Peter Bazos

1) One thing I’ve learned about myself through the daily challenges I've taken on from the water, energy, food, and health categories is that I rely heavily on quiet alone time where I can be with my thoughts. I've realized this because through my new challenges, I have been turning off electronics and other energy users when it’s not essential to me, spending less time in the shower, and eating simple meals (more organic) which all allow me to slow down the rushing pace of my day and have time to be mindful and complete my fourth challenge where I can express my gratitude. I can compare this to when we talked about driving through a national park versus walking through one. There is a big connection between the pace you experience something and how much you absorb. Simplifying my habits and aspects of my life has been mentally refreshing and I'm glad I've realized that about myself.

2) Through my water, energy, food, and health daily challenges I’ve learned a lot about my relationship with the environment. For my challenge that requires me to eat a meal with organic ingredients each day, I have found that when it comes to food I have a good relationship with the environment. I never really have junk food and try to avoid super-processed foods. I am certainly nowhere near perfect and at a point in my life where it would be very difficult for me to be but I can confidently say I am better than most of my friends in choosing to diet in an effort to strengthen my relationship with the environment. I looked into the shoppers guide article (EWG) and I have been making sure to incorporate those into my meals. I’d also say the 5-minute showers haven't been difficult for me. I’ve always been able to take quick showers, I don't listen to music in the shower as that is what I think keeps many people in the shower for longer. However, I read an article resource that explained that listening to a song or two can be useful if used as a timer for yourself (water-calculator). For my daily goal when I write my three things I'm grateful for I do find that sometimes before I think about being thankful for the environment my mind goes to material things which shows that I'm subconsciously less connected with the environment than I might think. Lastly, for energy, I have to turn all energy users off when not using them and I've been doing well with it recently but I remember in the fall semester I had an A/C window unit in and before I left for fall break, I turned it off and the room went silent and I thought to myself “I think this is the only time this has been off. So I'm definitely more aware of everything that uses energy and thinking about when I need them to be turned on.

3) By eating one meal a day with organic ingredients I've had to be more selective with my diet. It has caused me to actively scan for the word organic when selecting food. The first organic meal I ate after adding this challenge was chipotle. Having a nationwide fast food chain be organic reminds me a lot of the reading ‘Naturally’ written by Michael Pollan. The reading explained how organic farmer Gene Kahn had a wonderful organic farm, Cascadian farm, and how over time there was lots of opportunity for growth and financial gain and now Gene Kahn is extremely wealthy, and General Mills owns the farm. Gene was explaining how organic is scalable despite the misconceptions. I think Chipotle is a great example of large-scale organic or “industrial organic” as Pollan would’ve said. Also, a more far-fetched connection I found was after reading the provided resource in the health category about gratitude (yes magazine) I saw connections with counterculture food movements. The article I read explained how different cultures and ages express their gratitude in different ways. The article said that Americans are very individualistic and that reminded me of the food movement and how people in America when changing their diets are primarily driven for health reasons rather than changing diets for environmental reasons.

Due 2/5/2024

-As I've taken on these new challenges over the past week I’ve noticed new things about myself as well as new things about choosing challenges strategically. For this first week doing the eco challenge I choose to go for a daily walk outside and to eat mindfully each day. Then I also choose to write about 3-5 core values that I will continue to work on or that I will work to strive for. Through this challenge, we've been required to not only complete these tasks but then go and check them off on the website and write about them for class. At first, going in and checking it off seemed like an extra tedious thing to remember but over the week I've found that after completion, having to go check off my accomplishments makes me mentally revisit the action and causes me to reflect on it one extra time before I move on. I’ve learned that checking back in on something that I’ve done and reflecting on it is very meditative for me and keeps me motivated to continue to keep up the good habits the following day. So that is very surprising to me and might try to be more reflective on other aspects of my life as well. I also learned that It’s very different to choose an eco-challenge task for something you already do versus something new. For example, I eat every day, so eating mindfully wasn't something new, it was just altering the way I already do something. On the other hand, I never used to go for daily walks so that is something completely new that I've had to add to my schedule. I think while experimenting with working both habits into my life it's clear to me that doing one of each is important as it pushes you enough but does not overwork or overwhelm you as having two completely new daily habits would.

-I think the biggest barrier I face is truly doing these with the intent of helping myself and helping the environment rather than viewing it as an assignment. As I mentioned earlier, going back and reflecting on it helps with this because I can think about how my actions helped me with my day and improved my mood but I'm certainly still not close to considering these habits that I just do and benefit from. I think as time goes on and I settle into my classes more and can figure out more of a daily routine I will have an easier time making these changes permanent.

-Knowing myself I think that I can make at least some of these lifestyle changes permanent. Many changes, I can already tell that if I stay consistent with them, they will become second nature and not only better myself with but better the environment with. And the reason I don't say that I'll be able to make all of them permanent is just me being realistic. Life in college and right after college is pretty chaotic and some of these lifestyle changes may be extremely easy to continue or even forced to continue, however, some will also fade over time. But I am hopeful because as a person who gets anxious when there is still stuff to do each day and someone who likes to save money, I know I will be pretty good at continuing to complete these tasks. After looking into the resources I found that many of the changes cause one to save money in the process. For example, by taking 5-minute showers for a year I would reduce water usage and CO2 emissions by 70-80% (Green Lifestyle Changes-Take 5 Minute Showers, 2013). Therefore if I'm paying for my water bill I would see myself doing this as I am saving the money and helping the environment (feeding two birds with one scone).

Consistency- Consistency is the key to creating good habits and breaking bad ones. Rather than overworking yourself with farfetched goals, it's more effective in the long run to be consistent with smaller goals.

Empathy- Being able to listen to others and put yourself in their shoes even if you can't completely relate is an important trait to have in life and overlaps with environmental activism quite a bit.
Honesty- Being honest with others and honest with ourselves is the best way to improve yourself and grow as a person as you can identify your areas of weakness.

A) When I was first looking at all the action categories I was immediately drawn to the health and food categories. Then when looking through the daily and one-time challenges for those categories I saw some that made me excited while others made me a little nervous to take on. I’m intrigued by the daily health challenge called ‘Happiness’ where every day you either write down three things that you're grateful for or you write an email praising or thanking someone. I think I’m so excited for this daily challenge because I’ve heard so many good things about journaling and I think this would be a great start/entry-level task I can see myself continuing to do this even after our class finishes the eco-challenge. I feel that through this challenge I would improve my mindfulness and help me de-stress which in turn would allow me to work towards lessening my habits that are contributing to hurting the environment. As mentioned before, I am also interested in the food category. I think that when it comes time I might take on the ‘Try a new way to prep’ one-time action. I think I will choose this because it’s similar to the ‘Eating mindfully’ daily challenge, however, it catches you a step earlier. When preparing food for yourself you become aware of the number of ingredients in the meal, you also become more aware of the time, effort, appliances, money, energy, etc. it took to make the meal. With all that in your mind, when you sit down to eat I find you enjoy the meal more, you don't overeat, you are more thankful for it, and so many other benefits. These are all great things and I'm excited to take on this challenge, however, what makes me nervous is that this is an example of a challenge that is time-consuming, and when added to the other tasks I will accumulate I am hoping I don't feel overwhelmed.

B) I think the ‘Turn it off’ daily action from the energy category is a challenge that will have the most impact on my ecological footprint because it requires one to shut off anything that is using energy to run while not using it. I read into the additional resources for this challenge and found a cool article about minimizing energy use in college which made it very relevant to me. The article mentioned making changes in your dorm room such as buying the most energy-efficient appliances at the store, using a desk fan rather than a window unit A/C, using LED lights, using a drying rack for clothes, and so much more (Shrink Your Dorm Print- Smarter House). These are all achievable actions that I would come across every day which is why this daily action would have the most impact on my ecological footprint. Then the one-time action that would have the most impact might be ‘Stay on the ground’ a transportation challenge about flying less when traveling. I read one of the additional sources and learned about “flight shaming” in Sweden and how it was effective in that the number of international flights was reduced by 4% within a year which significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions (Flight shaming- The conversation). This will make a big impact on my footprint because not only will I be driving home from school for breaks, but I will also be carpooling with a couple of others to be greener.

C) The daily challenge that will address the political, social, and/or economic drivers of the crises we face would be ‘Skip the straw’. This challenge requires one to use metal or glass straws to reduce their one-time plastic usage which would otherwise go to a landfill or become litter. The article I read was about a brand selling these reusable straws. Their goal is to create a movement to reduce everyone's plastic use and offset the plastic usage and of course, ideally replace the plastic straw companies (Simple Straws). The one-time action would be ‘Sign up to vote’, from the community category. This challenge requires you to register to vote and then volunteer to help others register. I choose this because as we learned from reading the other day, voting and making sure others vote is crucial to making change and addressing those drivers mentioned above. I read an article to learn more and they were touching on how simple it is to register to vote and the weight that carries to rock a vote and spread the word.