Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

The past two weeks have been very beneficial for me. During week 3, we figured out what book we wanted to read for our Read 'n Seed; I chose a book in which I had special interest. This book is called Newman's Own: Guide to a Good Life. We also made sure we had all blog requirements and learned how to use Google Reader. Week 4 started with questions we discussed in class, which benefited everyone because most of us had some uncertainty. Additionally, we watched An Inconvenient Truth which stars Al Gore. This movie is a documentary discussing the reality and seriousness of global warming. This movie was really an eye opener. The thing that stuck out the most to me, (it sounds weird because it's something really small..sort of) was an image of Lake Chad in Africa full of fresh water in 1963! I remember learning about this huge lake from 8th grade geography. The images below show how it has shrunk dramatically, nearly drying up! That really stuck out to me and made me sad. Moving on, Wednesday our Lifestyle Change plan was due, and in doing research on what my plan would be, I learned so many more reasons on why I want to be a vegetarian, as well as change many other aspects of my life to be more eco-friendly. This class has really been life changing even in the short amount of time I've been in it. This class will definitely be the push I needed to make all the lifestyle changes I have wanted to make. The ecological footprint activity showed me how disastrous my lifestyle really is, and that isn't my only motive. I have been researching on my own, as well as discussing with friends and classmates why we need to advocate these lifestyle changes and recruit as many people as we can! Even if its just simple things, like carpooling more often, taking shorter showers, and not eating red meat! Now, hopefully my mom wont be too disappointed when I don't eat her famous tator-tot, ground beef hotdish when I come home next weekend. 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

Over the next ten weeks, I will reduce the amount of meat that I eat, more specifically I will completely eliminate red meat from my diet, secondly I will reduce my overall meat intake to chicken and fish: no more than 2 meals per week that include chicken or fish, starting today 10/6/09. 


I did some research on why becoming a vegetarian is eco chic, and I found many good reasons why everyone should! For example, many rainforests are destroyed in order to make grazing fields for beef cattle (more info here), much grain is shipped from countries over sea to feed our beef cattle and that takes energy to transport and could actually be used for starving people in these countries from which it is shipped, rather than to fatten our cattle. I also found this information from the same site: It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. If the US meat industry wasn't supported by the taxpayer paying a large proportion of its water costs, then hamburger meat would cost $35 a pound. I found many more interesting facts at Vegan net, including this fact: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the world's livestock herds are the largest source of human-induced emissions of methane which is a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
This particular lifestyle change is important to me for several reasons. One of which is because being a vegetarian is environmentally friendly as my explanation above suggests. Additionally, being a vegetarian has many health benefits for my personally. As quoted from a pro-vegetarian website I discovered, avoiding meat is one of the best and simplest ways to cut down your fat consumption. Modern farm animals are deliberately fattened up to increase profits. Eating fatty meat increases your chances of having a heart attack or developing cancer. Personally, the term meat usually makes me cringe; we don't always know what is in our "meat," especially "ground beef."  Also, we can avoid eating as many chemicals if we don't eat meat. For example, I know that cows are injected with loads of chemicals and hormones, it is terrifying that we can sell this poisoned animal as food. 
Overall, this change is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, and have been slowly stepping into; I have all the reason in the world to make the change now!

I thought this comic was funny, its definitely true. 

Eye Opener: ecological footprint

Ecological footprints are something I hadn't really thought about before this activity. It is scary to think that with our selfish lifestyles, we use  resources 1.3 times faster than Earth can regenerate them, and this number is doomed to get worse. "According to Redefining Progress’ latest Footprint Analysis, humanity is exceeding its ecological limits by 39%." I found this progress website to be interesting not only in the fact that we can calculate our own biological footprint, but it shows how to interpret results and how individuals and communities can take action to reduce their ecological footprints and inspire others.  We were asked to take quizzes and track our own ecological footprint. One website in which I took a quiz was at Earthday.net, my results were much worse than I had expected. Apparently we would need 4 planets if everyone lived like I do; this was a shock to me because I do recycle on occasion and don't feel like I use that much waste, but like I said, this was an eye opener! After seeing this, I looked at even simple everyday changes I can make by exploring other scenarios. For example, I can reduce the amounts of animal products I use, try avoiding products that use unnecessary packaging, and bring my own grocery bag when going to the supermarket.