Mirenne Perry

For eco challenge 7, on consumerism, I decided to reflect on my own consumption and be more thoughtful of when and where I spend my money. Every time I've thought about buying something, I'll try to reflect on it - do I need this thing? Did I need this before I walked into the store, or do I just feel like I need it now that its in front of me? Is there another/more sustainable way of getting this thing? Is this worth my money? Will it last a long time? Would I buy it if it weren't on sale? How often am I going to use this? Running myself through these questions is definitely helpful for reducing how much I consume, and just making sure I spend my money on things that are worth it. I also try to do something similar with ads/marketing - is this something I actually want, or am I just being told I want it? I feel like in the world we live in we're taught to attach our identities to our stuff, when that just isn't the case. I am a human being, not just a collection of things that I own, and the things that I own are just things! I want to continue this habit, especially with clothing - I don't impulse buy things clothes often, but I do definitely own things that I bought and just wore once or twice.

Since we talked about our use of technology this week, I tried to cut down on how I use my phone. The biggest change I made was to not pull my phone out when I'm bored for more than .5 seconds, which I do just by habit at this point. When I'm waiting for the elevator, I'll pull my phone out and scroll rather than just sit for a few moments and relax. So I tried to take advantage of those moments instead, and I think I did notice a difference even after a few days of doing it. I'd let my mind wander to mundane stuff like the chores I have to do when I get home, what I need to grab at the grocery store, what I should get my mom for her birthday - I think we're not allowing ourselves these moments to just stop and think when we have a source of constant stimulation in our pockets all the time. I saw something a few days ago about how boredom is actually really beneficial for you and your mental health, so I'm going to try to appreciate that and let myself be bored a little more often.

I wasn't sure what to do for my eco challenge this week, as I don't have a car and walk or take public transit pretty much everywhere. But while I was contemplating what to do, one of my favorite video essayists posted a youtube video called "Why We Can’t Build Better Cities". It's an hour long, but I would really recommend it - it covers topics like city planning, gentrification, and backlash against the idea of 15 minute cities. The beginning of the video goes into detail about suburban areas, and how they are financially insoluble; they have a low value per acre but a very high cost per acre, and are subsidized by walkable places, even impoverished ones. Car-dependent areas cost more money to support them than they generate in tax revenue, while high-density areas are more financially sustainable. So more places are trying to urbanize these more car dependent areas, and one way to do that is to support public transportation.
15 minute cities are becoming a more and more popular idea - a city where everything you need is within a 15 minute walk (or transit ride.) Many people have be vehemently opposed to this idea, with a lot of right-wing conspiracies claiming that they are a tool for government surveillance, that they're restrictive of personal freedoms, even that they're an attempt to enslave the population. The essayist then explains the concept of phantasms, which she explains more thoroughly in the video but are basically a projection of an anxiety when an actual solution is uncomfortable to think about. The notion that our car-dependent country is unsustainable, that we need to reconstruct our cities and places to serve people and not businesses, that the way many people have learned to live their lives cannot be sustained in the long-term is deeply unsettling; so instead of confronting this uncomfortable truth, people lash out against the idea that would positively impact everyone (including themselves).
I've always thought public transportation is such an important element of modern life, and wondered why there are so many people opposed to it, why it's so often underfunded and under-utilized, why something that benefits everybody can be looked down upon by so many people; this video answered a lot of those questions. Cutting down on the amount of people who use cars on a regular basis would have such a beneficial impact on the environment, and this video analyzes the problem from a sociological point of view. If we build our places to be less reliant on cars, we can encourage more people to utilize public transit or to just walk.

This week was about community, so I did the eco challenge about supporting a sharing economy. I asked some of my friends if they wanted to do some kind of group sharing event, and we all met up at my friends apartment and brought things we thought everyone else might want. I had a few shirts I never wear, an old backpack, and I made dinner for everyone. None of us really had that many things that we didn't need, but we all tried to bring at least one thing to share that someone else could use. It was a lot of fun, and anything we didn't swap we decided to just donate to goodwill. I think checking with your friends and family to see if they want something first is a good idea, because stores like goodwill get so many donations that a lot of stuff just ends up getting thrown out. I'd rather know it's going to my friends who will use it, rather than going to a store where it might get thrown out or sold. I would really like to do something like this again in the future, either with my friends again or with my family.

This week, I challenged myself to take shorter showers. I don't normally time myself in the shower, but this week I tried to be really conscious of the water I was using and take as little time as possible. I almost always listen to music in the shower, so to keep aware of how long I was taking I would pay attention to how many songs long my showers were. I think just the act of being aware of how much time I was taking made me get out of the shower quicker. I think this is one of those challenges that anyone can do - a little thing you can do every day that has a big impact over time. If a 10-minute shower is 20 gallons of water, if you cut that time in half every day you'll be saving 10 gallons of water daily. That number really adds up over time.

This week I tried meal planning - I usually have some kind of loose idea of what I'll be eating over the week, but this week I tried to be more thorough and intentional when thinking of my food and shopping. I think the main challenge for me is estimating how many servings of something I might have, which can make it difficult to plan around. But that is definitely something I can get better at over time. I plan on creating a meal plan for my eco change project, so this was really good practice for that! I think this is a really good habit to have, because you not only can save money on groceries, but I think it saves time to figure out what you're going to eat one time a week rather than having to think about it every single day.

This week I challenged myself to make sure all of the lights were off in my house when not using them. It was a bit of a challenge at first; a lot of the time I'll leave a lamp on when I'm not in the room, so I had to keep doubling back and making sure everything was actually off. But once I got the hang of it it was really easy - I'm not in the room anyways, so there's no reason not to. I've picked up the habit so I do think this will be something I keep doing after this week.