Hector Acosta

This activity was a very nice distraction from my daily schedule of sitting in front of my computer screen for long hours of the day, My family and I spent a good amount of time bonding over gardening, and it was just nice to spend some time with them in a way that helps the environment as well. You can see the work we did in the picture attached! The first human activity that comes to mind that affects my local water shed is runoff water from the farms that surround my town. What occurs is fertilizers that are used in agriculture can get into our watershed that will contaminate and pollute our local water. One way we can prevent runoff from contaminating local water systems is by planting shrubs, trees, or grasses along the edges of the farms in order to act as a buffer between the farm and any potential water sources. Another activity that affects the health of our oceans are the excessive carbon emissions that we are emitting. Having factories near large bodies of water have a large influence because this contributes to ocean acidification. Acidification essentially will lead to fewer marine calcifiers, which can completely destroy whole marine biological systems. A way to combat ocean acidification is to establish laws that help limit carbon emissions, such as a carbon tax. The most evident problem our oceans face to the human eye is the absurd amount of plastic pollution that is within our oceans. In order to combat this pollution there are some things we can change some things about our daily lives. We can stop using disposable cutlery, we need to use reusable shopping bags, we need stop consuming bottled water, we need to buy plastic free packaging, we need to stop using disposable cups and straws, and we need to avoid buying synthetic clothing. I feel like these are viable solutions to stop the plastic pollution we see in our oceans. It is extremely important now more than ever that we take care of our oceans and our local watersheds because without water we will cease to exist as a society. The changes I will make are I will 
tell my family to stop buying bottled water and to use a reusable bag every time i go to the store. 

I have never calculated my carbon footprint before so I was very excited to see how much I am actually contributing to climate change. Below in one of the photos is the carbon footprint of my family which is 4.51 tons of Co2 per month which is above the country's average. It is hard to quantify how much carbon that actually is, but one thing I really enjoyed about the website was the fact it makes and equivalent of carbon emissions to the amount of gallons of gas consumed it is and 6,096 is an astronomical number. That is roughly 3 coast to coast trips of the United States. I naturally began to think of ways that I could lower this number. The first thing I noticed was I could try to walk more instead of driving.Living in a relatively small town the stores are not that far from my house, so walking there is completely feasible and it would provide me with some exercise. The biggest way I noticed in how I could limit my family's carbon footprint was if we stopped consuming red meat. I did some experimenting with the carbon footprint calculator and if my family and I ate meat less often rather than our large servings we would save .12 tons, which in the grand scheme of things does not sound like that much but it is progress. I did some more research and found out the ideal carbon footprint to stop temperatures rising by two degrees celsius is 2 tons per person per year. The carbon footprint used here was per household per month. So the average carbon footprint per person in my family is 13.5 tons per year. This is a huge wake up call for myself because this way of life is just simply not sustainable if I want the Earth to have a future. Another thing I would need to do is be more conscious with the amount of electricity used by my family and I. Even though we do use solar energy, not all of it is covered by our solar energy. Switching to LED light bulbs could also help with this. It is both good for our monthly energy bill and for the environment. Taking quicker showers is also a viable option to lessen the amount of gallons of water we use. The only thing I can hope to do is try to convince my family that we need to limit our carbon footprint, because if we don't change now it will already be too late for the future generation of my family and the future generations of the world. 

I have heard about how some seafood is very unhealthy to eat in the past due to the high levels of mercury within the fish. But I never really paid much attention to, which was a horrible decision on my part. Seafood is one of my favorite foods so it would probably be wise to see if it is something I should actually be eating. This is why this eco challenge was perfect for me. So I downloaded the app that was recommended by the challenge. I was pleased to see some of my favorite types of seafood like shrimp, squid, crab,  light canned tuna, and salmon were all healthy and had no mercury within them. However there were some foods that had mercury that I do enjoy such as yellowfin tuna and carp. The most dangerous of all the fish I have been eating is the ahi tuna which has the highest mercury level on the metric the app uses. I would get ahi tuna regularly in my poke bowls, but now knowing how dangerous it actually is I will no longer be putting seared ahi tuna within my poke bowls. When it comes to carp and yellowfin tuna the app recommends I eat less than six servings of carp per month and less than three servings yellowfin tuna per month which I think I was already doing, but to be safe I will definitely limit the amount of yellowfin tuna I consume because it was marked as having high mercury. It still is shocking to me that many places sell ahi tuna when it has such high mercury levels. I think that this just shows a vital flaw in our society that even though it is a danger to our public's health capitalistic gains for billion dollar industries are more important than our own health. I definitely plan on telling my family and friends about this app so they are also informed and avoid ingesting excess mercury within their bodies. I also plan to do more research on successful fishing methods, so I can stay informed what seafood we should be eating or what companies to stay away from. Another thing I also learned was the importance of buying local, so for that reason I plan to buy local seafood as much as I can so I can reduce my carbon footprint. 

Over the weekend my girlfriend and I took our dogs to Shaver Lake in Fresno, California. Every day for the past couple of months I have been so overwhelmed with my medical school application that it was really nice just to get away from everything. It is natural for us to forget our surroundings and get so focused in our work, but it was nice for even a couple of hours to be able to relax and lose myself in nature. Being able to explore the woods and swim in the lake with our dogs is the getaway that I needed. I have always had a deep appreciation for nature, but as I have matured that childlike wonder has been slowly beaten out of me from the stresses of the world. But this experience was able to light that appreciation for the world. I want to be able to spend more time outside and appreciate my surroundings more because it provides a sense of reassurance and relaxation that is so hard to find in the world. Feeling the warm sun on my skin as I basked in the lake surrounded by acres upon acres trees made me feel like everything was going to be ok in my life no matter what happens in my professional career. I think as continue to progress throughout my career I would need to keep exploring new places in nature for my own mental wellbeing, so I do not get overwhelmed with the stresses of life. We all only get one life and as cliche as it sounds I want to explore everything this world has to offer. Before I start my professional school I want to do something new. At the moment I hope to explore Lake Tahoe or even go on a cruise and have a deeper appreciation for the sea and all its beauty. This is why it is so important we take care of our planet right now. If we continue at this rate of climate change there might not be beautiful landscapes for us to witness in twenty years or for future generations to witness. In order to preserve our beautiful natural landscapes, I plan to be more eco conscious by driving less, consuming less red meat, and limiting the amount of single use plastics I use.