ALEXANDER CHEN

In order to benefit the environment, I have been planting succulents in my yard back at home. The ones in the picture I've attached are called "Jade plants." I first bought them at a nursery and then planted them. What I like about succulents is that they are very easy to care for. They are drought resistant, thus requiring less water to grow. The benefits of growing more plants is that it can improve the air quality of your home, removing toxins and pollutants, as well as absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen back into the air. Succulents in particular can also improve the humidity of your home since they store water and can increase the moisture levels in the room. 

If you're new to planting like me, I highly encourage you to get/grow succulents. You do not need to plant them into the ground like I did, you can have them indoors as well, as long as they have access to sunlight. I never imagined to care for planting, but after learning about the effects of climate change, I decided to be more proactive in steps I can take to help the situation, no matter how small. I found planting and caring for plants have also improved my mental health ad encourages me to go outside more. In the future, I plan to maintain the plants I currently have as well as exploring new plants that I could potentially grow.

Lately, I've been trying to be more mindful with the amount of water I've been using. After some research, I found that each person on average uses up to 175 gallons of water a day. Water is a finite source and using excess water is a major global issue that a lot of people, especially in the United States take for granted. By reducing our "water footprint," we allow our communities to be further developed (hospitals, restaurants, gyms, gas stations) all which require large amounts of water to be run efficiently. 

Some simple things I have been practicing is taking shorter showers (each shower on average uses 18 gallons of water), keeping water in the fridge with a Brita filter (eliminates need to run tap water until it's cool enough to drink), as well keeping up with my previous post of eating a vegetarian meal at least once a week. I was surprised to learn that the largest user of freshwater is the livestock industry. 10 billion animals are raised a year in the United States for food. The reason so much water is used in this industry is actually not to give to the animals directly, but through growing the feed necessary for them to eat. Simply eating more vegetarian meals, which is what I plan to do in the future, will have an impact on the water usage here. 

Starting this quarter, I have been actively trying to reduce my carbon footprint. In order to do this, I am making an effort to cook a vegetarian meal at least once a week. Tonight, I made tofu with vegetarian tikka masala sauce and onions. After doing some research, I was surprised to learn that a completely vegetarian diet can reduce one's carbon footprint in half compared to meat eaters. I initially never considered that such dietary changes could impact the environment so heavily. Meat takes up a lot of energy to produce and contributes to nearly 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. I was also surprised to learn that cows burp up a considerable amount of methane. 

It was really simple to make this meal, and I found it much easier and time efficient to prepare than cooking meat. I started cooking the onions first until they were slightly brown, added my tofu, then the sauce. I let this cook for ~7-8 minutes before it was already done. It tastes a lot better than it looks! In the future, I plan to look for other ways to prepare tofu and even venture out to other vegetarian protein sources like beans. 

Today, my roommate and I decided to walk over to LA fitness from our apartment as opposed to just driving there. We had been guilty in the past of using our cars far more often than necessary, especially when going to the gym. As discussed in class, I realized how ridiculous it was to drive to the gym to do cardio when we could be getting the cardio from just walking there.

Throughout my life, I had always pictured cars as being the most efficient method of transportation around cities. After hearing our class discussions, I began to consider all of the drawbacks to using cars both to our personal lives as well as its impact on broader issues like climate change. For example, just from walking to the gym, we were both able to reduce our carbon/chemical emissions, and even ended up saving a lot of time from looking for parking. In the future, we have decided to make it a habit to always walk to the gym as opposed to using our cars, and to extend it to other trips such as the grocery store as much as possible.

 

A few months ago, I started growing some of my own lemons to use for culinary purposes. I found through research that growing your own food provides many benefits for the environment. For example, it can save up to 25% greenhouse gases since home grown foods don't need to use up commercial energy and machines to harvest, store, and transport it. 

I was inspired initially by my grandfather, who used to be a farmer in Korea. He still continues growing his own fruits and vegetables in his yard, and his food is some of the freshest and tastiest I've ever had. I haven't really grown anything before, but did some basic research on how to care for plants. I water this small lemon tree a few times a week, and I can't wait to see it grow even more! This action is one of the steps I am taking in order to practice eating more mindfully. Taking a plant takes quite a bit of responsibility and care, but so far, this has been an enjoyable and rewarding hobby that I plan to do more of in the future!

Peer pressure is strong because after reading everyone's posts, I also decided to try eating mindfully with no distractions today. Throughout my life, I hadn't considered how much of what I ate could be impacting my carbon footprint. I come from a family of meat eaters, so it is a difficult lifestyle for me to change sometimes. However, I made my own salad today with fresh ingredients for lunch and made an effort to not turn on my phone, computer, or TV while I ate. I also had dinner with my parents and we have a bad habit of staring at our phones throughout meals, so I convinced them to put their phones away as well. 

Not only did I find I was saving power and electricity by limiting my digital usage, but I was more engaged with my present moment. I was actually enjoying the healthy salad I was eating as opposed to focusing on my phone. At dinner with my parents, we also had a much more engaging conversation that wouldn't have been possible through phone usage. After reading everyone else's experience, I can also say my experience practicing mindful eating has been nothing but positive. Of course, it was challenging at first altering old habits, but I felt much more free mentally (from technology) but also knowing I was proactively trying to reduce my carbon footprint. I will try to continue this new habit moving forward as much as possible.  

Hey everyone. I recently bought and did some research on LED/alternate lightbulbs and their environmental impacts compared to traditional incandescent bulbs. Despite incandescent bulbs being inexpensive, they are pretty bad for the environment. Not only do they burn out quickly, they emit carbon dioxide and heat, which can affect how hard air conditioners have to work. LED bulbs consume less power, so there's less CO2 emission. 

I admittedly was a former user of incandescent bulbs, but after switching to LEDs, I don't find incandescent bulbs to be any more effective than LEDs. I know there may be a stigma that anything labelled "alternate" is not considered as effective. However, LEDs actually tend to last longer since they don't burn out as quickly. I did find this to be the case since I have not had to change these bulbs as frequent as I did the incandescent ones in my old home. I was also pleased to learn that they are recyclable as opposed to incandescent bulbs, which get tossed out with the rest of household trash. I will definitely continue to use these and encourage others to do so as well. Let's brighten our future!

Hello everyone, one thing my family does to save energy is using LED/CFL bulbs, which use less than 75% of the energy of standard bulbs. They also last much longer and will save energy costs in the long run. It would also limit Greenhouse gas emissions.