When I see into the future 10 years from now I see myself with a career. Well about to finish my career I medicine. I want to be a doctor; therefore it will take a long time before it happened. However, 10 days seemed about right. Because I am barely getting out of school, I do not have luxuries yet. The place that I call home is an apartment. Very nice one though. Spacious and very well decorated. I have several trash cans under the zinc for recyclables and decomposable. I buy fruits and vegetable in the farmer’s market and I am considerate of the energy wasting that I do. A lot of the things that I describe I had already planned, and I was not influenced by Radical Simplicity. My car will be a hybrid thus it doesn’t hurt the environment. Many other products for example hygiene and cleaning supplies will be eco-friendly. Right after I finish my career I will move to a cleaner city (if I’m still in Los Angeles). From my description I can see that the book Radical Simplicity did not really influenced my view of the future.
The lifestyle that Merkel chose to live is somewhat extreme and due to my goals, I highly doubt I will be following his example. I think he did it because he was already tired of his life, and because of the job he had he might have thought that it was time for him to something good with his life. Even like that, he went a little too far. If he wanted to do something good with his life he could start little by little. Like could have started by changing to a job that satisfied him more. Then sell or get rid of the things he didn’t need. Like that live simpler. There is no need to change so drastically. However, if that is his wish and he feels better doing that, then still a good thing to do, however too drastic for me. Nevertheless, he makes really good points about enjoy nature more, and how we should do things that produce less waste and are more productive. I liked his idea of taking a walk through nature and actually look, feel and smell everything in nature. I liked this because many times we take the beautiful things that the earth offer us for granted, and this is a way to appreciate all the good things that we have in life.
What keep me from doing what the author of Radical Simplicity did are the ambitions that I have in life. Due to my current economic status I have not enjoy many luxuries and I see other people do. Therefore, it makes me want what they don’t have. Besides I have always worked hard to better myself, and at this point is my economic status what I want to improve. However, I will not just be a wasteful person; I work hard for what I want but still considering nature. I think that how everyone should look at it. How everyone should work towards their dream. Keep your same dreams but add nature into it and find a way to still reach those dreams without damaging earth so much.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Ecological Footprint
After doing all the calculations and finding how much ecological footprint I produce. I was surprised to find out that I have every high ecological footprint in places that I thought would be the lowest. For example for goods and services my result was triple the average American. I thought I would have less because I am not a big spender and I know how to take care of the things I have so they last for a very long time. However, I was not taking into consideration, that education falls into this category and average American do not go to college. In addition, the tuition to attend a public school is very high, much higher than going to a community college. Therefore, my results were way high compared to an average American.
On the other hand, the other categories were lower to the average American, which made me be proud of my life style. For food the average result is 5.5 and according to my calculations it was 3.6. This is somewhat lower than the average. However, my result was based on my judgment about what I eat, because I really do not know what goes into my food because I eat daily in the school cafeteria. However, another reason that I’m certain of that is a reason why my food result was lower than the average is because I only eat twice a day, instead of tree, and I do not eat snacks between meals. Furthermore, when people usually live in a house with a back yard, I share a 12x10 ft room with other two people, thus my housing ecological footprint went down greatly. However, I pay a lot for this room, which I do not agree with. Continuing this a little further, because in college I cannot have a car, or it is almost impossible to have one I do not go places that often. The only transportation that I use more often is the train to back home. Home is about 150 miles away from here, and I go home about twice a month, and for that weekend that I am home I use the car. However, it is not compared as how much the average American uses their car. My result was .67 compared to 5.1 of the average American.
Unfortunately I cannot do a lot about my goods and services footprint because I cannot control how much tuition I need to pay in my school. I already dot spend that much in medicine, telephone, medical insurance or entertainment. That are the things that I can control. However, I can control what I eat and how much waste I produce. As a short term goal to lower my ecological footprint I will stop drinking water out plastic bottles and use an aluminum bottle instead. This will really help since I buy great amount of water bottles. My medium term goal is to lower my consumption of paper. I print a lot of articles and essays when I could just read them in the computer. However, because the screen of the computer makes my eyes really tired is really hard to not want to just print out the paper. However, I have already started to read the assigned reading online, however is hard to take notes. But at least is a start. As my long term goal, I will be eating meat only two days a week. Currently I eat meat at least once a day. This is a long term goal because it will take some time before it will start impacting the ecosystem. I like this goal because I will help my health but I will still get my protein form other grain and those days that I do eat meat. In addition, it will help the environment, because my goal is that less animals are killed, which means less acres will be needed. To be able to accomplish this goal, I will have my friends help me out. They will go with me to dinner and help me no eat so much meat.
On the other hand, the other categories were lower to the average American, which made me be proud of my life style. For food the average result is 5.5 and according to my calculations it was 3.6. This is somewhat lower than the average. However, my result was based on my judgment about what I eat, because I really do not know what goes into my food because I eat daily in the school cafeteria. However, another reason that I’m certain of that is a reason why my food result was lower than the average is because I only eat twice a day, instead of tree, and I do not eat snacks between meals. Furthermore, when people usually live in a house with a back yard, I share a 12x10 ft room with other two people, thus my housing ecological footprint went down greatly. However, I pay a lot for this room, which I do not agree with. Continuing this a little further, because in college I cannot have a car, or it is almost impossible to have one I do not go places that often. The only transportation that I use more often is the train to back home. Home is about 150 miles away from here, and I go home about twice a month, and for that weekend that I am home I use the car. However, it is not compared as how much the average American uses their car. My result was .67 compared to 5.1 of the average American.
Unfortunately I cannot do a lot about my goods and services footprint because I cannot control how much tuition I need to pay in my school. I already dot spend that much in medicine, telephone, medical insurance or entertainment. That are the things that I can control. However, I can control what I eat and how much waste I produce. As a short term goal to lower my ecological footprint I will stop drinking water out plastic bottles and use an aluminum bottle instead. This will really help since I buy great amount of water bottles. My medium term goal is to lower my consumption of paper. I print a lot of articles and essays when I could just read them in the computer. However, because the screen of the computer makes my eyes really tired is really hard to not want to just print out the paper. However, I have already started to read the assigned reading online, however is hard to take notes. But at least is a start. As my long term goal, I will be eating meat only two days a week. Currently I eat meat at least once a day. This is a long term goal because it will take some time before it will start impacting the ecosystem. I like this goal because I will help my health but I will still get my protein form other grain and those days that I do eat meat. In addition, it will help the environment, because my goal is that less animals are killed, which means less acres will be needed. To be able to accomplish this goal, I will have my friends help me out. They will go with me to dinner and help me no eat so much meat.
Trash inventory
When the homework was assigned I thought that I was going to feel very guilty about my lifestyle, according to how much trash I produce. Fortunately, I was glad to find out that I do not produce as much trash as I thought I did, and most of the trash that I threw away is recyclable. I consider myself really wasteful person because I thought I used I lot of paper and plastic. However, I mostly use plastic because of water bottles. But after the exercise I felt good about myself because I didn’t waste that much on a daily basis.
The area that I was more waste full on was the plastic, because I only consume water out of plastic water bottles, and I know is really wasteful, however, the taste of water fountains is not the same. However, I have made the promise to lower my consumption of plastic water. Because is really hard for me to drink the plain water of the water fountain I am planning on putting some flavor in it so it doesn’t taste that bad. Another, area is food. Currently, I eat at the dinner every meal. Unfortunately, the food there doesn’t taste good all the time, or sometimes I change my mind about what I want I end up not eating what I first got, and I throw it away. Therefore, I waste a lot of food that could be eaten by other people. That is the only thing I really surprised me about my wastefulness. When I notice how much food I was wasting I stopped getting food just to get it. I first go around the entire cafeteria and decide if I really want to eat the thing I am about to grab, and if not I don’t take it and I look for something else. That has lowered my food waste greatly and now I feel better about myself. I feel that I throw away food so easily because if I wanted it later I could just get it right away, cheap and at my time/money convenience.
Due to my great amount of food I threw away I notice that while food in other countries is sacred for me didn’t mean anything. I always have it at my finger tips and in this case I have more than I need so I just tend to throw away the rest, and that was become a really bad habit that I want to stop as soon as possible.
The area that I was more waste full on was the plastic, because I only consume water out of plastic water bottles, and I know is really wasteful, however, the taste of water fountains is not the same. However, I have made the promise to lower my consumption of plastic water. Because is really hard for me to drink the plain water of the water fountain I am planning on putting some flavor in it so it doesn’t taste that bad. Another, area is food. Currently, I eat at the dinner every meal. Unfortunately, the food there doesn’t taste good all the time, or sometimes I change my mind about what I want I end up not eating what I first got, and I throw it away. Therefore, I waste a lot of food that could be eaten by other people. That is the only thing I really surprised me about my wastefulness. When I notice how much food I was wasting I stopped getting food just to get it. I first go around the entire cafeteria and decide if I really want to eat the thing I am about to grab, and if not I don’t take it and I look for something else. That has lowered my food waste greatly and now I feel better about myself. I feel that I throw away food so easily because if I wanted it later I could just get it right away, cheap and at my time/money convenience.
Due to my great amount of food I threw away I notice that while food in other countries is sacred for me didn’t mean anything. I always have it at my finger tips and in this case I have more than I need so I just tend to throw away the rest, and that was become a really bad habit that I want to stop as soon as possible.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Earth vs Wants
Cut down. Dig out. Disturbed. Polluted. Kill. These words might be harsh or not, but this is exactly what we have been doing to our planet. It seems like humans got there late to the giving of hearts, because we do things that are so painful for others that it makes us seem like we don’t have hearts. The selfishness within ourselves has over taken us. The more we have the more we want, but who is to blame. This is how we were raised. Even in the poorest places one thinks like this. It is horrible how we now consume without thinking what we are actually doing with our actions. When we decide to buy something, we are not only making a decision for ourselves, but a decision for everyone else. Just think about how much had to be done to get that product?, how many things had to be cut down, did something had to be dug out leading to the disruption of the earth. With this how much pollution was added into natural places, and how many species had to be killed to just make this product. I understand that some things are essential and that we have no other option but to buy those things. However, even for the essentials we have options. We have the option to buy things that we know where they are coming from, which most of the time can tell you about how it was made, and you can see what it is made out of. We have even a bigger option when it comes to the things we want. Although, one might thing that what we buy doesn’t affect our planet, it does very much.
On the other hand, is it very realistic to ask people to stop what they are doing, what makes them happy? Most of the people in the United State are middle class going after the “American Dream”. I am an example of these people. I grew up in Mexico having too little, and barely something to eat. Unconsciously, we were “going green” because we waste as little as possible to reduce our bills. Because, I grew up this way I am able to be satisfied with very little, just as many other people who are trying to reach the same “American Dream”. For me the “American Dream” means having all you need and want at your fingers, or just doing what you like and not worry about the money. However, can you really blame people for wanting this, when they have never had it? I am a very ambitious person, in a good way thought, I don’t take more than I need however, I do want more than what I have. To achieve this goal I will make decisions that do not benefit the ecosystem and that put more carbon dioxide into the ecosystem, but I know that I will take the most sustainable steps to achieve my goals.
Monday, April 12, 2010
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