Micro Changes – Jackson Howell
I began by comparing the results of several online calculators to ascertain an approximate idea of my carbon footprint; on average it was 3.7 tons, which is already quite low relative to the average citizen of the United States. Thus, with the exception of purchasing green power, there were not many single practices in my life whose doing or not doing would drastically reduce my carbon footprint; but since I was introduced to the urgency of the carbon dilemma only quite recently, it seemed that, somewhere out there, there were still a myriad of as yet unconsidered lifestyle changes on a smaller scale impatiently waiting for me to discover and adopt them. When examined alone, such small changes in daily habits seem relatively insignificant, but when taken together, these small changes can add up to tremendous proportions, especially if adopted by an entire community, from neighborhood to nation. The banality of many of these small changes is matched only by the effortlessness of their carrying out; in many cases this is simply a matter of changing old habits. So I began researching ways to change. One of the first things that I discovered was that putting food, such as rice for example, into the refrigerator while it is still hot pushes the refrigerator to use more electricity to maintain its temperature; thus one should allow hot food to cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge. No sacrifices necessary in this situation, just a matter of waiting. Another strategy was boycotting plastic and packaging, especially bags, cups and bottles, unless absolutely necessary. In virtually every store, practically every solitary item larger than the palm of one’s hand is bagged; thus I had to be assertive. Countless times it felt like my item(s) had already disappeared into the bag before I could even open my mouth; but I was resolute and would request “No bag, please” or “Oh, I don’t need a bag” and the item was taken out. When lunchtime came around at school, I would never buy a drink in a plastic bottle, but turned to the water fountain instead. Which was no real sacrifice for me because only rarely do I drink anything but water (with the occasional glass of milk at breakfast and, of course, alcohol). Where food was concerned, I tried my best to buy local products, in order to cut down on the transportation required to bring the food to me. Naturally, this led me to local farmer’s markets. I walked out empty handed of several grocery stores whose complete range of produce came from international sources (mostly Mexico). As far as bags and logistics were concerned, I made a few exceptions when it came to buying in bulk, such as couscous and granola, for this way I could buy a long-term supply of something with only one trip and only one bag. The next sphere of change concerned my personal transportation, the best mode of which was obviously man powered, such as biking or walking. I live close to school, so I walk to class. I traveled almost completely by foot (making exceptions only when absolutely necessary), making use of my local stores for food and clothing. As far as clothing is concerned, the best route was to buy second hand. If the thrift store did’t have what I needed, there was always ebay, as well as several other online forums where people buy, sell and trade goods and clothes, such as Craigslist or Styleforum. When it came to electricity, I became a stickler for eliminating ‘ghost’ or ‘vampire’ power, that power consumed by appliances and devices even when they are not in use, merely plugged in; to combat this leakage of unused power I unplugged all of my appliances, turned off all of my power strips when I wasn’t using them; it was really easy. Another thing, I learned was that saving water also saves energy. I was surprised to learn that washing dishes by hand uses more water and energy than washing a full load of dishes in a dishwasher on a ‘no heat’ or ‘energy saver’ setting. A key word there is full load: I never washed the dishes in the dishwasher until it was truly full. Speaking of water, I did do one thing that took me slightly out of my comfort zone; I have always been fond of taking voluptuously long hot showers in the winter (in the summer I take only cold showers, usually quite brief) so I thought I would push myself a bit and commit myself to taking only sponge baths in order to save water. In case one doesn’t know, a sponge bath involves filling a bucket up with water and using only that water to lather up and then rinse off. I used a small red bucket, and it worked well. Eventually I got a little tired of it, so I decided to fill the bucket up via the shower head, in order to count just how long it took to fill up the bucket; that way I could know how many seconds of shower time I was allowed. It came out to about 45 seconds; thus I could hop in the shower, turn the water on only for a brief moment to wet my skin in order to facilitate the lathering process, then lather and then turn the water back on for a good 40 second rinse. I found this more hospitable than the sponge bath. Last of all I set myself one larger goal to attempt: convincing my father to turn to a green power source. Somewhat to my surprise, he sounded kind of interested and promised to look into it; so I waited. When I never heard back, I called and he said that he was a little put off by a newspaper article which described green power as having a much larger portion of its price going to overhead costs than does normal power. We talked about the issue some more, and decided that we will conduct further research together; it looks promising. This would be a fairly big reduction if it succeeds!
Looking back at my microscopic examination of the carbon impact of my daily activities, I have two feelings. The first is one of satisfaction since I do believe that when taken together these small changes can make a difference; no one should overlook them. We all need to take time to examine the things that we normally overlook. On the other hand, I feel that these small reductions are not enough, even despite the fact that my footprint was already low to begin with. For the next step, I would very much like to undertake a project of a nature less reductive and more pro-active.
PHOTOS
http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u282/Jhowell_02/Carbon%20Footprint/?albumview=grid
