Ecochallenge.org

Drawdown Ecochallenge

Gayle Giovanna

Community Team

"Plants, especially trees, can solve the climate crisis. Keep forests intact!"

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
10,953 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

10

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

1,187

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

412

locally sourced meals

consumed
UP TO

1,427

more servings

of fruits and vegetables
UP TO

3.0

public officials or leaders

contacted
UP TO

515

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

212

plastic containers

not sent to the landfill

Gayle's actions

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates

Reduced Food Waste

I will spend at least 20 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Forest-Friendly Foods 1

Tropical Forest Restoration

I will spend at least 30 minutes researching the impact of my diet to see how it contributes to deforestation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Advocate for Forest Protection

Forest Protection

I will contact 3 congress people or representatives to advocate for public policy that protects forests and the enforcement of existing anti-logging laws, as well as the rights of local people to protect and restore the land in their communities.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity

Explore Other Electricity Solutions

All Electricity Solutions

I will spend at least 30 minutes researching other Drawdown Electricity Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Reduce Single-Use Disposables

Bioplastics

I will avoid buying and using 2 single-use plastics and instead replace them with durable options.

COMPLETED 119
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

Straw Bale Building

I want to build a small studio perhaps using straw bale construction. I have several friends who have used this method. What are the advantages/ disadvantages? My goal will be to design the studio with straw bale construction, and show the design to friends who have built their home in this manner for their comments and insights.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Sinks

Support a Community Garden

Multiple Solutions

I will support a community garden by volunteering, donating, or advocating for a new or existing one.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Industry

Practice the 5 R's

Recycling

I will Practice the "5 Rs" — refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle — to reduce my waste more than I can with just recycling alone.

COMPLETED 212
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Nutrient Management

Nutrient Management

I will research and support local farmers who have made the decision to not use synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Reduce Animal Products

Plant-Rich Diets

I will enjoy 3 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.

COMPLETED 400
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Learn about Local Indigenous Practices

Indigenous Peoples' Forest Tenure

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning how local indigenous tribes are caring for the land by participating in a training, workshop, or presentation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Action Track: Healing & Renewal

More Fruits And Veggies

I will eat a heart healthy diet by adding 2 cups of fruits and vegetables each day to achieve at least 4 cups per day.

COMPLETED 400
DAILY ACTIONS

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Organic Growing Methods

Nutrient Management

I will buy organic cotton and foods grown without the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

COMPLETED 400
DAILY ACTIONS

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

Learn about Biochar

Biochar Production

I will spend 30 minute(s) learning about biochar and how it can help sequester carbon.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Coastal, Ocean, and Engineered Sinks

Building With Carbon Storing Waste Products

Engineered Sinks

I will spend at least 120 minute(s) researching how people can build with carbon-storing materials - including agricultural byproducts - and discuss it with my peers or post to social media.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Research and Consider Switching to a Hybrid or Electric Vehicle

Electric Cars, Hybrid Cars

I will spend at least 60 minutes researching and weighing my options to see if a hybrid or electric vehicle makes sense for my lifestyle.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Support Local Food Systems

Plant-Rich Diets

I will source 1 percent of my food from local producers each day. This could include signing up for a local CSA, buying from a farmer's market, visiting a food co-op, foraging with a local group, or growing my own ingredients.

COMPLETED 400
DAILY ACTIONS

Action Track: Building Resilience

Tour a Green Roof

Green and Cool Roofs

I will set up a visit or a virtual tour of a green roof in my city, and ask about the codes and process for installing a green roof.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Explore Other Transportation Solutions

All Transportation Solutions

I will spend at least 30 minutes researching other Drawdown Transportation Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Purchase a Carbon Offset

Efficient Aviation

If I buy a plane ticket, I will purchase a carbon offset.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transportation

Test Drive an Electric Bike

Electric Bicycles

I will test drive an electric bike at a local distributor to see if it makes sense to use one in place of my car, or to extend the area I can cover by bike.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food, Agriculture, and Land Use

Explore Other Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Solutions

All Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Solutions

I will spend at least 60 minutes researching other Drawdown Food, Agriculture, and Land Use Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

REFLECTION QUESTION
Transportation Test Drive an Electric Bike

Half of all trips made in the US are three miles or less; 72% of them are driven. Private vehicles account for 60% of trips of a mile or less. Do you often drive short distances instead of biking or walking? If so, how might incorporating an electric bike into your lifestyle help you make more climate-friendly choices?

Gayle Giovanna 6/30/2023 5:25 PM

I am afraid that biking in my area (very rural) and at my age (73), is not really feasible, even with a pedal-assist electric motor. My normal daily mileage on my car is about 30-40 miles. It is 17 miles one way to work, 20+ miles to the grocery store. The library, gas station and other places I frequently go are about as far.
Also, the lack of bike lanes worries me. Many of the roads in my town are rough dirt roads, dusty in the summer and frozen in the winter, knee-deep in mud in the early spring and late fall, with barely enough room for two cars to pass abreast. If you add a bicycler, it becomes dangerous for the bike-rider and frustrating for the driver, because you have to go much slower than usual until you can safely pass.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Land Sinks Advocate for Forest Protection

Higher standards of living are very often dependent on moving our environmental costs elsewhere. What are some specific ways in which the environmental impacts of your own lifestyle might be shifted elsewhere?

Gayle Giovanna 6/29/2023 7:29 PM

Oddly enough, the current thought that we should "electrify everything" shifts the deep environmental costs to places and cultures that contribute little or nothing to the climate crisis. For example, Vermont gets part of its electricity from HydroQuebec. This is a hydropower system in Quebec, Canada, that flooded thousands of acres of forest to create the reservoir that produces the power. That forest was the home of five Cree Native tribes that were displaced by the flooding of the forest. With more demand placed on the power grid, more acres will be flooded, and more tribes will lose their home. And the world will lose some ecosystem services that those forests would have provided, such as carbon sequestration and storage.

Read More
Gayle Giovanna 6/23/2023 5:30 PM

Today I gathered up dozens of plant pots to bring back to the local garden Center's annual pot recycling day tomorrow. Many of the pots are black plastic, which the regular town recycling center will not accept, even though they have a recycling symbol on them. So I have many year's worth of pots to get rid of. Yay!

Read More
Gayle Giovanna 6/20/2023 3:17 PM

I moved back into my tiny three-season cabin last week. Even though it is primitive-- off-grid, no heat or cooking facilities other than an old woodstove, no running water after the spring dries up-- it is still very satisfying. My carbon footprint is very low, and I can grow some of my own food organically. The best part is that I can hear the loons that nest on a nearby pond.

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Gayle Giovanna 6/11/2023 5:03 PM

Wild chervil is a highly invasive plant that is taking over here in VT. The seeds and the rhizomes are poisonous, but the leaves are not. So I cut off the bloom stalks, so they don't go to seed. If they don't produce seed, they won't send up a shoot next year, unless there are seeds in the soil from years past that have not germinated. It is a huge task--- there is so much of i

Read More
- Gayle Giovanna 6/23/2023 5:37 PM
  
  Further thoughts on the wild chervil: They spread by the rhizomes as well as the seeds..so cutting back the bloom stalks doesn't eliminate them entirely, they just come back from the rhizomes (roots). And I have also heard that the sap is toxic, as well as the seeds and rhizomes, so the whole plant is well worth getting rid of.
  
  Read More
Gayle Giovanna 6/09/2023 8:27 PM

I have been adding to my compost pile the charred small chunks of wood left over from fires in my wood stove. Before starting the next day's fire I take out the char, and soak it to make sure it doesn't have live coals in it. Then I add it to my compost, because it picks up and retains nutrients, releasing them slowly to the plants, as needed.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Building Resilience Tour a Green Roof

What did you learn on your green roof tour?

Gayle Giovanna 6/09/2023 8:18 PM

There are several different kinds of green roofs. I once lived in a partially underground house that was built into a south-facing hillside, that had a roof of sod that was continuous with the field behind and above the house. It was a fascinating place to live.

Read More
Gayle Giovanna 6/04/2023 5:43 AM

It looks like reversing climate change is not really a possibility at this stage of the game. But we still need to keep doing as much as we possibly can to ameliorate the worsening effects of climate instability and increase our resilience. Eat less meat and dairy! Build tiny houses! Don't give up the ship quite yet!

Read More
- nam dosan 8/26/2024 1:46 AM
  
  I love how each game in the Papa's games series introduces unique challenges and mechanics.
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Transportation Explore Other Transportation Solutions

What did you find out? What is the most interesting fact you learned?

Gayle Giovanna 6/02/2023 8:41 AM

Transportation sections of Drawdown book by Paul Hawken seem to be a bit of wishful thinking. All the Results and Rankings are projected to the year 2050, and seem to imply that the world and its civilizations will be rolling along pretty much as it is today, just with more electric cars and fuel efficient buses. But by 2050, I think the world will be hugely different, what with fires and floods and famine and diseases, caused by the out-of-control climate disaster we have brought upon ourselves. I think we will be more worried about where our next meal is coming from, than whether we take a high-speed rail or our own single occupant cars to work. If work even still exists. Sorry to be so negative, but I can't imagine that the world won't be vastly different by 2050

Read More
Gayle Giovanna 5/31/2023 8:13 PM

I have been pulling out buttercup flowers from the horses' pasture.They are mildly toxic to horses if ingested. The horses seem to know that they shouldn't eat the buttercups, but I am taking no chances!

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