Liam Evans

In the last few days, I spoke to my three family members, my roommate, and my partner about the importance of keeping up with sustainable practices as we are home so much more. I have spoken about the importance of, as we are all home, not keeping our lights on for more time than they need to be, especially having natural lighting. Also, about the amount of television usage and how we can buy groceries and supplies that waste less plastic and such with packaging, to use dishes more (and conserve more water)! I also see that being forced to be at home has likely led to a lot less waste, as we cannot go to coffee shops, get takeout, etc. as often as we have been able to in the past. Perhaps when this is over, we can move forward with more of a consciousness about what it is like to go out and waste less. I feel that in this horrible time, those of us who are privileged to have a shelter, and food, and safety can take time to focus on how our choices and the ways in which we approach the world and our resources have changed in a positive way (under these horrible circumstances), and reflect on this. The power to decrease waste and pollution and exploitation of our natural world lies in the people, and bodies of water clearing up and skies becoming blue again while we all stay home are something to consider moving forward. 

I have also been focusing on reducing my plastic use as much as possible, using glass Tupperware to pack food and store food in the fridge, not using lids/straws at coffee shops, and using reusable cloth bags for grocery runs.

Today I signed a petition to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy in cities across the U.S.!

https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/readyfor100-percent-clean-energy?promoid=7010Z000002799xQAA&_ga=2.194352877.1730403120.1582743445-176127276.1582743445

Solutions for overconsumption and overpopulation--
As a team, we discussed being able to deal with overpopulation and overconsumption by ameliorating access to strong family planning and sexual education, as well as having a strong public healthcare system. This way, people will be able to learn more about family planning and be able to afford healthcare services such as birth control (which will, in turn, decrease consumption as well with fewer people).
We also discussed having economic incentives for secondhand buying practices, namely shifting from an income tax to a higher sales tax, giving tax breaks to resold items, and promoting the cost-efficiency of reusable items.