Updated footprint and final current event

Well, I guess I was successful with a few of my goals (1. Reduce our energy bill; 2. Make sustainable purchasing decisions; 3. Reduce my water consumption; 4. Reduce my transportation needs). If I had to rank them in order of how successful I was at each one, I'd  say I did the best at reducing my water consumption and in making more sustainable purchase decisions. Our power bill, while never making it under $200, has definitely been reduced by keeping my heat off and my power strips turned off when not in use. My transportation needs were met by catching a ride with my roommate when he drives south.

At the beginning of the quarter, I found that I scored 5.21 Earths. 

Through my footprint reduction strategies, I was able to bring that down to 4.01 Earths, which is a start!

I was able to reduce my footprint in global acres from 202.26 to 155.66

The only thing that didn't really change was my pie chart showing the proportion of each impact category

Final Current Event: 

I recently finished reading The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert

This book was first brought to my attention when I saw John Stewart interview the author on The Daily Show, and my first thought was, "Oh, we're touching on similar topics in class!"

I purchased the book a few days later and then sped through it in the past two weeks.

It was very well written and very engaging, switching back and forth between the stories of Kolbert's research for the book and historical stories covering the development of the concept of extinction and the discovery of various fossils. The book was very eye opening. In the course of her research, Kolbert traveled around the globe, from a frog sanctuary in Peru to the reefs in the Southern Pacific to bat caves in upper New Jersey, talking to experts in various scientific fields. 

It was kind of a sad book too. There were many stories about disappearing fauna, such as the Golden Frog in Peru and the po'ouli, a bird endemic to Hawaii that has gone extinct in the wild, but survives on through frozen cells.

So there was this inherent sadness to the book, but also an uplifting hope; learning about the conservation efforts in progress in the Amazon and in America and in places all around the globe helped ease the inherent uncomfortableness of having the evidence of human cause mass extinction brought to light.

Current event 9

We've talked about how unsustainable palm oil actually was in class multiple times, so it was interesting to me to see this article on Triple Pundit addressing sustainability concerns of the popular cosmetics and candy ingredient.

Palm oil is sourced from forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, and harvesting practices haven't been the best in the past. Unilever had already committed to switching to a more sustainable sourcing plan, but other companies are now jumping on board. The Palm Oil Scorecard developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists lists the major companies that use palm oil in their products and identifies how committed each is to the sustainability initiative. Five companies total are fully committed to deforestation-free palm oil: Nestle, Unilever, Mondelez, L'Oreal, and Reckitt Benckiser. That is five out of 30 of the biggest companies that use palm oil, so clearly there's a lot of room for improvement, but the Palm Oil Scorecard is a very useful tool for transparency of sustainability initiatives.

Current event 8

There's a new wind farm coming to the Northwest coast. A Seattle company named Principle Power has just recently been approved to move forward on a lease of 15 square miles of federal waters off the coast of Oregon. Their formal plan is just waiting on final approval. 

The WindFloat Project is a series of wind turbines that will float offshore to capture the latent energy of strong winds off the coast. Principle Power already operates a prototype of their "Windfloat Project" off the coast of Portugal, which has been successful in delivering 8.4 gigawatt-hours of wind energy to the grid since its construction in 2011. 

Of course questions arise as to how these turbines could affect coastal ecosystems. I am optimistic though that they won't cause any major impacts, and will be a great source of renewable energy in the future.

Quote from the US Department of Interior 

"The West Coast holds an offshore capability of more than 800 gigawatts of wind energy potential, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is equivalent to more than three quarters of the nation’s entire power generation capacity. Total U.S. deepwater wind energy resource potential is estimated to be nearly 2,000 gigawatts."

New Current Event: Deforestation Patrol

The World Resources Institute and Google have teamed up along with 40 other businesses and government organizations to bring to life the Global Forest Watch. The GFW (for short) utilizes Google Maps to show deforestation in real-time, as well as providing the ability to display deforestation patterns over time. Using their map, a person is able to look all around the globe at how forest levels have either increased or decreased in any user-defined span of time from 2000 at the earliest to current.

These maps are intended to be used by businesses and consumers alike to track the integrity of sustainable logging claims. A business can check their supplier to make sure there is no over-consumption or illegal logging taking place. They are confident that this will help reduce global deforestation, based upon a similar forest mapping system utilized in Brazil to monitor illegal deforestation activity. Under that system, the rate of forest loss in Brazil has dropped by 70% since 2004.

Current Event 6

Droughts currently occurring in Southern Brazil are affecting the local coffee growing industry there. Coffee production requires well-maintained trees and droughts caused by climate change are affecting many coffee plantations, reducing the total amount produced. While there won't be a huge shortage anytime soon, the yield of plantations will continue to slowly drop, driving up prices. Demand for coffee worldwide is increasing, so that will drive prices further up as well. The article linked also highlights how the current Brazilian drought is also affecting other commodities such as oranges, soy, cattle, and sugar, increasing the prices of all four. Of course, exact proven link, but extreme weather conditions are a result of climate change, so it's not too far of a leap to make that climate change is contributing to the reduction in commodity yield.


Goals update:
I've been doing really well with keeping the heat off and turning off my power strip when it's not in use. Turing off the strip has actually become a habit now, and I sometimes find myself having forgotten to turn it back on when I do need it.
Shower time reduction has also been going well. I use my phone as a timer and am able to keep it to around 6-10 minutes when I don't wash my hair.
I haven't been as strict on my grocery budget, but I am buying mainly organic foods. They just have that price premium that makes it tough to stick to the $30 limit I set for myself each week

Possible Ecotoxicity in the Pacific Northwest?

After testing shipments of geoducks and oysters and seeing positive results for Arsenic and PSP (a biotoxin produced by algae) China banned all shellfish imports originating from the West Coast. More specifically, geoducks harvested from Poverty Bay in Redondo, Washington were targeted as having high levels of Arsenic. It is believed that China uses a much stricter measurement system than America, as Poverty Bay had been recently tested to determine the safety of the shellfish harvested there. American studies found the shellfish to be safe for human consumption, but really, how acceptable is any level of arsenic in your food? It's understandable that China would halt imports of shellfish if there was even the slightest possibility of it harming someone. Because of the results of the American study, it has led some to think that the ban was more rooted in political issues with the health concern being a convenient excuse to implement the ban.

Current event from Sunday

On the 16th, Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia in which he covered global warming and the recent agreement between China and the US to work on climate change. China and America are the top two greenhouse gas emitters, so this agreement to work together on curbing their emissions is a big step. It seems that there is a plan to substantially reduce emissions by 2020. Next year, there will be an international meeting in Paris to try to develop a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which was issued in 1997 (even though America never ratified the deal).

I think that it will be critical for America to get on board with a new deal designed similarly to the Kyoto Protocol, which was aimed at a global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The recent agreement between the US and China concerning their greenhouse gas emissions gives me confidence though that we'll be more open to ratifying such a document now.


Goals update:
-I finally got a shower down to 6 minutes, so pretty proud of that. I got a small clock that I keep in the bathroom, and that's how I time myself
-We got our power bill, and it came to $245, so a little more expensive than last time, meaning we used a bit more. My one consideration though is that the last billing cycle came to $235, but it covered winter break, when there wasn't really anyone around in the house. Now that everyone's been back for a month, our energy usage was just barely more than what was used over a period of time most of us were gone. So, in my mind that's a victory that we were able to at least keep the per cost down

Current event 3

Oh boy, the Olympics. Russia has spent close to $50 billion preparing for the games, and part of that large sum of money went toward energy infrastructure projects. 49 of these facilities have been constructed since Russia won the Olympic host bid in 2007 in order to supply sufficient energy to the relatively disconnected Sochi. Energy generation capacity has increased in the Sochi region by 800% with the completion of these energy infrastructure projects.

Russia has been working to improve their energy efficiency for the games though, having installed solar powered radiators and boilers, LED lighting in their Olympic venues, and autonomous street lights that only activate when people are walking beneath. Russia also went on to incorporate the Olympic Committee's green building codes for Olympic venues into the National Russian Building Standard, which prior to this had no environmental efficiency requirements to it.

Of course, the true cost of all this development won't be apparent for some time, but a good visual look at the impact is found here, where you can compare the Sochi region pre- and post-Olympic development.

GOAL Update:
-Shorter showers haves been going well, even without a timer. I've found that the biggest contributor to shower length for me was the time it takes to wash my hair. I've decided to cut the number of times I wash my hair down to once every third shower. This way, a good five minutes at least is cut from the first two showers in each cycle. It's healthier to wash your hair less anyway, plus I'll be using less shampoo, reducing my consumption.
-Shopping for more sustainable goods is a little tougher, as there are definitely certain brands I prefer and I have to remind myself to look for the more sustainable option. Also, a lot of impulse items find their way into my cart, like candy. I'll be making a list of items for my next grocery trip to stick to.

Goals! Again.

So for my first goal, I won't be able to see if I've made any real progress at lowering our electric bill until we receive our next statement sometime next week. PSE's website does allow us to track our daily usage in kwh either across weeks or the last few months.

Puget Sound Energy

Honestly, this doesn't inspire hope. But I'll keep persisting in keeping my heat turned off and switching off my power strips. I'm also constantly on the watch for lights have been left on by my roommates.

As for goal 2, I believe that is the one I'm doing the best at. I'd say about 80% of the food I've been buying has come from the Organic section. I've been inadvertently eating less meat products as well. I love chicken strips, but I wanted to switch to an organic option, so I looked in the frozen organic section and saw a bag labeled with "Crispy" and "Tenders" so I grabbed that and was on my way. Only when I got home to cook them did I see that they also are clearly labeled as "Meatless". So I've been eating these organic soy/tofu tenders for the past week, and honestly, they haven't been that half bad, I'll probably get them in the future. I still want some sort of meat though.

My third goal of shorter showers probably needs a little tweaking, since I have no real way of telling how long my shower's actually been other than my own gut. I'll need to get some sort of timer set up for my showers to know when my 10 minutes are up. One way I have been able to shorten my showers is by alternating days when I wash my hair, which easily cuts a few minutes off the time I'm in.

I definitely need to refocus a little bit on my water and energy consumption, but I feel I've been doing a better job overall at living a more sustainable life. For instance, I've been using a reusable mug every time I go to get coffee. That's one paper cup a day (sometimes two!) that I saved by bringing a cup with me.

In the past, whenever I've gone home to visit my family, I'd either need to be picked up and dropped off by parents, or I'd drive myself if they let me borrow a car. In order to reduce the impact my travelling has, I've decided for my new goal to rely on public transportation when I go home to visit my family. There is the Bolt Bus, which leaves from Bellingham and goes straight to Seattle. I might need to get picked up in Seattle, but the 45 minute drive to Seattle is much better than the four hour round trip to Bellingham and back. 

Chemical Spill in West Virginia

So I thought this was pretty big news.

People in West Virginia's drinking water was affected recently by a chemical spill from a nearby industrial chemical plant. The chemical 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol is used in the coal industry for cleaning coal and was accidentally released into the Elk River near West Virginia's capital, and is harmful if swallowed and can cause eye and skin irritation. The company responsible for the spill is Freedom Industries, an industrial chemical supplier. Reports had been received at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection about a strange odor around the Freedom Industries site, where investigators eventually found a leaking storage unit.

Honestly, I first read about this story on Cracked, and the author of that article, David Christopher Bell, does a very good job of gathering together all the important pieces of information relating to the story. For instance, how the chemical in question, 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (or MCHM for short) is basically a mystery chemical, with no information available on its health effects, or how the site of the spill hasn't been inspected since 1991, which is a longer time than I've been alive. The reason why basically boils down to how MCHM is classified; since there is no existing information on it's effects, it isn't classifies as a hazardous substance, which means that regular inspections are not required. If this were Europe, MCHM wouldn't even be stored due to the cautionary principle; nobody knows anything about it, so we should be extra careful with how we handle it.


Goal update:
-I've been very successful with switching my power strip on and off, and I've been keeping my heat off a lot as well. I feel like these behaviors are starting to become more of a habit, and less of an obligation that I need to remind myself to do. I've also begun to talk with my roommates about ways we can reduce our energy bill by keeping heat low and turning off power strips.

Swiss Research

Switzerland has got the right idea. National Research Programmes are a part of the Swiss National Science Foundation and are funded by government money to do research into and solve current issues. What's the latest? NRP 69. Recently given 11 million in Swiss francs (a little over $12 million US) to conduct 21 different research projects covering how to positively impact consumer consumption patterns and ways to improve the sustainability of food production. They have three questions on their website that drives their goals:

• How can the people of Switzerland be encouraged to eat healthily?
• How can products that are healthy and fit for consumption be made available at affordable prices?
• How can the production, processing and distribution of food be managed effectively with the least possible impact on the environment?

It'll be interesting to see what results they come to in their research. It's inspiring though to be aware that there are some heavily-backed sustainability-focused scientific work being done. A lot of the time, it seems like we're entrenched in reactionary mode, finding out that there is a problem and then trying to fix the direct symptoms of that problem. The Swiss model, I believe, is less reactionary in that it's recognized the problem facing their public and they are now trying to find the root of it to fix it there.

They're also going at it from a great marketing perspective by figuring out consumer's consumption patterns and figuring out ways to influence behavior positively. 

Redefined Goals

Goal 1: Make our next Energy Bill below $200 at most
As I've said in an earlier post, my November power bill came to $277. Having just gotten December's bill, we've already done a better job at energy conservation by reducing the bill to $235. But that's still not enough. I want to make sure our next bill, and all subsequent bills, will be below $200. Luckily, PSE offers us online service to keep track of our energy usage. There are other things I've been doing around the house as well to help conserve energy such as making sure unused lights are turned off, unused electronics and appliances are unplugged, and keeping my power strip turned off when not in use. We'll see how I'm doing on energy conservation come the next bill, and depending on how much I'm able to save, I'll shoot for perhaps an even lower bill afterwards.

Goal 2: Make sustainable purchase decisions
One way I've already began doing so is by buying organic produce. I've been getting organic apples every time I go to the store. But I think more importantly, I'm trying to focus on purchasing less when I go to store. I'm going to budget myself $30 weekly grocery, that way I'll only buy the stuff I'll eat. Also, the next time I go shopping for clothes, I'm going to go to a second-hand store first to see what I can find. Honestly, thrift stores have a more diverse range of styles for a cheaper price, so I don't really know why I haven't done more shopping there before.

Goal 3: Reduce my water consumption
This one I feel could be the biggest change. I like to take nice, relaxing showers that can end up around 20 minutes at their longest. I'm going to keep a timer in the bathroom to make sure my shower time is down to 5 minutes, allowing 10 at most.

Footprint revisited

I think this one deserves a bigger oops than last time.

Working with the proper calculator, I've found my footprint to be 5.21 Earths

Of course, this has some implications towards my three goals for the quarter, which shall be refined and posted here in the near future.

Product Check

The personal care product that I decided to research was my Old Spice Smooth Blast Deodorant. Basically, it's ingredient list on the package was a jumble of chemicals (and water):

• Dipropylene Glycol
• Water
• Propylene Glycol
• Sodium Stearate
• Fragrance
• PPG - 3 Myristyl Ether
• Tetrasodium EDTA
• Violet 2
• Green 6 

Looking up the product on EWG's database though only produced ingredients that were not found on my list. The Highest Concerns EWG listed were irritation, organ system toxicity, and persistence and bioaccumulation; the only moderate concern was that of contamination; there was low concern for cancer implications, ecotoxicology, endocrine disruption, and neurotoxicity. Overall, the deodorant has a Low-Moderate hazard potential, scoring a 3.

It doesn't seem like there are any chemicals in the deodorant that Okala mentions in Ch. 15.

I decided to research Violet 2 further, as I've always found the naming of dyes interesting (Red 40? Why 40?) On EWG, Violet 2 has a score ranging from 2-5 (depending on usage). Violet 2 is an FDA-approved synthetic dye made from petroleum sources and used in cosmetic products. There is Moderate concern for its use because of possible organ system toxicity and limited evidence linking it to cancer. The dye is only approved for external application to the body, with the exception being lip and eye care products due to the risk of the dye entering the body. That's probably one of the reasons why my deodorant warns me "Do not apply to broken skin" on the back of the label.

Honestly, I'll probably still keep using this deodorant, at least as long as I still have some of it left. The next time I go shopping for deodorant though, I probably will at least take a peek at the labels of a few of my options and keep a little of what I've learned about chemical toxicity in mind when making my choice.

Oops

So I guess I'm not very sustainable. Apparently, my lifestyle would lead to the usage of 4.4 planets worth of resources if everyone lived like me.

Energy usage seems to be the biggest contributor to my footprint, that and food and services usage. 

Because of these results, I have three goals to work on reducing my footprint this quarter:

1. Reduce my energy consumption.

    -My power bill last month was $277. That to me was my first sign that maybe my household should try using less electricity. I'll work on keeping my appliances unplugged when not in use to prevent "ghost power" and I'll also talk with my roommates about their energy consumption habits as well. A big change to make would be turning our heaters on for less time in the day.

2. Buy in a more sustainable manner

    -I buy a lot of processed foods and new products and goods. A significant change I can make to my behavior is to start buying more locally-sourced/organic products and foods, as well as choosing to go to second-hand shops to look for used clothing and such. Also, when it comes to food, I will try to buy more produce compared to meat products

3. Becoming a more proactive recycler

    -I typically recycle as much as I can, but I definitely let it slide once in a while when I'm not at home, so I can focus more on being aware of my recycling options when I'm not home with the convenient recycling basket. I'm also going to be emphasizing more recycling in my house because my roommates are as on top of it as I am.

According to the KQED survey, I am concerned about the environment. I don't think I really needed a survey to tell me that, but it was interesting nonetheless.