Share and Voice: Solar Power Plants to Rise on US Land

This is a news article I found from the New York Times titled Solar Power Plants to Rise on US Land.  I thought it was a really fitting article after reading some of my web groups Read 'n' Seed posts.  These solar plants were just recently approved to begin building in California.  They estimate the plants can produce enough solar, wind, and geothermal energy to power 566,000 homes.  Another cool thing this article discusses is that the White House plans to install solar panels.  The article even talks about how these things are reducing their ecological footprint.  It is so funny to me, because before this class I had never heard of an "ecological footprint" and now I feel like it is everywhere.

Here is a final quote from the article that I feel is very beneficial, and I sure hope that it becomes a reality:
“This project reflects President Obama strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.”   I hope you all find this article interesting too!

Read 'n' Seed 3: Second Quarter of Plenty - Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet

For this section, I read the months June, July, and August which also are the summer months.  The pages covered were 65-128.

The main topics covered during this section was how to find local farmer's markets within their 100 mile area and getting all the main food groups.  Since it is summer, and many products are blooming they were on the hunt for wheat, greens, and anything other than potatoes.  They travel all over to find new varieties of thing.  The best example I thought was when they drove to Seattle, WA (they crossed the border), and went to local shops.  They feel in love with nuts and cheese and other goodies they hadn't seen in who knows how long, but they remembered that they would have to cross the border to get back into Canada, and the border patrol was not too fond of the transportation of food products.  Through much debate among James and Alisa, they finally settled to "smuggle" cheese into Canada.  I just found it to be an entertaining part of the story, because who would ever think that it would really be an issue to bring food to eat to your home, big deal that you drove through an imaginary line to get there.  Another topic discussed in this section, was during the month of August they went to their cabin in Dorreen.  This cabin was essentially isolated from the world.  So they lived off the land and one farmers market they went to on day one.  Thus they bought things that they hoped would last for 30 days in the heat because they did not have a refrigerator at their cabin.  Their neighbor gave them canned salmon and they had cherry trees.  It was interesting to watch them adjust to another environment in the story.

This section provided a lot more words that were new to me.  The first being prawns, which seem to be a form of shrimp.  James and Alisa were very excited when they were able to get prawns since it was something different and something they enjoyed.  Another interesting term I learned is succotash, it is a dish with peppers, beans, and tomatoes, and was popularly during the Great Depression since it was readily available.  Lastly, I learned the term autochthon, which is referring to the indigenous people to the area.  The most significant thing I have learned thus far in this book is that it is possible.  You can eat locally, yes it may be difficult and you may not always get exactly what you want, but you can do it.  You improvise and come up with new creations and have a fun adventure in the process.

I think it is important to pay attention to what is produced locally around you.  In the end, you and entire world benefits from your decision to eat locally, sure it mind be hard at first, but James and Alisa are six months in and they are really getting the hang of it.  I definitely think it is possible.  I already catch myself questioning what is or is not locally grown foods.  They are learning local farmers' names and in return are told when certain crops come in so they can get the first pick.  It is really fun reading about how this transformation is taking place and I hope I can instill enough knowledge in you, so you will attempt to eat local foods too.

Eye Opener: CSPI

I took the Eating Green Calculator.   I chose to do this one because I am most concerned about what it is I am actually eating. 

I generally consider myself to be a person that eats few meat and dairy products.  I typically only eat chicken, and don't drink a lot of milk.  But I do consume a good portion of eggs, cheese, and yogurt.  I was shocked to see what kind of impact I was having from my servings of meats and dairy.  I was absolutely disgusted to see how many pounds of manure was created by the animals I eat.  I was also not fond of the amount of pesticide needed for the feed for the animals, because I ingest those as well.  I definitely took the pledge.  One thing I always try to do is incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet.  This pledge should help me do that.  It also says that when you do eat animal products, choose those that are less in fat.  I think that will be an easy fix to do.  I am excited about eating more fruits and veggies because it will be beneficial to my diet and the environment.  Overall, I think experiences like this are good ones to have.  It makes me more aware of how things I have been doing for all my life affect the environment.  I never would have thought what I eat actually matters to the environment.  I am learning so many new things I can do in my life to help the environment and that makes me really excited.

Just for fun, I checked out the Tour of Food Supply.  The statistics offered on this site were shocking.  It makes me not want to eat meat at all.  I feel like we are so wasteful with so many products.  And I do not support abuse to animals which sometimes we forget what goes on because we only see the packaged items or the finished product.  I am glad I checked out this site too because it provided a lot of useful information.

Reflection: Weeks 1-4

Throughout the first four weeks of this course, I would say I have learned more than I even thought was possible.  From the beginning, we learned the obvious things such as what is environmental health?  How does it affect you?  Why is it necessary to learn about it?  We have also looked at many technological items that are very new to me such as google reader, blogger, and dashboard.  I feel so much more confident in these areas now, only four weeks in, than I did at the beginning.  At first, I was terrifed, technology and I don't usually mix well but so far I have to say it isn't so bad.  Another important thing I have learned is about your ecological footprint.  I had no idea there was such a thing or what kind of impact I was leaving on this planet. 

I really like the aspect of web groups.  It is fun and interesting to read other people's post and see what they think about the environment.  I think one of the best ways to learn is from peers, so this is an excellent example of that.  Another aspect of the course I am fond of is the Read 'N' Seed section, I love my book and feel like I would read it even without this class. 

Regarding the environment, I have learned about new buildings that are environmentally friendly and LEED certified.  I have also learned that recycling is not enough to care for the environment.  If we do not do something extreme soon, eventually the planet is going to be no more.  I should start eating foods grown locally, buying things with less packaging, and carpool more often.  I think I will really benefit from this class and I am looking forward to the rest of the experience. 

Read 'N' Seed 2: First Quarter of Plenty - Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet

For the first quarter of my book I read about the months of March, April, and May.  This covered pages 1-64.

Basically, so far in the book we have looked at some of the challenges they are facing with starting the 100 Mile Diet.  For instance, they live in Canada, having weather much like Minnesota.  So the biggest thing they have had to deal with so far is snow.  Since they are trying to get most of their food grown out of the ground, the snow is becoming a huge problem.  Another thing authors are having issues with is the variety of food they have to eat.  They have not been able to find bread so they have been eating potatoes, potatoes, and more potatoes.  Interestingly they created potato-bread.  In a more general sense, the first three months of the book deals with their beginning journey and search for local foods that fall into the 100 mile area. 

Some new terms that I came across in the book are traceability and externalities.  Traceability in this case basically means to be able to identify the location of where the food came from.  Externalities refer to cost and benefit related to the sale of products.  They discussed this in the book in relation to farmer's markets costs, which were often more expensive.  Some significant things I have learned is how far food travels to actually get to different grocery stores and such around the world.  Typically it is up to 2,500 miles or basically saying California to New York.  Another important thing I learned is really just looking at your diet.  What are you consuming?  Do you NEED to be eating this or that?  Or do you just WANT it?  Alissa and James (the authors) realize that they no longer go by what they want, but rather what they need to survive.

Even though I am only a quarter of the way into the book, I already feel so passionate about this topic.  We are wasting so many of the world's resources by transporting food across nations just because we are too lazy to do what they did 80 years ago, which was live off the land they were on.  Sure it may be hard at first because you need to determine what is grown in the area but think of how it will affect your local economy.  It would be very beneficial, and would be saving the entire planet. I really hope I can encourage others to really be aware of the traceability of their food.  Where is it coming from?  Do you really need apples that come from New Zealand?  Wouldn't you be just as satisfied with apples from Minnesota?  My answer is yes, but my assumption is that no one even pays attention.  It is the small things we can do with our diet that can benefit us all in the long run.  I think it relates to our discussion in class about being wasteful with our own resoures, if we DO have food grown locally but do not opt to use and instead get our food elsewhere, we are wasting what is right in front of us and one day it won't be there.  Thus I would hope that others pay more attention to where your foods are coming from.  Maybe even keep of list of different locations, I bet you would be surprised of how far your food is traveling.

Share and Voice: Sesame Street: Outdoors with Jason Mraz

I found this great video put on by Jason Mraz and Sesame Street. Obviously it is targeted towards a younger population but I think it is really important to spend time outside and enjoy the environment we have because one day it might not be as beautiful. This video is important because too many kids these days just sit inside and play video games. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but as a kid, I played outside a lot. Our parents practically made us, weather permitting. I think we need to get back to the good old days when people enjoyed the outdoors.

Watch the video and really listen to the lyrics :) My favorite line "mother nature deserves to be loved" Let me know if you find any favorites too.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

Before this class, I had never heard the term ecological footprint before.  But surprisingly it has been around since 1992.  Your ecological footprint represents the amount of land and sea needed to regenerate the resources you consume and waste. 

I took the EarthDay FootPrint Quiz   It was really shocking to me to see the effect of my lifestyle on the environment.  I was surprised to see some of the questions on the quiz, because I never expected them to have an effect on others or the earth.  For example, asking specific questions about which types of meat I eat was an interesting question.  I am sad to say that my ecological footprint results say that if everyone lived like me it would require 4.5 earths to have enough resources.  After seeing the numbers, I really want to live more earth-friendly.  One thing that impacted my score was my flying time.  Reduce how much I fly was a way I could improve my score, but due to family situations I have to fly every year to go visit them.  Therefore, I must adjust other parts of my life to make up for transportation costs.  Some other suggestions they made were to ride public transportation one day a week, or purchase items with less packaging.  I am currently reading The 100 Mile Diet, so now especially after taking this quiz, I would like to try to consume more foods that are produced locally.  I also took the Travel Calculator Quiz, which also said that I create a lot of pollution from transportation.  The last quiz I took was the Carbon Footprint Calculator, which is actually based on the UK.  This one came up that I was average for my CO2 use. 

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting experience.  I learned a lot about how my life is effecting planet earth.  I need to make a lot of changes in my life so I am more environmental friendly.  This was definitely an eye opening experience for me.  I hope that from our posts more people will take these quizzes and realize how much they are affecting the planet we live on.