Anyone remember that plastics website Brian posted a while ago? Anyone else remember how it was reminiscent of the pro-lead campaigns of the 1940's?
Well this website advocating "pro-high fructose corn syrup" is eerily similar.
Sweet Surprise: Pro-HFCS
This past week, as we all know, was shocking and tragic but, surprisingly, it turned out to be one of my better sustainability weeks. I was motivated to try twice as hard but, unfortunately, it was not a perfect week.
With my meat goal, I messed up. Again. What I find myself constantly doing is that I eat meat more than once a week; however, this does not mean that when I mess up it means that I'm eating meat five times a week. In fact, whenever I fail it's because I ate meat twice a week. That's still not as good as I would have hoped but I'm glad that my numbers are relatively low. I notice that when the dining halls don't have any good pasta dishes, I tend to go towards the meat. Lately the pasta dishes have been nonexistent or simply lacking (oh joy). I'm trying to find substitutes for when there's no pasta so I don't have to go straight to the meat. Suggestions?
I want to buy a handkerchief or something because I'm ALWAYS forgetting to bring my towel to dry my hands off with! On the bright side, I was better with that this week than before but I'm still rather forgetful. Fun fact of the day? Today I found out that in Japan there are no paper towels provided for you to dry your hands with; you have to bring your own towel! Very interesting and sustainable idea; I love it!
The one area that I drastically improved in this week was my laptop usage. Firstly, since my birthday was Friday (woo!) I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today hanging out with family and friends. I went to spend time with my family yesterday and thought about bringing my laptop but decided against it; definitely the best choice! Another thing that attributed to my lack of laptop usage was Brian's passing. I know it's still a rather difficult subject so I'm going to make this quick. I was hit rather hard by the news, as I'm sure everyone else was, and at first I was glued to my laptop; I'd keep checking the blog or the news for any info. After seeing the effect it had on me, though, I backed off realizing it'd be better if I stayed away for a bit. So, in an odd way, the tragedy helped me jump start getting rid of my excessive laptop usage. Let's hope I can keep this up.
That was pretty much how this week went- oh wait? What's that? Curious about the title of this blog, I see. Well, long story short I went to a concert with my sister and her friends on Thursday and instead of taking four cars there, I convinced everyone that we should take one cab. Not only did we do the planet a little good, but we got to jam to Destiny's Child with a cab driver named Zac from Zimbabwe. Everyone won.
Brian Ellis: Optimistic, owner of cool shoes, person with a lot of bus bad luck but, most importantly, a person with a passion for sustainability and a good heart.
Through this one small class Brian has been able to change my, and I'm sure everyone else's, lives for the better. He was truly dedicated to changing his ways and helping us achieve our goals in order to try to become better people. Brian never judged you by the amount of paper you wasted or plastic you used; he was always there to give you the support you needed to change. He always was able to relate any given subject to a documentary he saw or talk for twenty minutes about the tiniest piece of information. Still, he was a great TA who deeply cared about sustainability and our class-- not as a topic or just students, but as a way of life and actual people. My prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time.
All we can do now is follow the Brian way and be optimistic that he is in a better place now. Whether he's cloud climbing, picking mushrooms or watching a documentary from Europe, wherever he is I'm sure he's happy.
Let's commemorate his life and work through our own goals towards sustainability; remember Brian Ellis through the lessons he taught us.
I'm melting, melting, melting! Or in this case, slipping.
Let's just say this hasn't been the best of sustainable weeks for me.
I was blessed with midterms and projects galore this week; unfortunately, the busyness and stress made me lose sight of my sustainability goals. Granted, though, it's not actually as bad as I'm making it sound. However, I don't want to be comfortable with slipping up a little bit and keep doing it more and more until I'm not even trying to be sustainable anymore.
I ate meat twice this week instead of the allowed one time but, as I said before, I don't want to get used to falling off track! I definitely bought more plastic wrapped snacks than I had last week (my bad...) and the lights in my dorm room were on longer than they should have been. What I need to learn and am hoping I can learn is to be able to sustain my sustainability even while under stress. That's my biggest fear. I'm afraid I'll be able to keep up with my goals fine until I get swamped with work and then I'll just return back to my old ways.
But, do not fear, this week was not just a black hole of unsustainable practices. I remembered to bring my towel to dry my hands off with but it's still something I have to work on; I'm pretty forgetful about that. To my surprise, though, my laptop usage went down this week (only by an hour but, hey, that's a start right?) and I was able to keep up with my "shower early in the day" plan. The mid-day shower helped me relax and there are three things that helped me lower my laptop usage: studying, baking and tribal fusion bellydance. Yup. You just read that. Dancing with the belly in a fusion style that is tribal. But let's break this down one by one.
Studying, obviously, kept me glued to my papers and in study groups instead of glued to my computer screen; I never thought studying could have helped me with my sustainability. Baking is an activity I only do when I'm at my Aunt's home. Speaking of which, I've been limiting my trips there lately in order to lower the amount of driving in my life. However, as we speak, I am with my family but this is probably going to be the last time I see them this school year. Whenever I'm here, though, I always like to bake cakes, brownies or cheesecakes. Now, I know what you're thinking, unhealthy right? Yeah, that's definitely a strike against me. In my defense, the last time I was at my Aunt's I made some organic salsa; Yalda can dig healthy eating!
Back to the subject of baking, I just want to note that I'm surprised at how many vegan/vegetarian ingredients there are. Relatively cheap, too. They may have always existed and I'm just too out of it to notice, but I never thought the cheapest ingredients would have been vegan/vegetarian! Go figure, huh? Aside from baking, the other activity that has kept me occupied is my tribal fusion bellydance class. I take it every Tuesday but find myself practicing a lot in my own spare time. It's a great workout, fun, and keeps my away from my laptop. Even though I'm not the best at it (I suck), it's a nice activity that keeps me away from the electricity guzzling technology.
Bottom line of this week? I need to learn how to manage my sustainability and my stress at the same time. I'm not completely unsustainable when I'm busy but I do face some difficulties. I aim to learn how to deal with it all and I need to learn soon, especially with finals coming up. Eek!
I decided to provide a clip from the show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution since we discussed it a bit in class today. Despite the show being more about eating healthy rather than helping the environment, the two do go hand-in-hand. To sum up this clip, whoever regulates the food in this West Virginian school district counts french fries as a vegetable. Seriously. Are you kidding me? If you listen to what the representative is saying throughout the video, it definitely sounds like serving the students lunch is more about economics rather than actual health. The meal has to be "reimbursable", not healthy. No wonder health is deteriorating!
Surprisingly, all is going well in the land of sustainability.
For my sustainability project, I decided to focus on changing my consumption ways and focus on the waste I produce in different aspects of my life. To my surprise, changing has not been that hard. There are a few areas that I still have some trouble with but everything seems to be going smoothly so far.
Except for tonight when I ate a hamburger (my bad), I've eaten no meat at all this week. My plan was to limit meat to once or week or, even better, no times a week. I didn't realize how much I wouldn't miss it. I always opt for the pasta dishes at the dining halls anyway so I never consume too much meat as is. But, luckily for me, the vegetarian pasta dishes are as delicious, or even more delicious, than the ones containing meat! This has been a smooth transition for me.
I've decided to change my eating habits as well; mainly, I've started to not eat after 7 pm. How does this relate to my sustainability goal? Well, because I'm not eating anything after 7 pm, I no longer go to buy plastic wrapped snacks. Of course, I still buy some occasionally but my numbers have decreased drastically. I'm hoping to switch this number to zero in the long term!
Taking showers during the day was an easier switch than I thought it would be; in fact, it's become relaxing. It's a mid-day pick-me-up! Unfortunately, I often forget to bring my cloth towel to dry my hands with to the bathroom; I need to work on remembering that!
Now electricity consumption has been the hardest alteration. Although I have been able to turn off the lights completely instead of leave them on for my roommates, this isn't an everyday occurrence. Especially with both my roommates having multiple midterms, they want the main light on when I go to bed early instead of turning on their own smaller lamps. I hoping I can convince them to think otherwise. Hands down the hardest thing I've had to change is my laptop usage. The lessening my usage by 5 hours per week plan has not been going down as smoothly as I would have hoped. I usually use count or upright forget. But, I think I've come up with a solution! I tend to sleep early as is (if you call midnight early) but I want to see if I can sleep an hour early. Not only will this make me better rested, but it's another hour that will be taken away from me using the computer.
All in all, my plan has had relatively few bumps in the road and I aim to make sure this is a lifestyle changing journey.
My name is Yalda Mostajeran and I'm a waste-o-holic. It's 2020 and, as you all should know, I'm a famous CNN political correspondent. I own an array of fancy foreign cars whose names I cannot pronounce, I have a gorgeous model/actor/politician/poet/genius husband and 1.5 children. I eat the finest meals prepared by my gourmet chef and I have a lot of bling. So much ice on my chains. What can I say? I'm living the g-l-a-m-o-r-o-u-s life.
Alright, now "ten years in the future" me may have been exaggerating a bit but, well, looking at my current footprint now you wouldn't think that was the case. Before reading Radical Simplicity, I believed that I would be relatively cautious with what I waste but, overall, I wouldn't bother myself too much about it. Now, however, I envision myself living a much more sustainable future than I could have ever imagined. Don't get me wrong; although I commend Merkel for his ability to simply give up the lifestyle he was accustomed to and pursue the radical greater good, my lifestyle in the future would definitely be a little more moderate. My career and educational goals, even after reading Radical Simplicity, have not and probably will not change. I still plan on becoming a political commentator who, unfortunately, will have to work long hours. And, my apologies Merkel, I probably won't be living in a cabin in the woods. Luckily, though, after reading Radical Simplicity my immaterial and material wants for the future have changed.
In my future, I envision more spirituality—not necessarily one of religious sorts but a deeper bond with nature. I want to take my future children camping, hiking, fishing, etc. and really take in the beauty that nature has to offer. My future will be of moderate simplicity; not completely giving up modern conveniences but not allowing myself to become whole-heartedly attached. I'll use my car when utterly necessary but try to take public transit or, even better, bike to wherever I'm going. Let's hope I know how to ride a bike in the future. There will be less focus on the material and more on the immaterial; I also envision myself being more sustainably aware. Good-bye blood diamonds and hello cool environmentally friendly jewelery! According to Merkel, I'm currently at stage two: Conscious unsustainability. In my new enlightened future, I see myself as in between stage three and four; not completely sustainably conscious nor unconscious. I would be a blur of those two stages; on the fence. One thing I can be definite about, though, is that new and improved 2020 Yalda Mostajeran is more efficient and sustainable than the old model. Unfortunately, she still would run on B-Cafe croissants and tea.
2. Does the lifestyle that Merkel lives seem radical to you? Do you think he goes too far? Why or why not? Don't just answer yes or no. Be specific and thoughtful, utilizing the concepts from RS to reflect on your own willingness or unwillingness to live as simply as the author advocates.
In a nutshell, yes; I think Merkel's lifestyle is radical but I do not think that he goes “too far”. The way I see it is that going “too far” is when you reach a routine that makes you unhappy, unhealthy and is just one that you can't handle. Although I believe Merkel's lifestyle is radical, he is able to handle it, he's healthy and happy so, therefore, it's perfectly doable for him; it's not going “too far”. But, when applied to myself, that's a completely different story.
The one downfall in Merkel's experiment, and a possible turn-off to some readers, is the fact that Merkel started living sustainably when he had a sufficient amount of wealth saved up to support him. He had already lead a good, modern life and now had the funds to live a radically simple life. As a college student, I definitely have no money. In addition, when I finally have enough money to live a comfortable life I'm not sure I'd be willing to give it all up and chill in the woods, to be frank. I can tell that I'm not willing to go to the extremes that Merkel does; I am, however, willing to give a few of his ideas a shot. As I stated before, I want to embrace moderate simplicity. One aspect of Merkel's methods that really intrigued me was his journey to form a bond with nature. Without any closeness to nature, one doesn't feel a need to preserve it. If there's one lesson I'm taking away from this book and willing to try, it's deepening my bond with Mother Nature. I feel like if I learn to appreciate the environment more then being sustainable, in some aspects of my life, will come naturally.
Merkel's experience has inspired me to try to reshape my life; mold my practices into more sustainable ones. I may not have the money, or the life experience, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Kudos to your radicalism, Merkel, but I don't think I'd ever be able to trek that route. I haven't even tasted financial success and I'm not sure I'd be willing to give it away so quickly. However, no need to worry, I'm not completely turning away from sustainability. I'm looking at my ways, evaluating them and hoping I can change them for the better. I may never become a full blown environmental “hippie” but, who knows? I like flowers and peace; things could change.