Alejandro Morales

I had never even heard about community gardens or even knew that they existed before doing this eco challenge post. i was inspired to look for some nearby to where I live through one of my classmate's posts. Needless to say, there is a lot around me! I decided in the end to donate to the American Community Gardening Assoc because I feel like they have the broad expanse to be able to make sure that all of the gardens under them are able to succeed. 

The research provided on the drawdown card was also very interesting to read. I had learned something similar before on a previous assignment, but the fact that it is possible to repurpose old, dry land that many people think as worthless, and make it into a very productive biome capable of supporting life is honestly amazing. I had no idea that something like this could be done, and honestly, it will be a game-changer in our never-ending fight against climate change. I also learned that so called "land sinks" are able to sequester lots fo co2 from the atmosphere, nearly 30 percent of our emissions each year. With all of this research, I honestly will try as much as I can to create my own community garden when I become older and am able to buy my own insignificant plot of land. Not only to help in the fight against climate change and lowering the emissions from my home, but also to produce lots of good food that I will not need to spend money for!

For this challenge, I decided to take it upon myself to schedule a weekend sort of "retreat" with some fully vaxxed friends after not seeing each other for over a year. The process was really interesting since usually, we pool in funds to be able to go to cool places like Playa del Carmen in Mexico, however, doing this proved to be much easier. We decided to lay low this year and just book two hotel rooms in the city nearby for the weekend and just catch up. 

The research provided on the drawdown card and the site was a very interesting read as well, especially the piece on the scientists who now refuses to fly. I found it baffling the amount of cognitive dissonance from the people he knows, who obviously are very smart people as well. The story about the girl who gave up all plastic bottles but continued to fly was astonishing considering that she could have kept using water bottles but stopped flying and would have had a much bigger impact on the fight against climate change that way. 

I honestly do not believe that we will ever be able to live without flights as a society, but I do believe in the changes that are being made to make the whole process more efficient and eco-friendly. The development of fuel from algae sounds super interesting,  and I know that it is just the beginning. I look forward to seeing what developments are made in this sector, that will hopefully become more eco-friendly and abandon the use of fossil fuels in the future. 

This is a new journey that I would like to embark on, and I did my first meal today! The picture I have attached below is a picture of my breakfast from today, made completely from leftovers of last night's dinner plus two eggs that I cracked for this purpose, and two fruits from the loquat tree in my backyard. With this new project, I hope to further reduce the amount of food waste that I personally produce. I actually thought of some uses for the "waste" that came with my meal today. For example, the peel from the loquat fruit that I ate I put in the plant I grew in the backyard since it is biodegradable and can put great nutrients back into the soil of my plant to make it grow. The egg shells I put in a different area of the garden, as the shells also contain some very good nutrients surprisingly enough. They can release small, but necessary amounts of calcium from their surface, which plants and other creatures living in the soil harness for their processes. 

From reading the drawdown research, it saddens me that in a country full of plenty, there is so much food waste around, and that 8 percent of the carbon emissions are due to people grabbing more than they can eat. Hell, back on campus, I would see this at the dining halls all the time! When putting my dishes on the rack, I would see sometimes full plates of food that had gone uneaten or just had one bite taken into it. Like cmon bruins, we can definitely do better. 

Anyways, I have attached a picture of the breakfast I made for those that are curious. I will update this near the end of the quarter to signal my progress. 

This is something that I actually had on my mind for a while now, and decided to do it just two weeks ago! I love limes on literally everything that I eat, so I decided that it would be a good idea to grow one in a pot, and then transfer it into the backyard once they have grown a bit. This way, I can save myself some money by not having to buy limes at the store all the time, and also, help to bring a little life form variety to my backyard. Like the meme says, it ain't much, but its honest work. 

When reading through the drawdown links it was very interesting to see the different techniques used whether it was reforestation or aforestation on a plot of land that did not support life beforehand. This is definitely something that I will keep in mind once I save enough money to be able to buy my own home. This definitely seems like an amazing project to embark on. 

Further, the article was very interesting, especially when detailing the tree canopy inequality that exists. In my neighborhood, there are lots of trees and the homes are lush with green. However, where most of my family lives, there are not so many trees, and instead, everything is replaced by wood and concrete. I don't know how they do it, but I can definitely feel the difference in the ambiance whenever I go to visit them. To me, it's clear that the color green, and just the presence of arboreal life is crucial to the human mind Hell, I remember how happy I would be just walking through UCLA's beautiful campus, lush with trees all over. Except for south campus. 

I thought this challenge was pretty interesting since I pass by a lot of bus stops in my neighborhood. Despite living in a pretty nice area, there is definitely some litter left around in these stops. The sad thing is there are trash cans literally right next to the seat, so I have no idea how there is even ANY litter in the area.  I went around to every bus stop in my small town and picked up any litter I could see and put it in a trash bag that I brought with me. As you can see in the picture, it wasn't much, but I felt proud of being able to perform such a small improvement to my local community and perhaps saving a small sea turtle in the process. 

I read through the links on the challenge card right here and learned some interesting things about public transit and how to advocate for bigger and better things. One thing I was inspired to do, is perhaps to contact my congresswoman/ other elected officials to advocate especially for "tactical temporary transit", as I thought it was pretty smart, and it is what I see, that usually people do get used to "temporary changes" if they are popular enough. And if done right, new public transits will definitely be popular, while being very good for the environment. All in all, I do hope at least here in the US, that public transit gains more momentum behind it, because it can be an amazing way to give people efficient and safer transportation while cutting down on lots of emissions and pollutants. 

As for me, I will probably continue doing this for the remainder of my time here in my small town. Every weekend when I don't have much to do, it would be cool to pick up any litter I see at these stations, and perhaps I may upgrade and put up the bus schedule as well. It ain't much, but its honest work. 

While looking for challenges to do, I stumbled upon this one dealing with native Americans and their land. I had always heard the great emphasis that gets put on Natives and their land practices with regards to climate change and environmentalism, but I never exactly understood why. Through the links provided in the activity card, I did some digging and learned so much more about native land practices than I knew before. Compared to us Westerners, the way they treat the environment is sacred. It's honestly shocking when you see the difference. For many westerners, the environment is pretty much expendable as long as you get what you want. However, for natives, they have a much harder emphasis on sustainability and respect for how they use the environment because unlike us, they see themselves as part of it. I was fascinated when the article linked mentioned the controlled fire practices of the aborigines in Australia. It seems like a very smart way to use the land. Further, the article also mentioned that the maya farm the land with an emphasis on biodiversity and keeping everything similar to the way they found it. A far cry from the way our expansive farms and industrial agriculture treats the surrounding environment.

Further, I also did not know that natives contribute very little to CO2 emissions, and as a matter of fact, like the links described, they sometimes even help to sequester the CO2 already up in the air, thus aiding in the solution. That's why when I read about all of the terrible things that happen to their lands, it bums me out because these peoples are not only not contributing much to climate change, they are also helping to make the problem better. However, they are still meant to deal with the brunt of the issue.

After reading all of this, I decided that it was time to donate to the NARF, which aligns with the issues Natives are passionate about. I have donated before to various social justice initiatives like BLM, etc, but I have never actually donated to an organization for Native Americans. So after reading all of this, I felt like today was the day that changed.

 

I invited my cousin over to hang out for a bit since I haven't seen them in a while and also to come to calculate the carbon footprints of our households together. I will be honest I was shocked by my household's carbon footprint. I thought we were a pretty ecological-friendly household, but our footprint came out to be 4.35 tons of CO2 per month, much higher than the average of 4 for an American household. And this is just for a family of 4. However, my cousin was even more shocked when he calculated the carbon footprint of his household. There are six people in his household, and it came out to 5.48 tons of CO2 per month, living in East Los Angeles. We then discussed why it might be so high, and came to the conclusion that our lovely Hispanic diet consisting of LOTS and LOTS of meat and the number of people in our households that have to drive frequently make our footprint much higher than it needs to be. We both proposed ways in which we could lower it. I said that I would begin to eat much less meat than I usually do and cutting down on how much I use the car, and he said that he will try to talk to his family about this revelation, seeing what he could convince them to do. I have attached pictures of my calculated Carbon Footprint, and also attached a selfie of us together. 

I had no idea that much of the emissions are caused directly by the power we need for electricity. Project Drawdown states that "Today, electricity production gives rise to 25% of heat-trapping emissions globally." This is clearly a staggering number, as I was under the impression that the majority of emissions were from corporations of industries that aren't really necessities, however, electricity is a necessity. This is important because we desperately need to cut this number down drastically, however it will not be an easy task given that everyone needs electricity to survive and thrive. Eventually, we will run out of this resource while destroying the planet, leaving us with nothing left. 

For the first time in my life, I decided to contact my state officials. I have tried to stay as apolitical of a person for the past few years due to the chaos ensuing in government, but I felt that it was time to spring to action. I will definitely from now on use my voice when it comes to voting and letting my elected officials know what I think and what I believe they should do.