Nature Journal 10

At the end of the documentary “Before the Flood”, DiCaprio mentioned a way for viewers to measure and understand their carbon emissions better through a survey at carbotax.org. I took this survey, and below are my responses to the questions. I based broad questions on my life with my family in Indiana, but personal questions I answered based on my life at TCU.

1.     I was prompted to input my zip code. I had not considered how the state I live in determines my individual emissions level. I now have a better understanding of the importance of voting in government officials who will take action on these issues. After I put in my zip code for my town in Indiana, my score immediately went up and above the national average.

2.     I based my score on my family and our home in Indiana, not on my life at university.

3.     After watching “Before the Flood” I have been more aware of the products I buy and if they contain palm oil. This has been challenging because palm oil can be written as a variety of different ingredients, so I have a hard time spotting it.

4.     I’m a vegetarian so the next few questions were easy answers.

5.     See four.

6.     See four.

7.     I don’t drink cow milk and have adopted substitutes like almond and oat milk. Despite this, I still consume the average amount of dairy and eggs.

8.     Since I live on campus and eat at the dining halls, the only food I personally waste is what is left uneaten on my plate. I rarely take more than I can consume so I don’t see the waste.

9.     This is a hard question. While I try to sort my waste, I know that TCU is single stream and there is little recycling done with the waste on campus.

10.  I answered this based on my family’s waste production.

11.  Indiana has a temperate climate with fair amounts of rain, so we don’t have to irrigate our lawn or plants often.

12.  We live in a single-family home.

13.  Our home is above average in size.

14.  Although our home is not well insulated, we don’t adjust the temperature often. If it is cold outside, we use blankets instead of turning on the heat.

15.  We turn it down to save money.

16.  We hardly use AC in the summer.

17.  We have a side-by-side fridge.

18.  We recently put my grandmother’s old refrigerator in the basement.

19.  I believe my dad switched out all of the old bulbs a few years ago and replaced them with LEDs. I didn’t understand why until now.

20.  While we have a TV, it is rarely on. If we want to watch movies or TV, we usually do so on our personal computers because we like to use streaming services instead of cable.

21.  We don’t use any types of renewable power.

22.  My dad built our house in the late 1990s.

23.  We don’t own a second home.

24.  I don’t shop often because I don’t have much of a disposable income as a student.

25.  I own an older vehicle.

26.  I don’t spend much time in the car since I live on campus. I added up all of the commitments I attend off campus throughout the week and divided by 7. This gave me an average of 20 minutes a day.

27.  I spend all of my time driving in my compact car.

28.  About half of the time I am driving, I am carpooling with others.

29.  This was a hard number for me to come up with because I spent a majority of this year traveling.

30.  I never travel by boat.

31.  This is where my score skyrockets. I have taken many flights this year: 8 quick commuter trips, 2 short haul trips, and 4 long haul trips. My score jumped from 5.1 to 13 after I put the numbers in.

32.  I only fly economy.

33.  I have never flown on a private jet.

My final score was 13.0 tonnes climate pollution, 1.3x the national average. I love traveling, but I didn’t realize scope of the effect flying has on carbon emissions and the climate. Now that I understand this, I plan to start offsetting my contributions to the climate impact every time I fly.

Nature Journal 9

Fort Worth Nature Center – November 13, 2019

As my classmates and I drove from TCU’s campus to the Fort Worth Nature Center, we chatted about our experiences volunteering there. From the first days, learning that we would be working alongside the river, to now, excited to get on the water and canoe. I learned a lot about river side maintenance and the steps the workers there were taking in order to combat erosion. There were no formal lessons, just comments and instructions from our guides that prompted questions.

As we continued to work, week after week, we had a better idea of what to expect of our time: rolling out the mats, cutting down small trees, and nailing in staples to keep the mats in place. I felt more efficient and more helpful as I worked in a variety of roles. As we worked, I enjoyed spending time outside and getting away from campus for a few hours. Since I live and work on campus, I hardly have an excuse or the time to get away. In early November, the leaves started to change colors and the drive into the nature center and where we were working became more and more beautiful.

Finally, on our last week, we got out on the water and canoed. We loaded into the boats, armed with trash bags and grabbers to help us get litter from the banks of the river. When we floated by the erosion mats, it was satisfying to see our work from a different perspective.

Nature Journal 8

Barry Lopez’s The American Geographies was an engaging read. Lopez writes in a more familiar and easy-to-digest way, which I believe allowed for a better in-class discussion. After I finished the passage, I talked to my mom about the concept of local experts. I believe that my dad is such a person. “…they are nearly flawless in the respect they bear these places they love. Their knowledge is intimate rather than encyclopedic, human but not necessarily scholarly. It rings with the concrete details of experience.” (Lopez, pg. 916) I immediately think of my dad, who has lived 90% of his life in the town that I call home. We live on his family’s farmland, land that he has worked and explored for many years. If given the chance, he loves to share his knowledge about this land.

About half a mile away from our house, there is a bend in the creek surrounded by flat, sandy land. My dad spends most of his free time out there, fishing and enjoying the woods. My mom’s family is from northern Indiana, so whenever they visit, he brings them down to his place in the woods and tells them the history of the area and his plans for the future. He wants to build a small cabin on the cliff side so he can stay out there longer. For as long as I can remember, he has always been eager to share his knowledge with others. He didn’t study forestry or geography formally, but he learned through years of exposure. Every time we go to the restaurant in town, he stops and chats with the older folks about history and how it connects to current events. He used to be the town’s historian and welcomes conversations that flex his memory from that time.

Now, as more and more of my town’s elderly pass on, my dad grieves for the history that is lost with them. “Year by year, the number of people with firsthand experience in the land dwindles.”(Lopez, pg. 917) For my town, this is especially true. Young people don’t have many opportunities there, so they move away to bigger cities and towns. For a long time, I tuned my dad out when he started with his story telling, but now I realize how important it is to listen and take to heart the history of the place that I will always call home.