Alexa Brattain

This week practiced meal planning. Usually, when I go to the store, I buy a few main items and a few items I don't need. I buy a lot of fruits and vegetables but they usually go bad before I can eat them all. I always compost produce items that go bad to help reduce my food waste. This has also helped me create nutrient-rich compost for the plants I'm growing this summer. I've been trying to not buy in bulk and only shop for what I need to avoid wasting food. This week, I made a list of the core things I needed to buy at the store such as milk and bread. I have been trying to cook more and wrote down a list of all the ingredients I need to make a recipe I found on Pinterest. I noticed that this resulted in me buying less stuff. I still bought fruits and vegetables but only enough to last until my next trip to the store. From this week on, I will be making a list of everything I need beforehand, including one recipe I find online. This not only will help me eat a better variety of meals, but it also brings down the cost of my groceries. I was looking for what external sources I could use to connect with this week's post, but all that comes to mind is Pinterest. I get most of my recipes from this and save them all in a folder for later use. I recommend that people try this out because it is a great way to find fun recipes. I also have a folder dedicated to sustainability that I check out sometimes when I need reminders to keep up my sustainable practices.

This week, I decided to calculate my carbon footprint. I took a lengthy quiz and found out that I use 7.5 tons of CO2e. The average for an American is about 19.8 tons of CO2e. After I received my results, a second quiz was offered to me to help me decide how I could lower my carbon impact. I chose a few options such as taking the bus, eating more vegetarian meals, and switching to a few forms of renewable electricity. After making these changes, my carbon footprint would go down to 6.7 tons. I have successfully convinced my mom to use more climate-friendly materials in the household. My dad recently switched all our lightbulbs to LEDs. I am curious to learn what more I can do to help convince my family to decrease their carbon impact. I was visiting my family recently and noticed that my dad uses reusable cloth bags instead of plastic bags from the store. I think it could be a fun challenge to see who can be the most eco-friendly. I will be sending the link of the quiz in my family group chat.

Resources:
https://climatehero.me/large-usd/?id=Alexa_6.7#below

According to https://www.portland.gov, Portland has 5 major watersheds. These watersheds include the Columbia Slough, Fanno Creek, Johnson Creek, Tyron Creek, and the Willamette River. We get our drinking water from the Bull Run watershed. It is 102 square miles and has 2 dams to help supply water in the summer. The area surrounding Bull Run does not allow logging, or mining, and is not open to the public, except for guided tours. I don't know if it is currently an option, but I think it would be interesting to take a field trip to Bull Run. As the weather slowly gets warmer, I have been trying to cut back on my water use. It's more difficult to save water during the warmer months but I would like to start being more water conscious. Recently, I have been setting buckets up all around my yard to collect rainwater for my plants. I am curious to compare my water bills now with my water bills from a few months ago to see if there has been any different. I have been taking shorter showers and would like to know if this has affected my bills.

Last Wednesday I spent an hour and a half outside by myself. I put out 3 bird feeders, 2 filled with seeds and 1 with sugar water for the hummingbirds. I spent the first 45 minutes planting vegetables in my garden and spent the last 45 minutes birdwatching. My Grandpa has a few books on birds so I enjoyed trying to identify all the birds I came across. I saw a few bluejays and a few small brown and yellow birds.

This week I planted some broccoli and peas. In the past, I have had issues with pests. This week I went to the store to buy flower seeds to help keep pests away. I planted some nasturtiums that are known for keeping away aphids, beetles, and whiteflies. I planted some marigold seeds because they keep mosquitoes, nematodes, and cabbage worms. I also threw wildflower seeds all around my backyard and in front yards for the bees. When planting seeds, I have been using compost from my backyard mixed with soil bought from the store. I have been using organic, environmentally friendly nutrients to help speed up the growth of my plants. I did some research and found that I already have seeds for several native flowers. I spread a mixture of these flowers in my backyard in hopes that they will attract pollinators. 

I watched the video about bottled water. Bottled water is terrible for the environment. It is so much easier to buy a reusable water bottle. If someone is on a budget, Goodwill has reusable water bottles for super cheap. The video explained that only 80% of plastic bottles end up in the dump. The rest end up littered across the country or shipped to another country for disposal. The video also said that bottled water isn't necessarily cleaner or better quality than regular tap water. Drinking bottled water also increases the likelihood that someone will ingest microplastics. I have traveled quite a bit and can confidently say that Oregon and Washington have the best tap water. I did some research to find the quality of my tap water online. I found that my tap water has 105x the amount of Arsenic than recommended drinking water standards. It also has 310x the safe amount of haloacetic acids and 171x the amount of trihalomethanes. Besides this, Portland drinking water is high quality. Worst case scenario, I'll just buy a filter.

For this week's eco challenge I watched a documentary on water usage. A peer from class recommended that I watch the show "Explained". I watched the episode on the World's Water Crisis. I have taken an environmental studies course before and remember learning about water usage in Portland. The episode I watched this week explained the impact of water all around the world. According to the documentary, humans are only able to drink 1% of our world's water. Most of our freshwater comes from below the ground. This is an issue in some places, especially in Mexico City. Due to overpopulation and water usage, the city is sinking. The documentary mentioned that water could be the petroleum for the next century. To decrease water usage, people are debating increasing the price of water. This way, people would be less likely to overuse water. However, this would have a negative effect on low-income communities, and would dramatically increase the prices of food. One way we can reduce our water usage would be to stop growing alfalfa in the desert. Reducing meat intake would also help reduce our water intake. I did some research and found that 80% of our world's wastewater is dumped. This pollutes our waterways and gets into our food. I have heard stories of large corporations stealing water from Native reservations. I find this absolutely heartbreaking. Our country is selfishly hoarding water, leaving little behind for everyone else. I am curious to learn more about how to reduce my water use.

Resources:
"Explained" on Netflix
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

For this week's eco change, I decided to explore Gabriel Park. I've always been interested in checking out the community garden and was finally able to do so.  I would love to meet more of my neighbors and think that spending time in the community garden would help me meet new people. I did some googling, and learned that the community garden has been around since 1975. I also found a Facebook page for the garden but all of the pictures were pretty old. Since living alone, I've missed spending time at the dog park. I felt a little weird going without a dog, but I still enjoyed dog-watching at the park. I have a memory somewhere in my brain of me and my Grandma hanging out and making daisy chains on a grassy hill. If I remember correctly, I think it was at Gabriel Park. I tried looking for it but didn't end up seeing it anywhere. As the weather gets better, I would like to spend more time in the park. I think it would be fun to go around the park with a plant book and try to name all of the plants.

For this week's eco challenge, I decided to sign at least 5 petitions. The first petition I signed was for the Environmental Justice Foundation. I signed this petition because it brings awareness to climate refugees and protects them and their international legal status. It is important that we take care of those who are forced out of their homes due to the climate crisis. The second petition I signed was posted on change.org. This petition is asking Amazon to offer plastic-free packing options. Online shopping plays a huge part in plastic pollution. We need to make a change and ask large corporations to minimize their plastic use. The third petition I signed is asking for Wuanakee to ban the distribution of plastic bags. I chose to sign this petition because I believe that plastic bags should be banned everywhere. The use of plastic bags are especially harmful in cities close to large bodies of water. The fourth petition I signed is asking for Snapple to bring back their glass bottles. Snapple used to use glass bottles but switched over to plastic bottles. This petition caught my attention because my Dad use to purposely buy glass Snapple bottles to reuse as water bottles. He has a collection of these glass bottles and has been using them for years. It is disheartening to see large companies switch over to plastic. The fifth petition I signed is asking for Trader Joe's to reduce plastic packaging. This petition caught my eye because I regularly shop at Trader Joe's. I love the products and selection of food, however, I try to limit my spending there due to the store's high use of plastic. It seems that nearly every food item is covered in some form of plastic. I would be more likely to shop at Trader Joe's if they cut down on their plastic use. The TEDtalk we watched in class has motivated me to pay more attention to where my food comes from and how it is wrapped. I would like to significantly cut down on how much plastic I use in my day-to-day life. I believe that the biggest way I can do this is to try to buy food products with minimal plastic wrappings.