Workin' It

So mama has a new gig, and she is really excited about it.

She recently got offered a position writing for this website: 2ndGreenRevolution

I will be working on my sample piece this weekend and I will keep you posted on when it is up on the site.
After that the contract ( a contract!) will be for 10 articles.

All of the articles will be about sustainability and I will probably focus more on food, but we will see what I end up being interested in.

So if you are interested in sustainability, check out the website, and add it to your readers, you can subscribe by RSS feed.

I am really excited about this!

No Impact Experiment Week: Final Day

So I am really behind on this post but I am finally getting around to it.  The final day of the challenge is to assess how you give back to your community.  I think I metioned this in an earlier post but I really slack on this right now.  I was very involved in the community in college and now that I have moved to a big city, I am not.  I really need to be and want to be but I find that I don't have much time to do so.  Between school and work now there is not much time left over, but I still would like to try. 

No Impact Experiment Week: Day 6

Day 6 in the No Impact Week long Experiment is about water.  

 Today I am suppose to look at my water consumption and see how I can reduce it to be more sustainable.  A part of this is also looking at the foods you eat, since some foods ( mainly meat) have a much higher water impact than other foods.  The other part is more obvious, looking at when you use water and how much is used.

No Impact Experiment Week: Day 5

Sorry I am a day behind on posting this but it happens.  Day 5 in this journey of No Impact Week is all about energy.  

In this step of reducing your impact and being more sustainable we can/should make lots of changes.  We watch TV fairly often.  That could be the biggest change we could make is just getting rid of cable and then we wouldn't watch it all the time.  I am just not there yet.  I have thought about it, we have both thought about it, we just haven't made the step yet.

No Impact Experiment Week: Day 4

Day 4 in the No Impact Experiment is all about food.

I am happy to say this area I have made the most change in the past 5 years.  In college I became a vegetarian, but I still ate dairy products.  That lasted for a few years.  And while I don't consider myself a vegetarian anymore, mainly because I don't like labels; I don't eat meat very often.  And I think this is key for being more sustainable.  I feel that everyone can reduce their meat consumption and many resources would be saved.  Feeding animals in the mass quantities as the U.S. does, it uses mass amounts of water and grain.  I don't think everyone should be a vegetarian but I think it would be very reasonable to ask people to eat only one serving of meat a day or every other day.  I think Americans are too use to cheap meat, so they eat it at every single meal.  The thought to me is just disgusting.

No Impact Experiment Week: Day 3

Day three in the No Impact Week is all about transportation. 

Out of all the steps in being more green or sustainable this is the hardest for me to reform my actions.  I would be willing to take the bus but I get motion sickness so easily that it is not very feasible.  I would have to take Dramamine all day if I took the bus to work or class.  I did try to take the bus to class a couple of times and I thought I was going to puke everywhere by the end.

No Impact Experiment Week: Day 2

Day two in the experiment is all about trash.  And for today you are suppose to look at your trash bag and see how you can reduce the amount of that trash.  For us, this has actually been easier since we moved to a house.  We now have a compost pile so all of our food scraps have a new home.  This make our trash amount much smaller.  Before we were throwing away our food scraps. 

No Impact Experiment Week: Day 1

I just signed up for the No Impact Experiment Week.  To find out more information and sign up, click here.  I remember getting into the No Impact Man website when I was in college and he was still running his experiment with his own family.  I felt like I learned a lot from his posts and experiences.  I also saw the movie, which was very interesting, so I thought doing this experiment myself would be interesting.

Grad School Classes

I will be starting my Masters in Environmental Science in a few short weeks.  I am both nervous and excited.  I feel like there is still much to do before, financial aid, orientation, etc.  I am sure it will all work out though.  But I felt I should share was classes I am taking this semester.  I am taking Environmental Geology, Risk Assessment, and Seminar.  I will keep you posted on the semester as it goes along.  Wish me luck!

Mt. Evans

My parents visited us this past weekend.  One day while they were here we went to Eldorado Canyon State Park and walked around.  The next day we decided to drive up Mt. Evans, which happens to be the highest highway in US.  It was awesome.  If you ever have the chance to drive up Mt. Evans you should.  At the top you can walk up a little ways to the actual peak.  One the way up there were many mountain goats.

Oil Spill

I am sure by now everyone has heard of the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  I feel like it is just going to keep getting worse for a while before it can get any where near better.  All of this just makes me dislike big corporations and technology even more.  Instead of actually trying to fix the situation, BP is in a blame game amongst each other.  It is just disgusting.  I feel terrible for the wildlife and plant life that is going to be harmed by this oil spill.  And now the beaches that will have oil on them, when most of these communities depend on tourism from the beaches.

 From greenexpander.com

I have been keeping updated about all of this with TreeHugger.  Yesterday I saw an article about the steps they take to clean oil of animals, it is pretty interesting.  I find it interesting that the birds think they are being eaten, so the cleaners have to work as fast as they can.  Here is the link to watch the videos.  http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/how-to-clean-oil-covered-bird.php

Denver Bike Sharing

A new program that has started in Denver that I find absolutely amazing is the Denver Bike Sharing program. 

These stations keep popping up all over Denver.  You can rent one of these bike for an hour, day or week.  Students get a discounted rate and you can return the bike to any station. 

I think this is a great start to promote other forms of transportation besides a car.  It is also great for someone that may not have a bike but would like to use one. 

And it is great for the environment, what is not to like?

Megan

Earth Day

Earth Day, Earth Day, Earth Day... so much to say and so much emotion that goes along with the day.  Somehow I have always had some connection to the earth.  As a kid I had a big back yard that backed up to a big cow field with an awesome creek.  During the summer, that creek was where we lived, we walked along it and just wandered the fields.  That was before video games became cool and then we would hide up in a house and soak in the A/C.  But there was still that connection that never left.  Then there was the lake, also known as Table Rock Lake.  My grandpa had a house there so we would go there a few times in the summer.  There is something awesome about just laying on the dock or a raft and just enjoying the outdoors; having the waves bump you along.  For this reason, I want to live on a lake someday.  There were also the family vacations to National Parks and camping.
But the point I am getting to is there was always a connection to the environment and that connection only grew once I went the college.  I am not even sure how it all began but it did and I am glad it did, I am who I am because of it. So in college I joined the environmental group on campus and became a very active member, was secretary, then VP, then President my last year.  It was a great experience and I learned so much from it, and I cared even more about the earth.  I lessened my meat intake drastically and I have felt much better about it ever since.  With the group I went to conferences, recycled at a major music festival, camping, a wind farm, and Green Festivals and made a group of great friends.  All part of a great learning experience.
Recently I have been reading a lot of books about our food system, such as "Omnivore Dilemma", "Eating Between the Lines", "In Defense of Food", "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", etc.  They have all been very informative and have made me change my diet even more.  I have also watched Food Inc. and it is a great movie for people who are wanting to know what is in their food and more about our food system, without having to read a book. 
I feel like I can never know enough about the environment and our environmental impacts.  But really the most important thing a person can do is just pass on the information.  Whatever they find is useful tell one other person and the word will get out there.   That is how it all starts. 
And I think informing/educating children is very, very important.  They are the ones that will take charge and rule the world eventually.  Just letting them know what is out there, the plants and animals, they can make their own decisions and will see how important it all is.  And the kids these days are so smart they already know what is happening in the world.  I worked at a zoo one summer as a camp counselor.  Part of this job was to create lesson plans on different animal species, families and the environment.  During that time, I was so amazed by how much information these kids already knew and what they already thought.  It was a great experience. 
So with tomorrow being Earth Day, I hope my journey and connection with the earth will continue and grow as I grow.  It will always be my greatest passion. 

Happy Earth Day.