is in open contact with the atmosphere". The pie chart above shows the total waste generated, before recycling, in the U.S. in the year 2005. As you can see, paper leads the way with the highest percentage, 34.2%.

Just think for a second how much paper our society uses. Everyday a fat wad of newspaper is delivered to our front door; multiply that by 365 days, and then multiply that by the people in your neighborhood, our state, the nation...yah, it makes you wonder why we still wastes tons of paper every year printing newspapers when all of it is accessible online? Think about all the paper that's used to make textbooks and workbooks, which many are now accessible on CD's or online. Think about all the paper we print out during school, whether it be research, a homework assignment, or an essay. Think about how much paper we use during Christmas time, wrapping all of our gifts. Think about all the paper companies use for contracts, guidelines, presentations, and other modes of business.

The question that comes to mind is why is paper the leading item taking space in our landfills when it is one of the few items that are recyclable?

I Have a Disease...

I have a disease. It started out only as a minor case, with a late assignment here, a mediocre test there. I struggled with European history in the beginning, but got my act together and managed to pull through by the end of the semester. I would put off a night or two of math homework, but made sure to make it up over the weekend. I would complete some of the required 9 Spanish diaries throughout the three cycles (there were nine entries due every 3 cycles) and save the rest to do the night before it was due. My condition has worsened, however, in the second semester, and now I find myself with nine nights of math homework to do the night before a test, nine Spanish diaries to do the day before they are due. My failure to do homework in math has translated into my test scores, as you can imagine. I read only one and a half of the five assigned chapters of the AP Biology reading. My stomach has a funny, unsettled feeling and my head is constantly swirling. I have what they call senioritis.

Senioritis…senior slump…these are a few terms that I've become accustomed to hearing recently as I head into the last quarter of my senior year. I remember last year around this time hearing the seniors talking about how they were so lazy and “over school” and how they rarely did any homework. They excused themselves for getting bad test scores because they were “second semester seniors”. I remember telling myself as a junior that I wouldn’t let myself be like those other seniors and that I wouldn’t let my grades slip. Using the fact that you’re a “second semester senior” is not excuse for you to not do your best in school. Learning is a constant process that doesn't stop when you hit the final stretch of your senior year. Well, turns out that it’s a lot easier said than done.

I don't know what it is about being second semester senior, but I guess your mind begins to drift away from your school work and, instead, toward spending more time with your friends and family and enjoying your last few months in high school. It sounds bad from an academic perspective, but looking at it from a social perspective, it's very reasonable. These are probably the last few months that we'll be together with our friends and other students as a class. Starting this fall, each student will begin a new segment in their life as we go to our respective colleges or whatever the next step in life entails. We won't be seeing each other for a while, and may never see each other again, ever. It's as if our priorities change from school first, play second, to play first, school second. ;)

Where does all our trash go?

Have you ever asked yourself, "Where does all our trash go?" I can say for myself that I didn't think of this question until I took the class AP Environmental, in which we learned about the issue of storing our waste. We don't really think about what happens to our trash; we just toss it in the trash can and forget about it. However, trash just doesn't disappear as it seems to when the massive trash truck hauls it away. Granted, some trash is burned in incinerators, but most is just left to sit in landfills. Landfills are vast, cleared-out areas of land where all of our garbage is dumped and piled into. The problem is that most items in the landfills are not biodegradable, so they just sit and collect there in the open dirt pit. Also, landfills can only hold so much trash, so as we keep throwing away everything we use, pretty soon we are going to be living in our rubbish as we run out of places to store our waste.

This is a major concern because where are we going to store our trash when there is no more room in the landfills?
Underground? - we have already begun to store trash underground; however, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, "if not properly maintained and managed, underground storage tanks (USTs) can cause harm to human health and the environment by leaking or allowing spills or overflows of the products contained to enter the soils or groundwater."
In the Ocean? - we have already begun to store waste out in the ocean, as well, on barges.
Outer space? - an option that we don't know what the consequences of it would be.

However, the key to solving the dilemma of waste disposal is not in finding other sites or ways to dispose of our trash (these are just temporary solutions). Instead, what we need to do is find ways to reduce the amount of waste we produce. We are a very wasteful society; almost everything we buy are packaged and/or disposable. As Jack Johnson mentions in his song, we need to learn how to Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle.

Oprah

I LOVE Oprah. I highly recommend (if you haven't done so already) that you watch her show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest rated talk show in television history. The guests she has on her show range from popular celebrities to ordinary citizens. The discussions she has and activities she does on her show are often eye-opening, touching, inspiring, and motivating and deal with issues that range from challenges many people face everyday, such as discrimination, abuse, etc., to issues across the seas, such as child slavery and genocide.

Oprah is such an amazing, compassionate, generous woman and arguably one of the most influential women in the world. Through hard work, resilience, and determination, Oprah has gone from growing up in a ghetto to being a billionaire and one of the richest African Americans (not to mention being a woman as well). With her wealth, Oprah gets involved with the community, organizing charitable events and activities to help those in need. She shares her humanitarian experiences with her audience and viewers, inspiring many to do the same.

After reading James’ post about costs, I thought about Oprah and how much money she has. I admire how she is able to give away so much money yet still have enough to support herself. I wish that I was super rich so that I could give more to the needy. I know that money isn't everything and that there are other ways to help those in need; however, I think that, especially as we get older, I feel that we are often limited to what we can do because we have to worry about earning a living and being able to support ourselves/family. It's possible to still get involved with community service in your spare time even if you have a job, but like James mentioned, the time spent doing one thing is time you could have spent doing something else.

I know that when looking for a job, the ideal is that you look for one in an area that you're interested in. However, in reality, the issue of salary amount comes into play, and I feel that people don't always focus on what their most passionate about as much as how much they would make at a certain job; just an opinion.

Pay It Forward

The other night I watched one of my favorite movies, "Pay It Forward", for the third time. I was stretching and sipping at my bottle of Gatorade in front of the T.V., listening to the soothing Hawaiian music playing along with the T.V. program guide on channel 12 when I saw that "Pay It Forward" was on. It's the movie with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment (the little boy from the "Sixth Sense"). Excitedly I switched to the channel that was playing the movie and was just in time to catch the final third of the movie.

There are so many words that run through my mind as I try to find the right one or two words to describe the movie: sad, inspiring, real, moving, relatable, heart wrenching, intense, powerful, etc. The idea behind the movie is so simple yet so genius: when done a favor, instead of directly paying back the person who performed the favor, pay the person back by doing three new good deeds for three new people. The movie demonstrates the phenomenon that can occur if everyone were to follow through with this idea; one person does a good deed for three other people, who each then do good deeds for three new people, and so on. It's a domino effect that can multiply and spread throughout the community, state, nation, and world.

This movie inspires me to carry on this idea in my own life and to perform good deeds for others every day. When talking about doing good deeds, it doesn't necessarily mean that I have to do some kind of extravagant service project. A good deed can be as small as giving a friend a compliment, or helping a teammate with equipment duty, to being as big as organizing a fundraiser for the homeless. Whatever the size of the deed, it is the act of doing the deed, the intangible effect it has on the receiver, not the deed itself that makes it special. The fact that someone does a good deed for another shows that they care about the other person, and that the other person is worthy of their time and effort to do the deed. I may be rambling; does this make sense?