The End

The end has finally arrived: summer is upon us and this concludes the lived ethics project.

If I was to do it different I would have picked a larger goal to try and achieve because I feel like because my goals were relatively small I was less inclined to do them. After watching No Impact Man, though the radically altered their lives I somewhat feel like it would have been better to go all in, instead of just picking one small thing about my consumption habits to change.

My original goal was to cut out one-use cups. And for about a month, I was really good about it. Not only did I buy a new cup, but the impending colder weather made me more inclined to drink tea, which i'm less likely to go out and buy a cup of anyway. By about week five, I lost my reusable coffee cup, and I became more lenient. Like, a lot more lenient. So lenient in fact that I've  kept all of the iced coffee cups (one-use) that I bought in my room just to show myself how much I was failing. 6 cups. Horrible.

Anyway, if I compare my habits of being wasteful at school compared to being at home, being at school far outweighs being at home. At home, I rarely buy drinks/snacks with a lot of trash etc.. Because telluride is expensive and usually I don't want to spend the money. If I do go out, I never go to to-go places, but instead go to restaurants where personal waste from a meal is diminished. Ideally, I would like to return to the patterns I had at home, it just makes it easy when you use "fake money" and don't ever feel the impacts (monetary) of what you're buying and the trash its creating.

Overall, I enjoyed the lived ethics project just because it made me think about the choices I make on a day to day basis, and at least notice my unhealthy habits of consumption and wastefulness.

Preserve Inspiration

Sitting eating lunch the other day, I was inspired by something sitting on the table. Bon Apetit works hard to provide sustainable, local food to all the cafeterias, and aside from that, they try to educate students about the decisions they make.

The five points outlined in the above picture, ideally examplify how to lower your carbon foot print in what you eat. I love how this is outlined because though it's simple, the steps described are realistic. Bearing in mind that these are steps for a "low carbon"diet, they cater specifically towards lowering ones carbon emissions. I don't necessarily think about my carbon foot print in terms of what I eat; I am more inclined to focus on eating meals that are local because I simply like to know where my food came from. However, these points are attainable, so I don't see why I shouldn't take carbon impact into account.

In the film "No Impact Man" they follow all of these steps on the basis that they are trying to make as little of an impact as possible. In one of the scenes, their meal mainly consists of roasted root vegetables because that is all that is available locally, in New York, at that time of the year. If I was to follow the same plan, living in a mountain town in Colorado, I virtually would have nothing to eat. High altitude Colorado is such a harsh growing habitat that the growing season is limited to June-September (roughly). Living in a remote area reaffirms that merely by eating, you make an immense carbon impact. Though I can easily waste less food, or cut out beef and cheese (as is mentioned in the picture) it is really hard to not eat foods that have been shipped in, eat only seasonal foods, or skip packaging altogether.

I think the eating locally movement is great. I really believe in knowing where your food comes from, eating locally, and eating few processed foods. However, when I really think about it, I see that following that meal plan has severe limitations because of where I live. Overall, it makes me question whether humanity (as a whole) is mean to live in place where the use of modern technology is what mainly enables them to survive?

Solidarity.

After reading Marion's paper "Geoengineering, Solidarity and Moral Risk..." I mainly took away this idea of society working together to both create strength and make change. Solidarity is crucial to any successful plan where you have multiple parts working together, or are trying to unite to change something. In the case of global climate change, I don't think I ever thought about how crucial solidarity is.  GCC is a huge problem that could have catastrophic repercussions, and though we have all of these ideas (such as geoengineering) that could help combat the effects, nothing will come of them if we don't unite and agree to do something.

I grew up in Telluride, CO. A very small ski town, in the southwestern part of the state. It'a essentially one, small box canyon, with a town located at the very end of it. I live about 4mi outside, and every time I wanted to go to town, I would take the one road leading in, and drive past miles of pristine valley. This valley (rightly named "the valley floor") is essential to what makes Telluride, Telluride. It's 4 miles of absolutely no development.

The land was owned by a developer who wanted to turn the space into golf courses, and mega mansions with man-made lakes etc... Luckily, most all the locals were not ok with this. The Valley Floor was bought from the developer for $50 million: donations came from 1,600 people in 45 states and seven countries (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-07-telluride_N.htm). 

Now, the Valley Floor will never be developed. It will stay pristine for generations and generations to come. This story, from my little bitty town and Colorado, to me, is a great instant of environmental solidarity. As a town, we came together to save something of immense natural worth, and it was incredibly worth the fight. 

Disposables....again.....

I used to work at a small bakery in my hometown. In the mornings, of course, there would be a line out the door of people looking to get their coffee fix. A lot of people brought there own mugs (we take 50 cents off), many stayed awhile and would read the newspaper while drinking out of our trademark white mug, and unfortunately the majority would grab a to-go cup and be on there way. Each to-go cup needed to be hand stamped with the logo, and we went through A LOT of cups. Not only cups, but the bakery also acted as a to-go foods stop in the afternoons. They used compostable containers, but don't compost. So, essentially they were paying extra money for compostable packaging that was really just ending up in the landfill.

It's odd to think about, but at Starbucks you might sit and linger at a table, but you do everything with to-go cups. You get a to-go cup, even if you're staying in (the same is even true at Colorado Coffee). Starbucks annually goes through 4 billion cups. They don't compost. The stores lack recycling. However, (I just learned this) you do get 10 cents off every time you bring your own mug. So, regardless of how "recycled" the cups at Starbucks are becoming , I would guess that 99 percent of all cups end up in the landfill.

Even At CC I often wonder about the amount of disposable packaging we go through. Rastall is the best in that regard: everything is reusable, they compost, and you feel like a legit person when you eat there not a "commuter." Benjis is the worst. First off: the recycling/composting system confuses just about everyone. So, you can compost all food/plates/forks (?)/napkins but what about the smaller things? Ketchup containers? Straws? Trash goes in the middle, but who knows what is actually considered trash? Oh! Even worse. Much of the food containers are "recyclable" but how can you recycle something that is filled with leftover food? Major failure. So, either Bon Apetit doesn't actually recycle much of it, or someone literally goes through and sorts. What is the point of Colorado Coffee having compostable to-go cups if nearly all of the people buying drinks throw them away in different buildings?

Major moral dilemma. Bringing my own cup = only solution. And plate, and fork, and knife.... and the list goes on and on.

Stat Cite:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mindylubber/2011/09/19/percolating-a-sustainable-coffee-cup/

the new cup.

Reusable iced tea/coffee cups are kind of a new thing. While portable coffee mugs have been around a while and therefore come in all different sorts of materials (stainless, porcelain etc..) iced drink cups come in one form: plastic. They pretty much all look like that, give or take the color or size.

I'm not the biggest fan of cheap plastic that will (generally) end up being a waste of money because whatever you buy almost instantaneously breaks. But, I wanted to try one of these out. Plastic is plastic, and a fancy designer label will buy you the same thing as something cheaper, so I got this one at Walmart. All it cost me was $1.97. That's less than an iced coffee at Colorado Coffee by more than 50 cents. That's essentially how much they charge you for the throw away cup they give you. And while they probably overcharge by quite a lot, the price I paid at Walmart seems wrong.....

I didn't intend to go there.... Being a smart consumer the best choice would have been to go to a local store and buy something more expensive, but generally the same as what I bought. Couldn't think of a store, so I went to Whole Foods (which, debatably, is the next best thing) weirdly, they didn't have what I was looking for. So, I tried Target, but ultimately got mildly lost on North Academy Blvd. and turned into the Walmart I just happened to pass.

Essentially my choice to shop at Walmart was unethical. In one of the Naess readings from last night (the one about self realization) I found a quote I really liked. "We're here to embrace, rather than conquer the world," said by Patsy Hallen. Walmart is the perfect example of the opposite. To me, it's humanity conquering the world in the worst way possible. With so much excess, you barely even think about the choices you're making, all you think about is how cheap everything is.

As I was buying the cup, I was starting to think I was doing more harm than good by making this purchase. But, I bought it anyway. The true testament to its worthwhileness will be to see how long it holds up. If I manage to keep it for a few months, then I could be potentially saving dozens of one use iced cups. Though they are composted (apparently, and I plan to look into that more) waste is waste. And having one less thing to throw away is good, though it's something small, it is something.

April 1

Today I was not being an eco-friendly citizen.

The sun was shining, 80 degree temps, and the newly green tips of the trees promised that spring is on the horizon. It was a good day, but I was careless. Three different drink containers, all mine, all within three hours of each other. When summer weather, strikes so does my desire for icy beverages. Between iced coffee, iced tea, and iced chai, I might as well glue the cup to my hand just to feel that delicious, summer sensation of sugar and caffeine, freezing cold in my overheating palms.

So, that's what I got this morning: an iced chai. But eventually decided I needed a LOT more energy for the days activities and switched to coffee, rounding out the day with a very stupid purchase of a plastic water bottle.

In the winter i've been pretty good about bringing my own mug for hot drinks, but somehow this idea has not carried through to summer just yet. The amount of trash I had to throw away at the end of today seemed wasteful: it made me feel pretty bad. I should have at least reused one of the cups, and entirely done without the bottle of water (I have PLENTY of water bottles, I mean seriously!).

So....my proposition. No more to-go iced drink containers. Stay tuned for what I think about the current reusable iced drink containers.... And DEFINITELY no more plastic water bottles.

Mainly, I want to both prove to myself that much of what I buy comes with unecessary packaging, and that by making smarter decisions and working to use more reusable products, I will feel like I am making less wasteful daily decisions. I hope to eliminate all "one time use" packaging, and look into options such as buying snack foods in bulk, bringing my own silverware (instead of using disposable), and most importantly, completely eliminating my habit of buying iced drinks in plastic cups.

If I don't bring my cup with me, i'm not getting a drink! Sounds like a fair compromise.