Jaewoo (Jae) Jo

My girlfriend is going to school in Las Vegas and I live in LA, so we would usually fly to see each other before COVID19 started. It just made economical and travel fatigue sense for me, as gas and food on the trip would cost me at least 100 dollars with two full tanks of gas and I would be on the road for 10-15 hours round trip depending on when I chose to leave and come back. 

However, I calculated my carbon footprint from flying from LAX to Vegas and it came out to around 0.20 tonnes per person due to the reduced passengers during COVID. This meant that I would be emitting considerably less C02 if I drove, especially if I brought my suitemate with me, whose family also happens to live in vegas. The drive came out to be around 0.6 tonnes of C02 per person instead of 0.20 tonnes, and was much more friendly to the earth. The logistics and planning was more tedious and we had to be on the road for longer, but it was also worth it to have a car to drive around in Vegas and we really saw the positives in driving to Vegas even above the climate benefits. We could bring more bags as we didn’t have to worry about checking bags, and small benefits like this rose up multiple times throughout the trip. Our next senior trip will be to Vegas as well, and we will definitely be driving there, as 6 people in our car would be around 0.3 tonnes per person instead of 0.20 tonnes if we fly. 

The photo attached is taken by my suitemate on our drive back from Vegas, when my car hit 40,000 miles. We marked the occasion by stopping for Caines. 

To briefly touch on changing light bulbs to LEDs, our whole apartment was talking about changing the normal bulbs out to save money on our electricity bill while also getting bulbs that last longer that we don’t have to change as often. We were so lazy that we would not fix the bulbs that went, meaning LEDs were the obvious way to go. This project eco challenge post just gave me an excuse to tell my roommate that we should just go ahead and change all four bulbs, as two of them were out anyway. Now we are contributing to helping mitigate climate change, while feeding our laziness and saving money.

As for what’s next for me, my parents already installed a solar panel in our home and I urged them and sat with them through an electric stove consultation. Natural gas that is burned every time we turn on the stove is extremely detrimental to the environment, and the addition of an electric stove with solar panels is a no-brainer in terms of money saved and efficiency. Although it took some convincing for my mom to not cook on a live fire, they are heavily leaning towards installing an electric stove in the next year or so due to the environmental and cost effective benefits. Another way we could be more energy efficient is to install ceiling fans so that we do not have to turn the A/C as often. There are times when there is a cool breeze outside but the inside of the house is being baked like an oven due to the low transfer of breeze through our small windows. A ceiling fan could bring the house to equilibrium with the outside cool breeze more quickly so that my mom doesnt turn the A/C on when it's 70 degrees outside. The picture attached is the four new bulbs installed. 

I basically eat every dinner with my roommates, with one person that cooks for all three of us on a rotating schedule. To the horror of my roommates, I told them that I was going to take down the TV off of our wall for a whole week to practice mindful eating. Although I did not get a picture of their faces when I told them that, you could imagine that I told them I was going to take away their newborn babies for the first week for scientific tests. The first night was them complaining about not being able to watch New Girl, as our sacred dinner time was occupied by New Girl for the past few weeks. They argued that they were studying hard until dinner and wanted the reward of relaxing and watching TV for the few dozen minutes that we ate. However, we started talking about stupid stuff we saw in classes, what was happening in our respective clubs and what was happening in the news naturally while we were eating. We are usually silent when we eat. I thought I was being dumb at first pulling down the TV from our wall, but I thoroughly enjoyed the organic and natural conversations that flowed from the silence of the lack of a TV show. 

I definitely enjoyed the time I got to spend with my roommates and suitmates while we were eating, and I definitely think they secretly enjoyed it as well. Although I put the TV back to its original position, we now have designated days where we skip TV and just talk about stuff to clear our minds.

The attached picture is where I hid the TV for a week. Out of sight, out of mind.

I definitely did not even consider going to the farmers market to get fresh produce and ingredients while supporting local farmers before I took this class. I did not feel a slight bit of shame or weirdness in getting all my produce from Ralphs or other big chain stores, as they were cheap and I thought was fresh enough. Without ever having seriously considered the farmers market or even been to one for more than 5 minutes before this class, I had already dismissed it as expensive and a gimmick to sell more produce for higher prices. I had thought it was for someone that had the privilege to not be forced to go to big chain stores that were cheaper. 

Little did I know how easy it was to support local farmers while also getting the freshest produce possible. The fruits that I always got for my breakfast yogurt bowls or smoothies actually had a noticeable taste difference when I started to slowly buy more fruits from farmers markets. It was actually cheaper to buy certain fruits from farmers markets as well, such as strawberries, and the marked difference in taste was really surprising to me. This is why we chose to go to the farmers market at least once a week to get fresh produce, while limiting groceries from big chains to things that we can unfortunately only get there. I really value the support of local communities and the ease of fresh food that is available right at our fingertips.

The picture attached is from the Downtown Anaheim farmers market on center street promenade when I went back to Orange County to live with my uncle for a bit. Me and my girlfriend went on a Thursday to get the produce that we need for breakfast on the weekends.