Carson Oakley

UTKSUST

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
215 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

3.0

public officials or leaders

contacted

Carson's actions

Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community

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

Transport

Use Muscle Power

Multiple Transportation Solutions

I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Carson Oakley 4/28/2020 5:23 PM
As the lockdown begins to lighten up, I still don’t see myself engaging in a lot of non-essential travel. The last time I was in a car was a week ago to pick up some Mexican take-out. Having never lived in a walkable area until college, I’m not a stranger to having to drive to get to everything. I do know now I prefer living in a walkable area. As the challenge winds down, it ended up not being very difficult to achieve as a result of the covid-19 crisis.

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Carson Oakley 4/24/2020 2:43 PM
Today I completed by one-time challenge of contacting three lawmakers about legislation regarding forests. In my Forestry 442 class I took this semester, we spent the last month debating the merits of HR 2607, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2019. Because I found myself so knowledgeable about this bill, it is the one I picked to contact my lawmakers about. This bill is just the latest of many bills by the same name. It attempts to make the reader believe the bill will reduce wildfires but is really just a blatant attempt to hand timber companies control of national forests. In addition to this bill's blatant disregard for NEPA, it also completely blocks access to the courts in three different ways and is all in all a terrible bill. I contacted my three lawmakers, Congressman Burchett, and Senators Blackburn and Alexander to ask them to vote against this bill. I don't expect to receive very timely responses, because my guess is all three are too involved with the COVID-19 outbreak to focus on this bill. I was successful in completing this challenge, and I find that I will likely keep track of this bill and continue to oppose it if it ever picks up steam. Right now it is just sitting in the House Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, which is well controlled by the Democrats.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Action Track: Justice for the Whole Community

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?
Carson Oakley 4/24/2020 1:37 PM
I am fortunate enough to have access to a lot of technology, but that comes at the cost of mining for rare minerals. When mining isn't done in a responsible manner the costs are environmental (water contamination, soil contamination, destabilization) and social (relocation, underpaid workers, child laborers). Additionally, there is the problem of E-Waste, which is sometimes just dumped on the people of underdeveloped countries who don't have the resources to dispose of it properly. This again leads to contamination of water and soil, and causes adverse health effects for the population living there. I also had never thought about buying food locally before this class, so even my habits of eating fruit during winter contributes to shifted environmental costs. For example, the grapes I eat in February have to come from somewhere else, like California, and the water that went into growing the grapes there re-enters the water cycle in Knoxville, rather than the drought-prone southwest.

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Carson Oakley 4/24/2020 1:05 PM
I miss being on campus and being able to walk everywhere. Before coronavirus I could walk to class, walk to pick up my groceries, and walk to the gym. I remember being tempted to drive to the TREC, but now I would kill for the chance to walk over from my apartment. One of the only good things about this pandemic is the positive effects on the environment-- particularly less air pollution in big cities. Because I have been sheltering-in-place I haven't been going anywhere, and I think of walking as a great way to get outdoors rather than to generate less pollution.

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Carson Oakley 4/13/2020 8:21 AM
This coronavirus means that I am not getting in the car nearly as often. I have definitely cut down on transportation emissions in the last few weeks!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Transport

How do your transportation choices affect your engagement in your community? Does your experience or enjoyment differ while walking, riding transit, biking or driving?
Carson Oakley 2/12/2020 5:15 PM
When you are driving it is easier to be less engaged with your commuity, I definitely feel more engaged walking around Knoxville than I do driving. I prefer walking and driving over public transit and biking.

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