Sebastian Medina

Consumerism is something that is nearly impossible to rid yourself of, or at least something that is nearly impossible to resist without radically changing your lifestyle choices. I'm lucky to have enough of what I need; I have enough clothes, my shoes are still working, and I haven't been one to fall for quick spending impulses, but I would be lying to say I don't consistently feel the need to buy cool stuff, and most of the time it really isn't even based in a real desire. The first reading, the RFK speech, does a fantastic job of explaining how uninterested the gears of capitalism and ever-increasing economic prosperity are to the human experience. Profit is the moral superior in economic-based societies, not kindness, empathy, sincerity, or any other true guiding principle/emotion. There are nonstop advertisements online nowadays; everything is an attempt to sell you something, or to get something worthwhile from you; be it information or a subscription. Resist the urge to buy that cool new thing! I've gotten to the point where my parents will beg me for some recommendations for presents for my birthday because I treat my possessions with care and don't mind getting new clothes. It is very easy to go and buy new things and feel fulfilled, but those are fleeting feelings, and buying things out of boredom is no different than any other bad habit untaken out of boredom. I will continue to resist the urge to buy stuff, unless I really want to buy it, or unless I have some legitimate justification for buying it. The main marketplace for goods if you want to help the areas you live in are community-based shops and local markets!

This is my late post six about transportation. I've been doing really well, especially in Portland, in the effort to reduce carbon emissions. I weighed the pros and cons of bringing my car; I have access to everything I need via streetcar or my two legs, the parking is expensive, and the student parking lot is not a great place to have an old car sit when it breaks down. Because of this decision, I've gotten smart about how to get around, but I also spend a lot more time walking around and seeing cool stuff, which is something that I missed while driving. Our cities are simply not designed for the pedestrian. We divide spaces into corridors for cars, pedestrians, and businesses, but give pedestrians the least amount of space, and so the impression we get from childhood is that this is a world built for cars. It's a difficult problem to solve, and the capitalistic nature of our society encourages the sales of cars, the auto industry is literally referred to as the backbone of the global economy.
Our role as the next generation and as the leaders of the future generations is to encourage the behaviors that lead to happy, healthy lives. Getting out and walking, taking mass transit and being among the masses, and experiencing the lives that others are living while being out and about are things that only lead to good in your life. These things should be happening everywhere, and transportation being so focused on solo-travel is isolating. Take transit, say hi to your neighbors, attend community events!

I'm not from the Pacific Northwest, nor do I know anybody from the Pacific Northwest, so when I first came here to Portland I had no community. I still feel like I don't, but I've made a ton of amazing friends, and among the people I've met while I've been here are two fantastic people. One of them is Indigenous and has been my partner in a few architecture studios, and through him I've had an amazing time learning about Indigenous history in the Pacific Northwest and in the surrounding areas, visiting museums in reservation land, and meeting with leaders of Indigenous communities in the area. Another is a trans woman I met online in a friend group who I've spoken to a lot and heard a lot of stories from. These two people come from wildly different lives than I do and offer great perspectives on the endless rants I have with them, and encourage me to seek others' perspectives in my life. I feel like I've unlocked a new path since starting my major that makes me seek as many different perspectives on things as I can find, and it's been a blessing to be able to surround myself with people who are seeking knowledge and want to share their experiences. I learn something every day. I've also been able to share my perspectives with a few, and this week I tried my hardest to bite my cheek and be upfront to my roommate about the fact that he leaves the lights on all the time, and other... unsustainable behaviors. Hopefully I can continue to prosper and work towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

Last week I also took a focus on my water waste, and did a whole water-use calculator to find out that I use 1300 gallons of water in a day across things like showering and brushing my teeth, but also calculating in things like the costs per ounce of meat and transportation costs in water. A big thing for me is long showers; they're something that I see as therapeutic and really hesitate to give up, but I'm willing to try and see if I can bare it. It's truly a blessing to be able to waste clean water, when so many people are in crisis because they can't get access to it, and that is what pushes me to try and change my habits for the better. Almost a billion people across the world faced water scarcity in 2016 (I'm sure that number has grown!), and especially when considering the insane amount of water that the United States and other wealthy, wasteful countries put to use in agriculture and animal processing, there is a lot that we can do to alleviate the stresses to other countries that need the water most. From the reading on water equality, I can gather that the first step to fixing the problem of water scarcity is to make access to drinking water-- at the very least-- a fundamental basic human right, which is currently is not universally recognized as. These are societal, political problems, but the first step for a person like me to try and help is to learn about the problems that exist and do my part to cut down.

Changing food habits is not an easy undertaking, and even more so when I have no income and rely on a meal plan for my sustenance. That's not an excuse though, so I did what I could (and have been doing via my eco-change work) to enumerate and try and cut down on the number of meals I eat that might produce waste. The meal hall in the Ondine Residence Hall is a great example of food waste. They have signs in the entrance that put into numbers the amount of food waste that the hall produces in a month. When you look at the signs, and the posters next to them that encourage composting and other sustainable food-handling methods, it makes you stop and think about how you could change your habits, even if only for a second. I've started trying to snack less over the past couple weeks in an effort to reduce the amount of food waste I produce, whether that be from extra pizza that gets left over, or packaging from foods that I ate. I read in the reflection question that the average American throws 240 lbs of food out every year, and I wonder how much I throw out too, and how much I could potentially redirect into planting beds or into other meals so that they don't end up in plastic bags in a landfill.

I find that there's always a light on somewhere in my vicinity when I'm at my apartment. It's not large by any means; there's two bedrooms and a living room, but between the bathroom light, the sink light, two lights in the bedroom, living room lights, and four men aged 21-26, lights get left on. (and the heat, even when there's windows open!) I took it upon myself to start turning these lights off when they're left on, and trying to get on people's cases in a friendly way about them leaving the heater on when windows are open, and to be mindful of how high they set it. I've lived with roommates before so I know the drill, but it's good to try and get people more conscious about their energy habits.
I also researched into how much ghg emissions and co2 emissions my habits will produce. I tend to fly home from school, since driving to the Bay Area would not only take 10 hours, but also would be impossible because I don't have a car with me in Portland. That round-trip flight produces 388 kg of CO2 emissions, but if I was to drive there and back in a typical small car, it would produce 478 kg of CO2 emissions-- enough to power the lights on the Eiffel Tower for seven days! As much as I love driving, it appears flying the long distances is more earth-friendly, at least in terms of CO2 emissions. I wonder how much better it is when you factor in how many more processes are involved with airline travel.

I'll admit that this wasn't the most productive week of my life, so there was not much done in the lane of sustainable lifestyle changes. I think I mixed up my eco-change and eco-challenge goals, so this week will be a good opportunity to work towards those goals for the sake of having something to speak to next week, as a progress report. I'm in the process of collecting my waste and taking an objective look at how much trash I produce in a day or week, then working towards lowering that number through different changes like buying different brands or putting more effort into cooking from home instead of buying takeout or other wasteful ways. I eat a lot of granola bars and breakfast bars, so I've been looking into alternative breakfasts that are as easy as grabbing a bar wrapped in plastic from a box that's coated in inks and preservatives. I'm also starting an eco-bottle to be able to keep my trash with me, which is one of the little eco-challenge weekly-objective things I saw. I live a pretty simple life, so there is not very much for me to change, speaking frankly. I recognize that, of the few things I do, some have wasteful habits involved or could be improved, so with that in mind, I want to be mindful about what I do and how it affects the environment I live in.