MAYA WILSON

Hi Maya!

It's really cool that you discovered that eating meat is a big contributor to your water footprint. I hadn't really considered that, but now that I am thinking about it, it makes more sense. The animals take a lot of water to raise and then once they are slaughtered and go through the factory that also takes a lot of water. The packaging and cleaning process must involve a lot of water too.

I also lived in the dorms my freshman and sophomore year at UCLA. I think I inadvertently took shorter showers because I didn't want to spend a lot of time in the communal bathroom (LOL). I definitely take longer, warmer showers at my house, but I realize I don't have to do that since I survived in college by taking shorter showers.

I also realized from your post that gallons of water are wasted on flushing. I will try to be mindful and flush less often if possible (I agree with the commenter Abby on this one).

I did the water footprint calculator and got an answer that was lower than the average. I calculated my water foot print based off of my 4-person roommate household. Surprisingly, my indoor water usage was a low contributor to my overall water footprint. At the apartment, we are pretty mindful about not wasting water by taking shorter showers and not leaving the water running. We also don't have a dishwasher, so we have to wash our dishes by hand and we are more conscious about not letting the water run. My outdoor and virtual water usage are higher because some people in my household, including myself (although infrequently), eat meat. Like I said, I recently discovered how much water really goes into preparing the meat as it is sold in stores. Surprisingly, my shopping habits are a contributor to my water footprint. I put that I like to shop, which is true. I definitely could curb my spending and also save some money along the way! Overall, I really liked the questionnaire because it was casual and simple, but also thought-provoking in ways that I could reduce my water footprint. It's sorta scary because now they are putting higher price tags on water! This happens especially when it is scarce (drought, etc.) Water is a necessary component for almost all life, so I hope we can make it more accessible. 

Hi Maya! Love this post. It is quite interesting to think about how everything we do and consume has some sort of environmental footprint that attaches itself to our daily actions, such as drinking or using water. Recently, my family and I installed "tank banks" into our toilets in my house and I was so surprised to find out they can save up to .8 gallons per flush. Another way we have saved water, like you mentioned, is having a garden instead of constantly watering a lawn. I am an avid gardener and love growing strawberries, tomatoes, kale, baby lettuces, basil, figs, and so much more. This way, you can get produce that is seasonal and incredibly fresh-- it is so rewarding harvesting something that you planted months ago and have watched grow. Cultivating these gardens also promotes soil health and our physical health by growing fruits and vegetables. 

Hey Maya! I have been trying to reduce my water waste by cutting down on meat consumption as well! I agree that in the dorms it is really tough to do this. There are so many meat options available from the dining halls. I did not consider last year how much water waste this is producing. Now, living in an apartment, I have been able to better control the amount of meat I am cooking and consuming. Another thing that we do in my apartment is to only run the dishwasher once a night and take shorter showers. We have to pay for our water bill so we are able to see how much we use each month. Also, I agree about the flushing thing!! When I went to summer camp in Colorado where the water consumption is limited, we were told "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." This method would actually save billions of gallons of water if more people did it. Overall I think there needs to be a more sanitary system for toilets that would result in less water waste. We obviously cannot keep consuming this much water, especially with the expected population increase. The effects of water scarcity will be detrimental for many low-income communities. So much work must be done to reduce the average consumption of Americans. 

Oops my image didn't post before.

Hi Maya, 

I think it’s absolutely wonderful that your grandfather has found a place to not only practice gardening sustainably, but also to enjoy a sense of community and camaraderie that reminds him of his home back in Nebraska. He reminds me a lot of my own grandfather in many ways. When my grandfather was younger, and before he had surgery, he used to maintain his own garden in his own backyard. Not only is your grandfather helping to combat the climate crisis by cultivating more “carbon sinks,” but he is also supporting social equity in the community where his garden is located. Also, thank you for donating to the American Community Gardening Association! By supporting their initiative, you are helping to make community gardens more widespread throughout the country.

Since I don’t have very much experience with community gardening myself, I did a bit of research through the Nourish website and learned that community gardens can “grow fresh, healthy produce for very little money, green previously underused areas, [and] increase local food security.” (Read more about it here: https://nourishproject.ca/8-things-know-about-community-gardens) As someone who is interested in assisting populations experiencing houselessness, I have realized that participating in a community garden is also probably an effective way to assist those who are experiencing food insecurity. Besides that, my research has taught me that consuming/supporting locally-sourced foods and produce is more sustainable for the environment because it mitigates the need for carbon emission-generating transportation mechanisms. Why spend money on produce that was transported long distances when you can just purchase and/or consume produce that was grown in your local community garden? I am not able to grow an entire garden at home because I am still living in a small apartment in Westwood, but I have been growing some ingredients on my balcony. It feels extremely rewarding to be able to consume ingredients that you spent time and effort growing/maintaining. When I graduate and move back to my parents’ house this summer, I want to do some more research to find out if there are any community gardens nearby. I would love to participate in one!

If you are up for the challenge, and if your grandfather has extra space on his lot in the community garden, I would encourage you to maybe join him in planting a few of your favorite ingredients! I am currently growing dill and cilantro on my apartment balcony. If that is not an option, maybe you can do some research to see whether any other participants in your grandfather’s community garden participate in CSA programs. Perhaps some of the gardeners may contribute to CSA programs and sell some of their produce in the forms of CSA boxes. If you purchase produce from the grocery store regularly, this may be a great shopping alternative. You would be supporting locally-sourced food systems, which reduces carbon emissions, and you could also potentially save lots of money! I just received a CSA bag yesterday filled with produce from the Westwood Food Cooperative. There was lots of variety in the produce I received!

Either way, congratulations to your grandfather on maintaining a beautiful garden!

Hi Maya,

 

This was really neat to read. Your grandfather is setting a great example of what everybody could do to socialize and help the environment at the same time. I think in a time like today when social interaction was cut to a minimum, coming to a community garden could be therapeutic to say the least. I think that the more people that show up, the more they will share together and the more they will learn from each other. I think it would be very valuable to all communities if they fostered some sort of community garden either for neighborhoods or just for the city. 

My family and I have a small garden in our backyard as we are trying to go more green and use our compostable material for our garden. I think having a community garden in my neighborhood would be really neat and would certainly bring our neighborhood closer together. Right now, I know maybe three or four of my neighbors and I would like to get to know more, but there aren’t many opportunities to do so. Further, I like how you talked about the carbon sequestering that the community garden does. It could prove very beneficial to our environment if large amounts of community gardens are created. They would help the environment, help socially, and could possibly help the less unfortunate. With the community gardens, excess food could either be donated to food pantries, given that it would be distributed in a proper time, or could be reused as compost as fertilizer for the garden. 

At first I wasn’t a huge fan of gardening and the work associated with it like weeding, replanting, and harvesting but then I realized it could be therapeutic. It was also a chance for me to spend time with my family which is something I have been missing due to academic responsibilities and work. Even in environments that are harsher, something could be grown or community composts could be a thing that are then distributed to other communities for use. It could support lots of people on a volunteer level and others would help each other and could share recipes to bring everybody together. 

Hey Maya! 
I think it’s super great you were able to speak with your aunt about her carbon footprint! It’s not too often you hear someone has installed solar panels on their roof, so definitely props to her for taking the initiative! 
Another suggestion for her when it comes to simple produce is she could consider planting her own, if she has the space for it. Small plants like rosemary, basil, and peppers would work great; people don’t buy them enough to go to the store every week for them, but having them around reduces the need to go to the store when they are needed. Does she use reusable bags for her shopping? That could also be something else. 
Thanks for sharing! 

Hi Maya- this is awesome! This actually relates to what I previously talked about in my other post connecting women, access to contraceptives, and climate change. A growing population increases global warming, as more emissions are used and released into the atmosphere. Education goes a long way, as you mentioned, and not just because women can move into positions of authority and ultimately create better futures for themselves — but they create better futures for us all. As more women enter higher fields of education and higher positions, they are better able to represent us, and make informed decisions for our benefit. Issues like education, contraceptives, sexual well-being, and rights to our own body and freedom of representation are major topics still being debated, because although in American culture we have gained freedom and education to be fully aware of these issues, in rural areas, particularly low-income, there is much work to be done. A vast majority of women in third-world countries do not have access to proper education, hygiene, and contraceptives, and this leads to very preventable struggles.  Even in our own country, there is a huge amount of work to be done. 

Nice work Maya!

I also researched this same topic and never had realized the connection between women's education and climate change.  Although I have known of the disappointing disparities between men and women in terms of job access, wage, etc. the disparity in relation to climate change is less  known, in my opinion. 

A major issue in relation to the disparities and issues you mentioned is the limited access to family planning and healthcare options across the world.  As addressed in the Project Drawdown article “Health and Education,” “225 million women in low-income countries say they want the ability to choose whether and when to become pregnant but lack the necessary access to contraception.” This lack of contraceptives not only increases human populations and thus humans carbon footprints, but can impact mothers financial independence and ability to make a living for themselves and their children, like you mentioned above. Similar to your point, as lower education levels in women lead to more unintended pregnancies and faster population growth, increased advocacy for family planning can go a long way in reducing emissions and carbon footprints. Without family planning resources, women are disproportionately affected by a lack of education and social progress. 

After reflecting on my personal donation and research, I felt a sense of empowerment. Although it was just one donation I made, I think that becoming more aware of where I am putting my money and putting it towards better causes can go a long way in forcing me to look outside of myself and at the better society as a whole. Just like becoming personally more sustainable in my daily life is a process, becoming more involved in charities and donation is a process as well and one that I hope you are as inspired as I am in the future to take part in. 

Maya, I'm glad that you posted this source so I might consider donating to it too. In general, I think it's important for women to be educated and for us to support their education because of disparities that already exist between men and women (wage inequities, access to jobs, etc). Generally, it makes sense that women who don't pursue further education (or any education for that matter in some areas of the world) tend to have children earlier. Again generally speaking, these women tend to fill the roles of homemakers and wives. This also makes sense that women are fulfilling these roles especially in patriarchal societies.

For my research project, I am pursuing a career in OBGYN and seeing how that intersects with climate change, so it inherently deals with women's health and how women are impacted by climate change. From my research, I found that women are more likely to live in poverty than men. This is problematic because they have less access to resources and a lesser ability to move and acquire land. As climate change increases, these women that are dealing with compounding problems such as poverty or housing insecurity will struggle the most. 

I think it is nice that you donated to the Malala fund since she is a leader in the community for supporting women's education. I remember reading her autobiography awhile ago and that it had a profound impact on me. It shows the importance of supporting women going to school. It made me feel grateful to go to school and that I had my family supporting me. Luckily, Malala's family also saw the value of education which is why she was able to go to school, although most of the other girls her age in Pakistan were not afforded the same education as she was. In her autobiography, I remember that she described her hometown in Pakistan as a place that had hot summers and often suffered drought. Malala advocates for mitigating the climate crisis and has publicly supported women to pursue "green jobs."