Cinnamon the Rabbit!

Resting under the coffee table


I really enjoyed Brian's blog entry on rabbits as the most sustainable pets. I had never thought about the large ecological footprint of a "normal" pet like a cat or dog. Makes sense! Rabbits, however, are much better (cuter and are great composters, perfect combo).
I though I'd share some pictures of my rabbit at home, Cinnamon :)

Sustainable Youth Project

For my quarter-long project, I have become involved in a UCLA campus group called Sustainable Youth. The purpose of this new organization is to spread awareness about sustainability to grammar school students. I sent in an application to be part of the group, and then had a personal interview with two of the leaders of the club. This group was started during fall 2009 at UCLA, and we currently volunteer at a fourth grade class at Nora Sterry Elementary once a week to teach about environmental awareness. The kids learn about sustainability through fun activities at an early age, and are able to incorporate solutions into their daily lives. I will create specific lesson plans and activities to engage the kids and make sustainability fun! I really hope that my involvement in this organization will continue throughout my time at UCLA and not only during this quarter. I believe that it is extremely important to teach young children about sustainable living because the knowledge will remain with them throughout their lives. I feel like the only way to solve many of Earth’s environmental problems is to educate the future generations—what better way to start than at elementary schools?
On Monday night, April 18th, I met with Sustainable Youth for the first time. There were only 6 of us, and we split into two groups of three—one group teaches on Tuesday, and the other on Wednesday. I teach on Tuesdays from 11:10 to 12:10 to a 5th grade class with two other UCLA students, Tony and Stefania. There is a general structure to each lesson: each time, we review the definition of sustainability, then summarize the previous lesson, teach the day’s lesson, incorporate a fun activity, and end with a reflective writing activity. Our topic for Tuesday, April 20th was “Energy”. On Monday night, we created a lesson plan that defined energy and the various sources, with an activity. I was excited, but kind of nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect.
On Tuesday morning, Tony and I took the bus to Nora Sterry Elementary, near the corner of Corinth and Santa Monica Blvd. We signed in at the front office, and went up to the classroom. Tony introduced me to the class of 21 students and they chorused “Good morning Mr. Tony and Miss Serena”. Tony reviewed from the previous week, and then we began the energy lesson. We introduced energy by asking the kids to “rub their hands together as fast as they could for as long as possible”; this creates energy in the form of heat, but also uses energy because your arms get tired! We talked about various sources of energy and then defined “renewable” and “nonrenewable”, categorizing each energy source. Then, we began our main activity. Each group of three kids was given a plastic bag with a balloon, piece of string, coffee stir stick, small piece of straw and tape. The object was to move the straw across the string using these objects. Each different way represented that there are many ways to get energy and that there is not just one solution to the energy shortage problem, a variety of methods can be used. After this, I presented a slideshow about various sources of energy including coal, solar, nuclear, wind, tidal, and hydro. Then, we connected this information to the kids’ lives and brainstormed ways that they can save energy in different parts of their house. We challenged them to turn off the lights and TV when not in use, and talk to their parents about saving electricity. We also explained why it is a good thing to reduce energy (saves money, lessons pollution, and prevents habitat loss). Finally, we ended with a writing activity where the kids chose one renewable and one nonrenewable energy source, described them, and explained why one was more sustainable than the other. We collected their papers to read later and see what the kids had learned. My favorite was:
“The 2 sources coal and wood are used to start fires and they’re used for the same purpose but there are some differences. First of all let’s say you run out of wood, well then you just take a seed that makes trees and plant it and you wait a year or so and you have a whole bunch of wood but you can’t just bury coal and a coal tree will grow. So coal is nonrenewable and wood is renewable”.
Overall, I really had a great time and felt like the kids learned a lot. They are a very eager class and always ready to participate. Something that I need to work on is getting my mind into “5th grade mode”. We are teaching about big, important concepts, but in order to make them fun and interesting, we have to simplify the information considerably. Next week’s lesson is about water!

Ecological Footprint

Exercise 2 (Week 2): Calculating Your Ecological Footprint
The average American’s ecological footprint is 24 acres. What does this mean? The best way to put this number into context is to look at the number of biologically productive acres per person on the Earth, or 4.7 (theoretically, everyone on Earth needs to have an equal, 4.7 acre print in order to live sustainably). However, this is not the case, especially in the United States; if everyone lived like the average American, we would need 5.1 planets to sustain us!!!
I wanted to calculate my footprint to see how I measure up. I am a college student without a car, living on-campus, and I consider myself to be an environmentally conscious person. When I calculated my ecological footprint using Jim Merkel’s method from Radical Simplicity, I was shocked and appalled to find my monthly footprint was a whopping 38.35 acres!!! This is impossible, I thought, and I returned to meticulously check my math. Alas, after many re-calculations, I found that my initial number was correct—my ecological footprint is 38.35 acres. This means that if everyone lived with my 38.35 acre footprint, we would need 8.61 planet earths to support our lifestyles. However, looking through my charts, I did find the source of the skewed acreage: my tuition cost. UCLA’s $29,000 yearly bill is ridiculous. I figured that out of my total yearly cost of attendance (including meals, housing, and tuition), about $15,000 is for education, meaning about $1,666.67 per month. The average American (according to Merkel) pays about $20.00 per month for education; therefore, I pay about 83 times more per month for education than the average American. Another possible source of error arose from my residence hall living space—mine was approximately 30,000 square yards of “total lot size including building”, when the average American’s was 647. These two data points, education and total lot size, were extremely far from the American average, thus skewing my data. I wanted a more accurate representation of my footprint, so I re-calculated my total footprint substituting in the average American values for education and total lot size. This footprint, what I consider to be more precise, is 12.48 acres. This print is about half that of an average American. One of the main reasons for my small print is found in the transportation sector and the fact that I do not have a car. As a full time student with no job, I have no need for a car, and infrequently ride in others’ vehicles. Also, I do not smoke and am usually healthy (no need for medicine); these sectors are large contributors to footprint acreage. Even though my footprint is much smaller than average, it is still twice as much as the 6-acre print that Merkel advocates. There are many areas in which I can strive to reduce my ecological footprint and this can be accomplished by setting goals.
The ultimate goal is to reduce my footprint to 6 acres, requiring many lifestyle changes and incremental goals. One of my short term goals (to be accomplished by the end of this quarter) is that I will produce less trash, meaning that I need to consume less. Simple things such as using re-fillable drinking ware or re-using printer paper as scratch paper can help reduce my footprint. This quarter, I will also specifically focus on using less paper towels and napkins, reducing the amount of paper products that I throw away. One of my medium goals (in my time here at UCLA) is to spread the word about sustainability. I need to educate others about reducing their footprints to preserve the environment and leave a habitable Earth for future generations. My long term goals focus on my life in the future, like someday when I own a house. If I have children, I plan on having only one child, and possibly adopting more—we must also focus on stabilizing the population. I also want to buy the majority of my food at local farmers markets and work near my home. Ultimately, I hope to be in the state of “unconscious sustainability” and educate others about my way of life.

Week 3 Response to Radical Simplicity

Jim Merkel’s Radical Simplicity forced me to take a closer look at and re-evaluate all aspects of my lifestyle, but more importantly, made me think about my life in the future. In general, I do not often think of my future life. This may sound strange, but I can honestly say that I do not have a specific vision for my life in ten years. Thinking about living on my own, with a “real job”, possibly marriage and children has frankly always scared me—I prefer not to think about it at all! I think this stems from the fact that for as long as I can remember “going to college” was my future life, and no further. It was the ultimate goal in the distant future throughout my K-12 years. When I finally arrived at this “future” in the fall of 2009, I did not really have a long term goal or vision of my life ahead of me. Lately, however, this has begun to change because of my experiences at UCLA. I have developed a more defined set of beliefs (both political and social) and now have practices and values that I want to incorporate into my life from here on. One of these values is now sustainability. Sustainability has always been important to me, but I felt like I never had enough knowledge or will power to thoroughly incorporate it into my life. After reading Radical Simplicity, I now feel like I have the tools to “live globally”. I now envision my life in ten years to be one governed by consciousness—of the people, species, and environments that surround me. I would categorize my current lifestyle as one of “conscious unsustainability”, in Merkel’s terms. However, as a student living in the dorms without a car, I feel as though my life is more sustainable compared to the average American. I really liked Merkel’s views on “divorcing your car”, and now one of my long-term goals is to do this. I hope to get a job close to my home that is accessible by public transportation or bike. Other material goals include consuming less. Less packaging, less material goods like clothes, less fossil fuels, I want to ask myself “do I really need this?” each time I consider purchasing something. Also, I have more inmaterial goals, the largest of which is spending more time in nature. Nature has such a therapeutic power that gives me an indescribable peace of mind. My life in ten years will put nature as a top priority. Merkel's description and admiration of Kerala also sparked a sense of longing. I wish I could have the chance to participate in a community like that and live simply and self-sustainably.
Merkel’s lifestyle definitely seems radical to me. His situation was extremely rare—the average American is not in a position to abandon their current lifestyles and go live in the woods, in a cabin complete with a root cellar. I feel like he was successful in his goal of bringing attention to the cause and this could not have been accomplished without his radical means. He needed to go absolutely over the top to make people stop and evaluate their own lives. However, he acknowledged the fact that not everyone can simplify their lives to the extent that he did, and instead provided tools that the average person can use to gradually become more sustainable. By using the three tools, ecological footprinting, Your Money or Your Life, and learning from nature, global living is presented in a logical and easy progression. I will incorporate each of these strategies into my life. My problem is that I have the willingness, but not necessarily the willpower. For example, if I were to match Merkel’s lifestyle, I would drastically miss my current food. It takes so much time and energy to grow your own food and I know that I would get frustrated after a while and crave a restaurant dinner!
In order to maintain my sustainable lifestyle, I need constant motivation and that comes from the knowledge that I AM making a difference. Living off the recommended 6 acres is a daunting task, which is unrealistic in my near future. But, I know that these concepts and lessons will remain with me for the rest of my life and I strive to one day reach that fourth stage of "unconscious sustainability".

Personal Trash Inventory

1. For a week, from Tuesday, March 30th to Monday, April 5th 2010, I kept track of every single item that I threw away, recording each item in a notebook that I kept with me at all times.
I honestly do not think that I throw out a lot of trash compared to the average person. Before this exercise, I didn’t really consider myself a wasteful person, but I still felt like I would consume too much sometimes. For example, that little pang of guilt felt if I forget to tell the cashier “I don’t need a bag”, or tossing away the paper/plastic disposable wrappers and sandwich boxes at Bruin Café. This exercise was really effective for me. Keeping track of every trash item over a week’s time (down to each gum wrapper or toilet paper) really forced me to evaluate my consumer impact. Now, I am much more conscious of my waste and things I put into the trash! At first, it was difficult to stick to my normal routine where I don’t consider each item I throw away because having to keep track of each thing I put in the trash made me want to reduce my waste. However, I tried to not change my routine for the purpose of documentation for this week.
2. One specific area of wastefulness was my paper waste. I was kind of shocked at the amount of paper towels that I use in the bathroom after washing my hands. Instead, I could bring a cloth towel with me, or just head back to my room to dry my hands on a bath towel. Something that I found entertaining and rather shocking was the amount of apples that I eat in a day!! I kept track of the apple cores that I threw away and found that I eat between 3 and 4 apples a day!! (Good or bad thing??)
3. From looking at my trash tally, some aspects of my lifestyle are reflected. The majority of my waste (in terms of weight) is from fruit or vegetable scraps, including apple cores, banana peels, orange peels, or melon rinds. Since I live on campus in a residence hall (Dykstra Hall), I eat most of my meals in the dining halls. They provide plates, glasses, and silverware, which are washed and reused; this is the reason why I do not have a lot of paper product waste. However, there are many instances where I wasn’t near a dining hall or restaurant for a meal, and then chose to get my food in disposable containers. Plastic water bottles, plastic cups, paper plates, plastic cutlery, and disposable sandwich boxes were all items on my list. I realize now that I could have avoided most all of these items, instead choosing reusable ones or not buying the item at all. Also, walking around campus, I began to notice that we are surrounded (even bombarded) by disposable items. No one gives a second thought to filling up a large plastic cup with soda, gulping down the drink, and tossing the cup after less than two minutes left of use. At first, I was rather angry at the universal ignorance, but then I realized that ignorance is exactly the cause of this wastefulness. No one knows any better! Our society dictates that disposable items are the norm, and to deviate from this norm is quite difficult. We, as Americans, are programmed to getting what we want, whenever we want it, even if we do not need it. For example, did I really need that BruinCafe Smoothie in the thick plastic cup with a lid and straw?? I could have settled for filling my reusable water bottle at the soda machine and adding a slice of lemon. Everyone should keep track of their trash for a week—it really opens your eyes and especially helped me determine the difference between necessities and frivolities.
4. From my week-long inventory, I learned that many of the items that I threw away could have been prevented altogether. For example, instead of choosing to eat at an on-campus restaurant where the food is excessively packaged, I could go to a dining hall and return my plate/utensils to be washed and reused. My lifestyle is very different from the one advocated in the first few chapters of Radical Simplicity. On page 5, Jim Merkel states that it is “challenging…to say no to what just seems normal to have” and I found this to be extremely true. We are programmed to use disposable items and to change this requires a change in our entire society. Global Living asks you to evaluate the material and non-material aspects of your life in regards to the environment and your surroundings; I have found that there are many other options and activities that do not require wastefulness (such as spending time outdoors instead of going on a shopping spree, for example). Although Jim Merkel's case is quite radical, there is definitely much to be learned from his actions. I hope that it causes each reader to truly reflect on their lifestyles and reevaluate their place on this earth.

Growing up in a Garden

When I saw “Introduction to Sustainable Living” as one of the Global Environment Cluster’s Spring 2010 seminar topics, I was really excited. I have always been interested in this sort of thing; I am looking forward to examining my lifestyle and learning about ways to live in a more sustainable fashion. I want to improve my perception of our planet as a whole and most importantly, make changes that will continue throughout my life.
Sustainability has always been extremely important to my family of four. However, I never realized the full extent of our environmentally conscious lifestyle until I compared it to those of other people.
I was born and raised in Dana Point, living in the same house my entire life. South Orange County is not known for being particularly “green”. However, growing up, I never knew that. Our backyard is relatively small, but my dad used all the available space to build and nourish a garden. When I was little, my sister and I played in the dirt, helped my dad plant seeds and then eagerly awaited the tiny green sprouts, picked peaches, nectarines, oranges, cucumbers, tomatoes and planted flowers. My dad would tease us and “quiz” us on the difference between weeds and vegetable plants. He even constructed us a “Bean Teepee”---a tall, solid, wood center pole with strings extending from the top to create a circle and pole beans grew up the strings, creating a leafy playhouse. I grew up outside and spent so much time in the garden. My parents liked to joke that my first word was “coreopsis”, or the pretty yellow flowers that I loved (HAHA). We also have a compost pile in the corner of the yard, and periodically sift the steaming, nutrient-rich soil and put it around the plants. Our rabbit is also a little fertilizer machine, adding to the compost pile. Other aspects of our sustainable life include our clothesline along the sunny side of our house, a huge emphasis on cloth grocery bags, trips to the Saturday morning farmer’s market, and trapping rain water in garbage bins (this winter my mom went to a new level—using the trapped rainwater to flush the toilets! It didn’t last very long).
When you are younger, you tend to think that your world is the same as everyone else’s. I remember entering elementary and even middle school and being puzzled that no one knew what a compost pile was, or when friends came over to play, they were stunned that we had a garden and you could pull carrots out of the ground!!!! This was old news to me.
From looking at the Urban Homestead website (http://urbanhomestead.org/) created by the Dervaes family, I have gained so much respect for their lifestyle. It amazes me that they are able to grow so much food. It is not a walk in the park to garden successfully, and these people must put COUNTLESS HOURS into their gardens. It takes a lot of time.
Overall, I am definitely not claiming that my family is already “Super-Sustainable”; I know that we (and I) have a lot to learn. Jim Merkel’s Radical Simplicity has already forced me to really look at my lifestyle and evaluate my impact on our planet. I am looking forward to learning more.

Here are some recent pictures from spring break of our garden!

Lemon Tree


Vegetables



My Dad

Cinnamon the rabbit

Peach Tree in Bloom

Entrance to the Garden

Blackberry Blossoms