Get on that bike…

So I haven’t actually done this challenge yet, because Vancouver, being the city it is, has bucketed rain for a good portion of this week. But here’s the deal. My team gathers at a house a short drive away from my place every Monday for team training. I resolved to bike there on Mondays, instead of drive for my health and the health of the environment (which winds up helping my health.. it just keeps on going).

So. It’s a bit of a cheat, I haven’t done it yet. But I have my housemate extra bike light and my headlamp (because I don’t own my own yet and it’s so darn dark here still…)

Next Monday. Bike, you will be mine.

Heather

Cinder-block houses lined up in a row

I feel as though making my home/life/etc more eco-friendly is a bit of a challenge here in Cathay, given that I’m only staying for just over another month. Any investment must be transient, because (1) I don’t own this apartment, and therefore can’t replace the shite windows and (2) it’s really hard to insulate cinder blocks without pissing off your landlord.

I will say that I have bought friendly lightbulbs for my lamps.

After that, it’s difficult to say. I feel like my life here is set up to be pretty eco-friendly. I bike or take the bus almost everywhere, because I don’t own a car. I live in a one-room apartment, because I can’t afford a bigger one, and because it’s what is available. I eat mostly local, because it’s what is served: my fruit, for example, comes from the back of a guy’s bike-trailer. I figure it can’t come from much farther away than he can ride. (He probably rides to the truck stop, actually.) Restaurants keep a full menu at all times, but only offer the seasonal dishes. If you order something out of season (which I have done) they will either tell you that it’s not being served, or charge you more for it. Great incentive to stick with what the locals are doing.

What can I change? I am not brave or strong enough to go vegetarian. I love kung pow chicken. I love wood-mushroom-meat-plate. I love floating-aroma-beef. I love cashew chicken. I’ve been developing a taste for cow stomach. I don’t have any Christmas bags, or any old paper at all, so I will have to purchase new paper to wrap my gifts. I don’t have babies to keep in diapers.

However: I have been doing a couple of things, both of which are minor, and both of which have been laughed at for being as minor as they are. A fair judgment, perhaps, but I am not deterred.

Our apartments here are terribly cold. I seem to have a better one that most, because it’s quite small, and because it’s in a building with other extravagant foreigners who will gladly let their heat run down the pipes in my walls or travel up through the floor to my room. So it seems, at least. I have only seen my breath in my apartment a few times; so I guess I’m doing pretty great. I also have quickly-congealing northerner blood. I reckon it’s the consistency of pudding by now. I have found myself overdressed quite often (thanks, mom and dad!)

Another northerner trait I’ve inherited: skinflintedness.

It has come to my attention that to use my air-conditioner unit to heat my home, I will pay many hundreds more per month in heating bills. In addition, the unit is so positioned that any heat will fly right out the shite window. Why bother?

Another thing I learned from my dad: Running my tap with hot water for 5 minutes is roughly equivalent to leaving an incandescent bulb on for a whole day, or something. I’m paraphrasing really poorly. I don’t actually know the facts. The crux of the matter: it takes loads of energy to make and deliver hot water to my tap. Not to mention the heating lamps in my shower: energy-devourers (which I use like a glutton).

I’ve said ‘no, thanks’ to the option of an electric blanket. Too much of a monetary investment for me, and anyway I’ve never liked them. They seem expensive, too, ecologically speaking.

SO. Two things that I am doing to heat my home. One pre-planned, one new (and extra-hilarious).

(1) I use a hot-water bottle, in a felt hot-water bottle cozy that I bought from Fibres of Life in Canada (where I used to work). I warm the foot of my bed with it as I am getting ready to sleep, and then I lay it on my torso. Delightful. The felt is such a good insulator that it’s still warm in the morning; and the cozy itself is as eco-friendly as Fibres has been able to make it so far.

In Canada, I pour the water out and then fill it with hot water from the tap. I’ve changed that: I don’t re-fill the water. I have kept the same water in this bottle for the last three weeks, and I re-boil it roughly twice a day in an electric kettle. No water-pumping costs for me!

(2) A very recent step: Any hot water that I use in my apartment (to shower, to wash my face, to wash my hands) I collect and keep in my apartment until it has cooled naturally. The radiating heat stays in my house, instead of getting lost to the walls and the rats and the roaches that I think live in the walls. Roaches for sure (who wants to make them more comfortable?)

This is very easily done — I shower with a bucket on the floor (I don’t have a tub — it would be MUCH easier with a tub). I leave my dish-water pan full on the counter. I close the sink when I run hot water and leave the water standing until it is cold.

Have I noticed a difference in the past four days? Perhaps not… but the specific heat capacity of water is rockin’ awesome, so I think it’s probably doing something. I think of it as a water-heater in my house.

So. I re-use my heat and my lame-tastic air conditioner stays off. Does this make me crazy? (I feel like it does, given that even people who consider themselves environmentalists think it’s ridiculous.)

Fun fact: My mom’s father approved of my dad when he saw my dad turn off the electric element where the coffee was boiling at exactly the right time: still hot enough to finish the coffee, but no heat was wasted.

sarajane

There’s Blood In My Mouth

Last summer, I was introduced to a great book: Serve God, Save the Planet, by Dr. Matthew Sleeth. It was a wonderful, easy, challenging read; it presented me with things I didn’t know about environmentalism, included what should be the prevailing Christian viewpoint around the environment, and illustrated a beautiful lifestyle that I now desire. It wasn’t preachy, and I didn’t finish it with any sense of guilt; it left me wanting to do more for the earth because I want to, not because I should.

Also, I recommend Go Green, Save Green, by Nancy Sleeth, his wife. It’s cover-to-cover with good ideas that will lessen your impact on the environment, and also save you money (the two seem to typically go hand-in-hand). The ideas range from the absolute-don’t-have-to-even-buy-anything-simple to the more dedicated and extensive. There are chapters on the home, work, food, holidays, community and others – it’s amazing.

……

Now, here’s the thing: I hate compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They aren’t as warm-and-comfy-cosy as an incandescent, and I’m all about ambiance.  However, changing out your lightbulbs is one of the easiest steps to take in becoming more eco-friendly, so I went ahead and did it (and won’t have to do it again for several years now).  I bought some packages of compact fluorescents (now available in soft-white), and changed out the lightbulbs in my home.

However, while changing one of said lightbulbs, I fell off the chair, hit my face on the counter, put my tooth through my face (just below my lip, it’s like a second lip piercing), managed to cut the roof of my mouth (how? I don’t know), and chipped a tooth (I can’t figure out which tooth though, I only found the chipped piece).

I hope the planet is happy.

Oh, also, I’m reusing all of the ugly gift bags I’ve been given over the years for Christmas. I’m usually all about coordinating papers and matching ribbons and bows, but this year, the coordinating theme shall just be “tacky” (and earth-friendly, I suppose).

Little things, but they help.

Jennifer

A wise, expensive decision.

I actually decided this a while ago, but thought I could use it for the list. So I am. I decided that I’m going to use cloth diapers when little Maggie-Rose is born.

I could get all carried away and talk about how I can buy one set that will last at least two kids, but probably three, and how it will save me about $1000 in the first year alone, or about how many diapers from one baby would go around the world how many times, but I won’t. This entry would be way too long.

At this point, it is a matter of actually buying the things. It’s about 250- 300 euros to get them (around $500 or more) and, quite frankly, I don’t just have that kicking around. Plus, the lady that knows all about them (she has a set herself) is in the US of A until two days before the baby is due. So, it will not be so easy as just ordering them and waiting for the beautiful eco-friendly goodness to arrive.

It will be glorious eco-friendly goodness, though, when they get here! Woot!

Stephanie

It starts today

I am coining a term, i think.  I am going to be a soft vegetarian.

Soft Vegetarian |sôft věj’ĭ-târ’ē-ən|
A person who will only eat meat if served to them, or if it can be purchased under ethical circumstances.

Not that much about my life is actually going to change. When I go out to dinner, I will not order meat. When Tony and I order pizza, I will ask for half a pizza sans meat. I don’t buy very much meat to begin with because it’s expensive, but now if I do buy it, I will be the extra-expensive (or, shall we say, accurately priced) meat brought to us by small farmers who do not totally abuse their animals and the environment, and make us all sick in the process. yeah!
I started my adventure today by declining some of Tony’s chicken nuggets! They smelled really good.

lucky for me: there is a food bank at school. We get free food. Often it’s a little, well, you know, but about a week ago someone filled one of the freezers with venison. You know what that means! Hunted meat = ethical… as far as I can see. That deer had the most deer-like life imaginable. Unfortunately, it was shot, but not for no reason. Anyways, I digress. My point is, I will eat venison during this period of my life.

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this for well over three months, but I haven’t done it because I really like meat (lame, i know). But, I figure this is a good opportunity to experiment with it instead of deciding that I’m going to quit meat cold turkey (fitting?) forever.

So that’s that. For the next month-plus, I am a psuedo veg. A soft vegetarian.

I’m adding something to this:
I just figured out what to do with the Left Behind Series and the Bible Code (read: every terrible book that I still own because I don’t feel good about throwing it away or letting anyone else read it). I’m going to tear out the pages and wrap my christmas presents in them! Oh, what satisfaction that will bring.

I’ve had this dilemma because I haven’t wanted to purchase wrapping paper, but I am fearful that my family would be upset about it – no joke, we’re serious about aesthetics. But I figure: the written word and some red ribbon? that’s pretty, right?

Welcome to The List II

6 women (see “Participants”)

3 continents (see the locations in “Participants”)

27 challenges (see “Items of The List II”)

1.5 months (December 1, 2009 – January 15, 2010)

many reasons (see “What Is The List II?”)

1 blog (bravo! you’ve found it!)

hopefully regular updates and reflections on how we’re all faring with this undertaking…