Anthony Kelly

For this week's EcoChallenge, I selected to work on reducing the number of plastic bags I use while shopping and being better at conversing with my friends about important issues that affect us all. When I partook in the reducing plastic bag daily action for waste, I began to realize just how many plastic bags I have wasted and thrown out after a shopping trip. It made me realize just how much I was negatively impacting the environment. My friends have always been better than me about using reusable bags, but after my experience with them, I found it to be both empowering and rewarding. There is something about filling up the reusable bag that makes me feel like my personal contributions are making a difference. When I think about this I think about our discussion on personal vs corporate responsibility when it comes to pollution. I have never been one to put too much pressure on the individual to change significantly because I always thought a lot of the blame was on the corporations. I mean to be fair, according to the Truth About Carbon Footprint article, 71% of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere comes from 100 companies. But after this activity, I can appreciate personal contributions more and I see that there are small ways I can change to better the environment, even though in the past I was discouraged and felt like there was very little I could do. The community tab I chose was to engage in active listening with peers to spread my values to advocate for change. Throughout this week I have not been given many opportunities to participate in such dialogue, but I find it rewarding to listen to others, gain a new perspective, and better educate yourself on an important issue. It is how we can bring about meaningful change, as is portrayed in the Building Public and Political Will article. I am a true believer that debate is the best form of learning, and that is something I will continue to value after the EcoChallenge is over. In addition to my learning about personal contributions, I feel like I have learned a great deal through spending time outdoors and joyful movement. Being able to disconnect is a powerful thing, and I have felt more engaged in classes, feel like I have gotten better sleep, and overall just more present with life. However, my favorite daily action is to spend time outside and enjoy nature. Even though I am doing it as part of taking care of Milo, I find the beauty of nature relaxing. It got me thinking about what Pollan says and how he questions what is really "natural". He argues that human activity has long been a part of nature for thousands of years, so defining nature as purely untouched by people is unrealistic. I can find some solace in this, for even when I am outside enjoying nature and observing, there are landmarks of human activity all around. That does not destroy my appreciation for nature or my ability to reconnect with it, so I can understand where Pollan is coming from with his work. In today's world, you have to appreciate the outside and nature for what it is. I feel like these daily challenges have allowed me to grow my appreciation for it and taught me that nature is still rewarding regardless of human activity. Lastly, the week 5 readings about disposability resonated with me when it came to the "waste" and "food" daily actions I chose. I have always been bad about food waste and plastic waste. Before the EcoChallenge, I would try to meal prep for a week but it would always go to waste because I had a craving for something else or I was just tired of eating similar things each day. That, in turn, would lead me to throw away the plastic container that I put the portion into as well. The Never Gonna Give You Up article explained to us how corporations are to blame for the reliance on plastics for consumption and how synthetic materials have taken over the economy. Since 2000, half of all the plastic ever produced was manufactured for our goods. Corporations that made consumer goods encouraged a continuation of purchases that would enrich them and the chemical industry. These industries have been able to profitize from our reliance on these products. According to the article, in the 1900s, Americans produced little waste and the habits of reuse were strong. However, in the 1920s, most families moved toward a modern relationship with the material world and throwaway culture grew. I feel like the daily actions from the "food", "health", "waste", and "community" categories are an attempt to try to revert to our habits before plastic overtook our lives. It encourages people to reduce as much waste as possible and practice the habit of reuse as they did in agricultural societies. I feel like the EcoChallenge is set up for us to revert to the past when food was not preserved or wasted. It wants us to realize that the habits we grew in the past decades are destroying our environment, and we can learn to go back to our old ways if we try to break the cycle of comfort we have come to know with plastics.

Throughout our EcoChallenge, breaking the energy-consuming habits I have practiced most of my life has become a lot easier for me. The daily challenges I chose were to spend time observing the sunrise or sunset, take daily walks for exercise goals, shut down my computer, and lastly, reduce the number of plastic water bottles I consume. As I have mentioned previously, the tasks of spending time outside and enjoying nature were nothing new for my daily routine, mainly because of my dog, Milo. He is a ball of energy and loves spending time outside, so we usually spend several hours outside anyhow. But as I spent more time taking him on longer walks around campus, I noticed that I was more relaxed and better focused on work. Being able to get fresh air for several hours a day and just enjoying the sunshine made a big difference in my mood and outlook. For this reason alone, I am going to make a more conscious effort to prioritize such actions in the future. The new daily challenges I chose for the second week were to shut down the computer and to reduce plastic bottle intake. It was a bit more difficult to shut down the computer and other appliances just because I do feel like I am heavily reliant on technology for my entertainment. In addition, having the majority of my school work on my laptop makes it a bit difficult to complete this task, but I try my best to do it daily. Reducing plastic bottle intake was easy for me because I use my plastic or metal water bottles and a Brita daily. I rarely, if ever, use plastic water bottles, but I thought it would still be important to choose and report to see my environmental contributions. But overall, I would say the experience has been rewarding and eye-opening. Some of the barriers I face in spending time outdoors are the weather or the amount of work I have to do and time with practice. Sometimes, it is difficult to find the time to do it, and when the weather is particularly cold, I do not like to spend a lot of my time outside. I despise the cold. Other than that and the amount of school work, there are not a lot of barriers that prevent me from accomplishing my tasks. So far, I would say I am open to making these experiences permanent in my lifestyle choices. They are not much different from what I would do on a normal basis, but I do value being able to just unwind and relax to regroup. I am hesitant to say that future challenges or tasks may be more difficult for me to accomplish or assimilate into my everyday life, but like all of the tasks, I will try my best. I feel like the notion introduced in Carter's Sweater piece about Americans unwilling to accept less by making these individual choices still resonates today. I feel like most Americans take for granted the resources we have access to to live comfortably. I know I am guilty of such. I like having my luxuries, and I am unsure as to whether I would be willing to give them up or at least reduce my reliance on them. But I do feel as though that is what is the problem with the climate change resistance and why people are hesitant to join it. They feel as though their contributions are not enough, and this brings into light the literature focused on corporate rather than individual responsibility for climate change. People see very little progress being made, so many wonder why it matters if they make a conscious effort to be better. I know I can feel a bit defeated by that as well. So it is a strong barrier to why most people are unwilling to make these lifestyle changes in the name of bettering the planet.

When I think about the EcoChallenge activities listed for Unit Two, I am excited and nervous about participating in them. Between athletics and my one-year-old golden retriever, I spend much of my time outdoors and getting in plenty of exercise. With this in mind, I am primarily excited about both the health and nature challenges. In particular, I look forward to participating in the exercise and healthy sleep tasks. I do not foresee these challenges being any different than my daily routine which is already well-established, but I do feel like getting healthier sleep would greatly improve my day. However, I am a bit nervous about participating in some of the waste-reduction or water conservation activities. I tend to take multiple showers a day that extend well beyond the 5-minutes listed in that suggested activity. Personally, I could not imagine reducing the amount of time I shower to less than 5 minutes, but for the sake of the activity and the planet, I will try my best. Also, under simplicity, it asks us to separate our needs from our wants. As an impulse buyer with very little self-control, it is going to be very difficult to stay true to this task as well. I do like the idea of limiting my social media usage, however. I find myself daily spending hours scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat. I have always wanted to reduce the amount of time I spent on those platforms, but always felt it was too difficult to break that habit. Maybe with this challenge, I can be more successful with this personal goal. When I think about which tasks will have the largest impact on my ecological footprint, I think about the transportation section. I tend to drive a lot of the time when I am both back home and on campus, whether that is to grab a coffee or run an errand. If I chose to walk to the store or car-pulled or took the shuttle, it could reduce my ecological footprint greatly as well. Also, if I chose to participate in weekly meal planning I do believe it would greatly reduce my food waste. When thinking about the political, social, and economic drivers that cause many of the climate change challenges we as a people face, I think that several tasks can challenge those issues and facilitate discussion or debate. For example, under the food section, there are tasks about advocating for the reduction of animal products or choosing organic ingredients. Our political and social climate is so heavily intertwined in our routine that many people do not see the value of switching their habits. If more fact-based discussions were had, then we could help change those behaviors. In addition, under transportation, there is a task for advocating for green vehicles. Once again this is a highly contentious topic and due to political lobbying, it is one issue that faces significant pushback and partisanship. If we were to promote discussion and take automotive lobbyists out of the discussion, then we as a people would be more successful in getting this point across to the everyday person.