Altamash Mahsud

I went back home to San Diego last weekend and, with my dad, went to a nursery and bought some fruit and vegetable trees. We got a tomato tree, as well as orange and guava trees. We then planted these trees in the backyard. I thought the whole process was really satisfying and felt comfort and excitement in the fact that we have our own fruits and vegetables growing in our own backyard, and that it only takes a couple seconds to get there. If we want to contribute to sustainability, then each one of us must start at a microscale level, and in this case sustainable garden practices are relatively easy to implement. Instead of driving all the way to a farmers’ market or a grocery store, contributing to carbon emissions and also spending more time, instead I can access these staples (obviously when they are in season) immediately. In this case, carbon emissions decrease not only because of fewer trips to the grocery store, but also the plants/trees themselves sequester carbon dioxide, further reducing emissions/removing them from the air. Just tending to a garden is fun, no matter the size, and I look forward to the results. I am going back home again for this long weekend and definitely plan on visiting the nursery again to see what other kinds of trees we can get to plant.

Health-wise, planting these trees in my backyard also lets me incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet, allowing me to substitute meat for these fruits and vegetables, which I know can have great health benefits.

Ever since the start of this quarter I have been more conscious than ever/caring much more about the categorizations of trash and trash management. I will admit, while previously I did pay some attention to the distinctions between compost, recycle, and landfill, it was not a priority nor very important to me to make sure to throw away something in the proper bin. For example, say I was in a hurry after eating something really quick: I would hurriedly glance over the labels for each of the trash bin distinctions and throw away my trash in the bin I think it belongs in, without fully making sure it was going in the right bin. Not only that, but if I had a piece of trash for which I was unsure of which bin it was supposed to go into, I would just throw it into the one that made the most sense to me (or the bin that had a label most closest to the piece of trash I had), not taking a few seconds to pull out my phone and look up whether my trash belonged in the landfill, compost, or recycling bin.

After doing some research into the importance of distinguishing the different types of trash and why these categorizations exist, I felt very guilty about how little importance I placed on trash management and optimization. Finding out about how trash is utilized (recycling is melted/broken down to be reused; compost breaks down and can be reused in agriculture as it can be nutrient rich and used as fertilizer) was very fascinating to me and made me realize just how essential these distinctions are for sustainability. With all of this in mind, I have been taking great care into making sure my trash goes in the proper place, whether I am outside throwing away some food I just ate or throwing away trash bags back at home.

From all the discussions of climate and environmental impacts we have been having in class over the past few weeks, something that I have really been heavily reconsidering recently has been my diet. I, along with many others, have this unnecessary need to include meat in almost every single meal, something that won’t be too sustainable in the near future, nor is it good for our health. Simply having a couple meals in the week be non-meat ones can have enormous impacts on both sustainability (less animals consumed per person) as well as our well-beings, since it has been shown that people that eat less meat, especially red meat, have lower risks for developing health conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

Although I have only just started this shift to eating less meat, I don’t know how it will continue to go. Currently, I am at one day out of the week without any meat, and will slowly ramp that up. For now, I can say that it is not too difficult to reduce the meat consumption, but I will see where I am at a couple weeks into this change. I definitely understand that the beginning of this lifestyle shift will be difficult, but as I continue, it should get easier, and by the end of it, it will be completely normal for me. I am not sure I could become full vegan or vegetarian, but I will do the most I can in cutting out as much meat from my diet as possible.

I have been recently thinking about my water intake, specifically the medium through which I get my water, as well as how I transport it/dispose of it, and how this affects the environment. Normally, I purchase a huge pack of water bottles from a store like Target or Costco, or, if I am on campus, purchase a water bottle from one of the many vending machines found everywhere. But, applying and thinking through the lens of climate action that we have been working with these past few weeks, I thought to myself: there is definitely a more environment-friendly approach to getting water, one that reduces my carbon footprint on a daily basis, the hydroflask. I have had the same hydroflask for more than 3 years, but it has just been sitting in the dark recesses of one of my cupboards, and I decided it was time it was time to put it to good use. I have always been reluctant to use it because I would have to carry it around when walking to campus and would add extra weight to what I already carry. However, when thinking of both the environmental and personal benefits of using a hydroflask (saving money on what I would otherwise spend on plastic water bottles, reducing plastic waste, keeping my drinks warm or cold, etc.), it is certainly worth the small amount of effort it takes to take one with me wherever I go. Then there also comes the topic of how I will fill my hydroflask: I bought a Brita filter-jug to filter sink water, which, compared to drinking bottled water, produces up to four times less CO2. So, both the use of a hydroflask and Brita filter reduces carbon emissions.

I am trying to make more changes such as this one in order to reduce my carbon footprint. These sorts of changes are very easy to make and can certainly have a sizeable positive impact on the environment through many avenues of environmental sustainability (reducing plastic waste, carbon emission reductions, etc.).

Recently, I have been going to the West LA VA Medical Center quite frequently, the one that is right across the freeway down on Wilshire Blvd, in order to begin volunteering there. However, after Professor Fallows discussed how he has been living a non-car, mainly-bus lifestyle, and how this greatly benefits the environment, I have reconsidered my method of transportation to the VA hospital as well. Earlier this week, I asked a receptionist working at the hospital if there was some sort of bus system that would take me to or near the hospital, and she told me that there indeed was. It turns out that there is a bus stop not too far from where I live that takes me to the hospital. So, this past Thursday, instead of going on my phone and ordering an Uber to take me to the hospital, I walked to that bus stop and took the bus straight to the hospital. Via some quick research, I found that taking the bus instead of the car reduces CO2 emissions by 45%. This fact is what also encouraged me to take the bus. Not only that, but if I were to continue to Uber to the hospital, I would be a solo rider: it would just be me in the car with the Uber driver, I would not be carpooling with anyone else, which makes me feel even worse about taking an Uber, as it is even less efficient and I would be contributing the same amount of CO2 to the atmosphere that 4 or 5 people could.

I hope that this is a steppingstone for me, and that I continue to be aware of how I affect the environment and how I can transform my lifestyle choices into ones that are better for the environment. I may even start walking to the hospital too, as the walk is not even that long from where I live (about 30 minutes). Nevertheless, my eyes have certainly been opened to how the life choices that we think aren’t that big actually are, and how these life choices can come to effect the environment and climate around us for decades to come.