Welcome

The posts on this site are written by students, most of whom are majoring in Environmental Studies at Portland State University, as explorations of aspects of their environmental identities.

The blog borrows its title from the essay Stump-Sitting by Charles Fergus.

Thanks for reading.

Ecological Identity #3

For my ecological identity assignment I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do at first. I considered mushroom identification and edible plant identification but I felt as though I already had a small amount of experience in those areas. Choosing something that was comfortable and familiar to me just didn’t seem to fit within the aspect of the assignment itself. I decided to get involved with something a little more outside my comfort zone; visiting an organization and learning about the inner workings of it seemed like the best route. Environment Oregon was the organization I chose to, visit as it is the organization my girlfriend works for and is located only a mile and a half from my house.

Environment Oregon is a State wide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. I had the pleasure of talking with Brittany Van Critters, one of environment Oregon’s resident directors. We discussed the different aspects of the organization such as canvassing, memberships, and the campaigns they currently have going on. Environment Oregon is a fund for the publics interest that is funded by the public for the public. When discussing canvassing it was explained to me that each employee of environment Oregon goes to different neighborhoods, door to door to start conversation, educate the public, and hopefully get individuals to donate and become a member of the organization. The idea behind this is that by sending out individual representatives to different parts of Oregon will allow a larger number of people to be educated on current environmental issues, they believe that educating the individual instead of the masses provides a better service and allows people to get involved on a more personal level.

One of the issues that Environment Oregon is currently working on is the Protect Crater lake campaign. Year after year logging companies are looking to clear cut the areas surrounding Crater lake, this type of clear cutting puts many different organism that thrive in these old growth forests, in danger. Environment Oregon, with this campaign, is looking to protect over half a million acres in the Crater lake area. Environment Oregon is also working to get phone traffic in to Senator Wyden’s office in order for him to recognize this issue. Canvassers discuss all this info when going door to door, people get involved by donating money or simply listing to the issues and signing a petition. One of the other issues that Brittany discussed was the campaign surrounding the Monarch Butterflies. Every year in the fall Monarch butterflies make a 3,000mile journey but with their population having lost 1 billion since the 1990’s, it could be there last. Environment Oregon’s goal is to get the Fish and Wildlife service to declare the monarch butterfly a threatened species.

Brittany took me through some of the steps of the training canvassers get, they first memorize the rap and then are given different scenarios that could potentially happen when dealing with potential members. She said the key to canvassing is experience and knowing and believing in the cause. Brittany and I also talked a lot about my studies and aspirations for getting involved in the field I want to study in. She also discussed the problems surrounding big businesses and how logging companies, commercial real estate and pharmaceutical companies all have vested interest in regards to certain areas and people. These are powerful businesses that can essentially get away with destroying and poisoning the environment. With Organizations such as Environment Oregon, we are getting individuals to fight back against these organization and letting these big businesses know that people do care about the earth and want to protect it.

Going and talking with Environment Oregon made it clear just how important getting the public educated on specific issues is. It was interesting to learn about how an Organization that’s funded by the public works on a person-by-person scale. Working with people on an individual level seems like it would be a challenging task for an Organization, as some people don’t seem very interesting in offering organizations money let alone listening to anything surrounding the environment, but environment Oregon seems to be making strives towards a brighter future. All and all I’d say this experience definitely brought me out of my comfort zone in a way, I’m certainly not used to interviewing someone but it was much more relaxed and informative then I had originally thought. Environment Oregon seems like a very well balanced Organization and I hope to hear more about them in the future.

Ecological Identity

Something that is essential to my understanding of Ecological Literacy is actually doing something that actively is involving yourself within the community and expanding skills that will be useful in the world. Beginning of 2016 I was given a wonderful opportunity to work with a Professor at Portland State University in a lab measuring air quality within the Portland area. A study by the Forest Service in 2013 found abnormal levels of cadmium within moss around the Portland area. They went further with their research and reports of the high levels of Cadmium and other heavy metals began coming out in Portland’s local media in 2015. This media attention surrounding the issue reached myself as a student in my professor’s class. I went on to volunteer with a project surrounding these issues. The Cadmium hotspots were found to be sourced from local glass manufacturers, but in addition to these issues other dangerous particulate matter was found leading to further research being done.

 

 

My work in the Air Quality Lab at Portland State has given me ample opportunities to see how communities react to environmental issues. I have attended two community meetings at local schools attended by the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, local politicians, and concerned community members in 2016. In addition in 2016 I also attended a city council meeting in the city of Milwaukie that was focused on these issues as well as a panel at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry that my professor was part of. At all of these events I was able to see the concerns that various individuals had with their air being polluted. Going to the council meeting was especially enlightening as it was a vision into the political process. Representatives from a company in question testified and various experts commented on the current conditions. Witnessing the political side of local environmental issues gave me a different perspective on the way that things play out at the political level in environmental sciences. In addition I was able witness the way that professionals handles the various questions, concerns and how they reacted to criticisms. I capitalized on the access to various professionals at these events to ask questions of them about their professions and how they were dealing with the new particulate matter issue in Portland.

As part of our preparation in the air quality lab to study heavy metal elements in the air around various local sources. I was tasked with a few other students with taking NOx measurements around the school as well as around the Milwaukie area. Learning how to use the various sampling methods such as the ogawa samplers, helped expand real skillsets and strategies that I can apply to my future endeavors. Furthermore the lab work required was much more involved than any lab I’ve done for a class. I learned a lot about patience and my capabilities to do chemistry lab work through working in the lab. We also began working with particulate matter sampling during this fall. Using MiniVol air samplers we were able to take PM2.5 and PM10 samples at a few locations. Soon i will be hopefully learning how to do the various analyses associated with this sampling.

All of this work is important to me and my future because I am gathering valuable experience in a field that I am interested in building my vital building blocks in my career story. Additionally i am helping serve the community through the work we are doing. Helping do these studies are providing the communities and agencies with vital information they need to make informed decisions on further studies, possible regulations, permit changes, and more. Some of the people impacted by these air quality issues are of lower economic status and can’t afford to .move elsewhere easily so there is some environmental justice qualities to the work that I’m doing.

Ecological Footprint

For my project, I decided to work towards reducing my ecological footprint. Through http://www.footprintnetwork.org, I was able to input my daily behavior in order to determine how many plants the world population needed to support my lifestyle choices. Certain factors such as where you reside will drastically alter your results due to the policies and methods of that country. According to the footprint quiz, it would roughly take 3.7 Earths and 16.5 global acres of land in order to sustain my current lifestyle. Ultimately, this will lead to the change of how I go about my everyday life. To reduce my footprint, I plan to cut red meat completely out of my diet as well as spend fifty percent of my monthly food budget on locally grown food instead of packaged, processed foods. It is also another goal of mine to reduce my time in the car to less than fifty miles per week and replace those other miles riding transit. My roommates and I have also begun reducing our gas and electricity consumption. This quiz alone has the power to change more people’s behavior and how they continue to impact the planet with their footprints. This process of sustainable progression will enhance their ecological literacy as it has mine. As an individual, it is often portrayed that we are powerless but that is not the case at all. Every person can make a huge impact for the greater good just being a smart consumer in order to sustainably adapt to climate change. The simplest changes like what we buy, eat, and how we get our power will go a long way in reducing your footprint. The impact we inflict on our environments is largely based on the demand for these resources because they are cheap and convenient. Most consumers have no idea what goes on when “supplying the demand”. Through this experience, I can easily connect the take away from this experiment from multiple readings from the course. For example, both Carson and Steingraber fought for the reduction of harmful chemicals due to the severe consequences that followed after their use. This applies in today’s world where we need to have a zero tolerance for certain resources and push towards removal buy just not purchasing it and spreading the information. Although Carson was not completely zero tolerant for DDT, for some of these resources we need to be. For example, mass deforestation is happening in Indonesia due to the demand for palm oil because it is the cheaper and more available resource to extract. The burning over there contributes to more CO2 that the U.S. emits daily. In the film “Before the Flood” Leonardo DiCaprio meets with Pope Francis to discuss the current state of the environmental movement. The Pope was glad to see progress made at the Paris meeting however, he assures DiCaprio that it is not nearly enough to ensure sustainability for the sake of the planet and future generations. As a major developed nation, we have access to things that other parts of the dream of. With the little amount of options, these less developed areas are basically force to hurt the planet in order to survive. We along with other major countries need to take charge, set an example, and help aid these less developed countries progress sustainably.

HERBAL MEDICINE

For this project I wanted to expand on my knowledge of making my own household products. At home I already make things like cleaner, moisturizers, toner, and makeup remover. I started doing these things on my own because there are so many unknown chemicals and ingredients that worry me in products like this.One day I started typing in and researching ingredients in lotion and I shocked about the things they put in lotion and that was essentially seeping into my skin. As I started looking up other things I could make on my own I remembered that I always wanted to know how to make medicinal teas, oils, and syrups. When I heard that when you local consume pollen or honey it can help with allergies, I immediately realized there were so many naturally remedies that nature offers that people don’t take advantage of.

I used a book by Rosemary Gladstar called Medicinal Herbs – A Beginner’s Guide. I learned that there were a lot of herbs that I could just grow in pots at home (because I don’t have a yard). This was something that I was happy to learn because I don’t, in the future, want to keep buying these things I can just grow at home. Some of the herbs were peppermint, sage, spearmint, thyme, turmeric, rosemary, ginger, chickweed, and lemon balm.

Anyways the first thing that I made was a cold medicine, which was a syrup. I was happy to find that it was really easy and it was one of the author’s favorite cold busters. All I had to do was put about two cups of money in a saucepan and then put in half three onions in half and place them in the honey. Then you just cook the mixture in on low until the onions yet mushy and soft. It sounds gross but just as the book says it doesn’t taste that bad. Your suppose to ideally use this as you feel a cold coming on, but it can also be used while you have a cold. I just got over my cold, or whatever I had, but I am going to use this up and hope it wards off the next plague. I put the onion soaked honey back into the honey jar that I used. The book says that it should be placed in the fridge and it will last a couple weeks.

Next what I made was a compress, and I did this specifically because I haven’t been feeling good and I have this strange pressure on the left side of my face right on my eyebrow down my nose. I know this is because I’ve been sick and it congestion but it feels like a large bruise so I was determined to make it go away. I read that a hot compression will increase circulation in that specific areas and also relieve congestion, so I made one for my face! First I made a herbal tea that was about three times the strength than I would normally drink and let it steep for about 40 minutes. Then I strained out of the herbs and reheated the tea. Then I took a piece of cotton and dipped it into the tea and applied to my forehead and nose for about 30 minutes, as the cotton cooled I would keep dipping it into the tea that I was keeping warm on the stove. After I was done I still felt the pressure, it was really late so I went to bed right after that. In the morning when I woke up I actually didn’t feel the pressure anymore! I was really happy about the that. The book says that you can use any herbs, but I think that I’ll mention what I used which was basil, rosemary, and lemongrass.

I enjoyed learning about herbs and finding out properties that different herbs have and can do. It was nice to make a few things at home and know that it is a lot simpler to use herbal medicines than I thought!

Little Things Count

As a broke, young, and unexperienced college student, many times I feel there is nothing I can do as I learn about all the environmental problems. There is so much wrong in this world, war, global warning, hate crimes, oil pipelines, deforestation are just the tip of the iceberg. I feel I am just too small in this crazy big world. On the other hand, I find myself waiting to graduate to make a difference. But recently I have noticed that mind set is changing. No one is ever too small to make a difference or to do something to make a positive change in this world. Everything little thing counts.

I would say a lot of this personal change has started during this term. I learned so much and I started to believe more in myself. And a lot of it is due to the book, Braiding Sweetgrass. Every so often you read a book that stays with you and this book will definitely stay with me. The book has inspired me and made me see the world in a different light. The author, Robin, is an amazing woman. She spend twenty years to clean a pond on her property for the future generations to enjoy. She went late night to help the Salamanders cross the road during mating season. She had to do none of those things mentioned above but she choice to do it. She made me realize that everyone can make a difference.

Therefore, I decided to build a bee garden in the balcony of my apartment. I have been really interested in bees for a while now. Last quarter I came back from an Ultimate Frisbee tournament early to attend a beehive building workshop organized by Portland State. It was a great workshop. I loved it and got me more interested in the bees. I learned about how the bee hive works, what are the essentials  to build one, and what to do to take care of it.

I also learned why bees are important for us.  I really value bugs now, especially the bees. People are so scared of the bees because they think that bees are just waiting for a chance to sting us. But it’s not the truth. They die right away when they sting another organize. Bees are a blessing to this world. All they do is build their hives, produce honey, and pollinate more than seventy perfect of the plants.

Things I learned while researching for this project is that your garden needs to be chemical and pesticide free. High dosage of unwanted chemicals can kill the bees and low dosage disrupt innate orientation and navigation skills. The plants should be planted in big clumps to create a buffet for the bees. This will mean less work for them. There should be a abundance and variety for them. Obviously seedless plants are no good because they lack in pollen. Also during summer time, a water bath should be provided. It should be a shallow bowl full of pebbles and sticks so the bees do not drown. Also rethink your lawns, the grass does not provide habitat or food for the bees. Lawns are kind of useless for the native animals. Also, planting natives for the bees is better because they are better adapted to them. Plan to plant all year long because bees are active from early spring to late fall. They need food and water almost all year long. During winter months try to keep an eye on your neighborhood beehive to product them from predators and diseases. If you think something is wrong, then a local bee company should be contacted to product them.

I would say I started this project at beginning of fall when I moved into my new apartment. I wanted to have small garden therefore I bought gardening soil and peat moss from the neighborhood Lowe’s. They ever five dollars each. I was given the small wooden planter and the flower plant for free. I used the Home Depot bucket already at home to mix the peat moss and the potting soil. I obtained seeds for free from the SALP program at PSU. Then I made my final visit to the Pistils Nursery on Mississippi. I bought twelve herb saplings for one dollar each.

I mixed the soil and peat moss in the bucket, lined my planters with black plastic to cover some of the holes. Then planted all my saplings in a well-spaced rows. I planted French Thyme, English Thyme, Savory Winter, Golden Garden Sage, Culinary Sage, English Lavender, Provence Lavender, Hood Strawberry. I choose these plants because many websites mentioned they are liked by the bees and I can use them to cook with. The plants are dormant right now like the bees but will be available as food and habitat during spring time.

Even though this is a small garden I have created in my small little balcony but I believe that it will be helpful to at least one little pollinator. It is small step towards healthier environment.

Heat & Light for an Uncertain Climate Future

Throughout the course, I feel as if my ecological literacy has already grown through a lot of reading, knowing, and caring about the environment. For our final ecological identity lab, I knew that I wanted to satisfy David Orr’s final criteria for an ecologically literate person. I chose to develop a new skill that would enhance my practical competence and increase my family’s resilience to an unpredictable future climate. Since we are very much aware of the downward spiral that our planet seems to be headed, my husband and I try to be prepared for natural disasters and energy shortages (temporarily or permanently). When I went to look at our emergency kit, I noticed that our only sources of light and heat were flashlights and hand warmers. I realized that in a long term catastrophe, these items would be insufficient in providing us with non-battery operated light, keeping us warm in cold weather, and preparing raw meat (we’re vegetarians, but would obviously eat animals in a survival setting).

In thinking of something that would resolve this problem, I immediately thought of candles. While I could just put some store bought candles in our emergency kit, I wanted to learn how to continue to make them from everyday materials once our supply ran out. If the national energy supply were ever to become compromised, candles would likely be some of the first items to sell out in stores. Considering this, I rummaged through our pantry, experimented a bit (well, a lot), and finally came up with a way to create my own long-lasting emergency candles that use materials that many people already have in their homes. The best part is, all of these supplies are very affordable and would likely be some of the last products to go in an emergency. Considering this, you could stock up on the supplies and make a bunch of candles to sustain your family in such an event. To make these candles, just follow the instructions below.

Materials:

• Container: empty can or jar
• Wick: twine or cotton string
• Fastener: coin
• “Wax”: vegetable shortening

Methods:

1. Clean out an empty can or jar.
2. Melt the vegetable shortening to reach its liquid form.
3. Cut the string to about twice the length of the container.
4. Securely fasten the string around a coin by tying a couple of knots. This will ensure that the wick stays straight and near the bottom of the container after the shortening is poured.
5. After the shortening has liquified, soak the string in the melted oil for a couple of seconds. I found that this helps the candle last longer and burn more calmly.
6. Place the soaked string into the container, coin side down. Tie the excess string around a straight object (I used a butter knife) to ensure that it remains straight.
7. Carefully pour the hot oil into the can.
8. Allow the shortening to come to room temperature and return to its solid form.
9. Light the wick and enjoy warmth, light, and cooking!

While I was working on this project, I was reminded of Orr’s article “Optimism and Hope in a Hotter Time.” Orr mentions that whether we want to consider our concern for environmental catastrophes as “prudence, precaution, insurance, or common sense, [it] ought to be regarded as an emergency like no other.” While I do sincerely care about solving the environmental issues that we currently face, I do not approach these problems with optimism, but rather with hope. According to Orr, “hope requires us to check our optimism at the door and enter the future without illusions. It requires a level of honesty, self-awareness, and sobriety that is difficult to summon and sustain.” Considering this, I will always do my best to reduce my personal carbon footprint by continuing doing things like commuting via bicycle, eating a plant-based diet, recycling, and shopping locally. However, I think that it is important to be realistic about our future and prepared for the worst. This means learning these kind of practical skills that can increase our resilience to such circumstances. I believe that this is especially relevant for folks who seek ecological literacy and are concerned about what the future holds if our actions do not change soon.

Composting

When thinking about what I wanted to accomplish for this project, and thinking of David Orr’s “Ecological Literacy”, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. David Orr talks about what having Ecological Literacy means and how people need to incorporate how to do tasks, projects and putting plans into action. I knew that I wanted to complete a cycle of some sort, and I thought that food would be the best option. When cooking in my kitchen, I always end up putting vegetable scraps in the disposal. After reading about compost and knowing what kind of potential those vegetables scraps have and what they could do for me in return became very intriguing. I have always wanted my very own herb garden and what better way to grow my own herbs than use the scraps that I produce. I decided that I needed to build a compost box right away because compost can take months to become usable.

Since this project was about Ecological Literacy, I wanted to make this project using recycled wood, and no power, as in power tools. I gathered a few different pallets, an old handsaw of my grandpa’s, a hammer and nails that I found in my grandpa’s garage. Another thing that I thought was important about this is doing it myself. As a woman in this time and society, I pride myself on doing things for myself and how I want to. However, I learned very quickly that it does not matter what gender you may be, sawing and hammering is quite a difficult task. I had done all the easy stuff. Gather vegetable scraps, egg shells, leaves, and grass clippings, I even added a few newspaper scraps to the mix. The hardest part was going to be disassembling the pallet and re-purposing it to a usable compost box.

I started by sawing the pallet in half, initially I was going to make the dimensions 2’x2’x2’, until I realized just how big that would be. I just needed this box big enough for two people’s food scraps, and to grow a herb garden. From cutting the pallet in half, I used one half as the back and cut the other half again into two halves and used them for the sides. I thought that cutting the pallet would be more difficult that hammering in the nails, but I again was proved wrong. I ended up bending seven nails before getting quite frustrated. Not knowing what to do, and my most of my family being at work, I called my brother, Nathan, who happens to be great at pretty much everything. I took the box to him and my other brother, Nicholas, and I ended up using an electric impact to screw in 3 nails. Both my brothers proceeded to hammer in 7 more nails. Finally, the box was built.

I took it back home and set it in the place where it would be easy to see it and remember that this project was long term and I needed to continue to keep up on it. I added the food scraps first, followed by leaves and topped it off with grass clippings. I set a board over top. Let the composting commence.

Thinking about this project, environmental literacy, and all the in-class discussions and readings we have read, started to make me think and realize that humanity just wanted to take the easy way out. Building and planning this compost box on a singular level was incredibly difficult. How humans have evolved has been to making difficult tasks easier. But by doing this, humans have lost a connection with land and with the planet. I thought that I had an intrinsic value frame of mind when it came to nature, but putting thoughts and words into action and expanding my ecological literacy to include practice, made me value nature, and powerful natural processes so much more.

 

ASEEP

I got an email about the Associated Students for Ethical Environmental Policy back in November. I was on some sort of mailing list for ESM students that I didn’t know how to unsubscribe to. The email stated that the goal of this group, abbreviated to ASEEP, would be to research existing and newly processed environmental legislation and to write and submit or verbally testify our data in front of state legislators or Portland city council, whoever it pertained to. There would also be citizen lobbying efforts in order to influence policy advisors. I initially thought this group was pretty cool because the email also stated that there would be no president, only student and faculty representatives who all had equal voting power. All decisions would be made by majority rule and anyone who could not attend a meeting would be able to cast their vote remotely via email or phone. That really appealed to me because I have a fairly busy schedule, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to commit to many meetings. I emailed my name and PSU ID to Alexander Krokus who is either a PSU student or PSU alumni, I am not sure which.

We had a bit of trouble arranging a meeting time, so we did not actually meet until just this past week. There were only about four of us that could make it that day out of the seven or so people that had signed up. We met at a pizza place just outside of campus and had a slice while we talked about what the group was all about.

After giving a general overview of basically what the email had said, Alexander told us that his main goal of this group was to give students like us a voice. Basically, he did not want us to feel powerless since we were students and not politicians. A true democracy is when every single citizen has a voice.

We did not talk a lot about specifics that day, because none of us had really come prepared with any new policies we wanted to research. We mainly talked about the election and how the outcome may affect what we are trying to do. Donald Trump’s energy policy came up a lot, and the fear about how many acts he wants to abolish or pull out of was brought up as well. I’m excited to stay involved in this group, and I’m excited to be given a voice in the things that I care about.

Overall, I think ASEEP will continue to improve my environmental literacy by allowing me to be continually educated on the politics of the environment around me. I also think that it will challenge me to learn and to want to keep learning about new environmental issues as well as political ones.

ASEEP really reminds me of the Environmental Justice piece we read by Cox. It’s unfortunate that we as a group, if we go to testify in front of city or state representatives, will have to make sure we have scientific data and research ready and presentable just to get our point across. I wish that we, as concerned citizens, could voice our opinions and be taken seriously just based on the fact that we live in this world and care about it. This group also reminds me of End of the Long Summer, or really any piece we’ve read about impending climate change and the lack of effort the world is putting into it. I know that a group of college students standing up against politicians doesn’t seem like a lot of help, but at least I can tell myself that I am doing something, and not standing silently as the world heats itself into oblivion.

A lesser known threat

Whenever I walk around campus, I try to look up. Not straight up, but I try to make a conscious effort to take in my surroundings. While my phone may be buzzing in my coat pocket and is very tempting to spend all my time on, I try to reserve my walks from class to class for the real viewing time. PSU is a beautiful campus in an awesome, green city. The change of colors of the Park Block’s trees is illustrious and provides the best indication of the seasons. However, one thing that plagues PSU are cigarette butts. They are everywhere. Next time you walk around, take a look. They are in the cracks of the cement; they fill the drains, and are even intermixed with tanbark. PSU’s smoke free campus initiative seems to have had little impact on the amount of cigarette butts on campus. In addition, while there is little trash on campus, there is a disturbingly high amount of recyclable items. If ashtrays and recycling bins are available, why don’t people use them? I wanted to learn more about why even if people have access to not litter, they do anyways.

My first step involved participating in litter clean up on campus. I registered as a volunteer with SOLVE Oregon, and donned in a safety vest with my bucket and trash picker the group set out to collect litter. My group told me that once she collected about 1,000 cigarette butts in an hour. After three hours of picking up butts, I believed her. I could barely walk a few feet before picking up another one. We walked up and down the South Park Blocks, and spent an astonishing 45 minutes just at the University Pointe Entrance. To my dismay, we picked up several recyclable items: from plastic soda bottles, to beer cans, to glass bottles. After three hours of this, I felt like I had a much better understanding of what students were littering. Now, I just wanted to know why.

I figured that if I wanted to know why others liter, I needed to check my own green skills. I have recycling bin that I fill up quite often, but I rarely took it to the recycling room my dorm. This building allows you to sort your recyclables by glass, paper, and more in order to ensure that they will be properly recycled. Well, for the past few months I have not been taking advantage of this resource. I usually just took all my recycling down to recycling dumpster. And while most of what I put in there was in the right dumpster, on more than one occasion I put glass in the dumpster, which is a recyclable item that could have been recycled if I had put it in the right bin. So for the past few weeks, about every five days, I have been taking all my recycling to the recycling room. I learned how to sort everything out and it felt much better than realizing I had basically just thrown something away that could have been recycled.

Once I realized that even I wasn’t taking advantage of resources that were available to me to recycle, I had a somewhat better understanding of why others don’t. Usually, it is a matter of convenience. It was more convenient to put my recycling in the recycling dumpster while I was taking the trash out. I would imagine that a person smoking a cigarette feels it is more convenient to toss the butt rather than put it in an ashtray. One key reading that resonated with me over the course of this project was Gifford Pinchot’s “Prosperity”. Pinchot argues we have been treating the Earth and it’s resources as if they are inexhaustible. By tossing aside recyclable items and not properly disposing of cigarette butts, we are doing just that: treating our local ecosystem like a bottomless pit where trash will never reemerge. Another reading that I found relatable was the pieces on environmental justice. Robert Cox and Julian Agyueman argue that human equality and environmental health cant prosper without one another. If we provided non-smoking education and accessible and free recycling bins, there could be a chance that smoking rates would decrease and the amount of litter would lessen. These resources can’t only be provided to privileged groups of people.

This project expanded my ecological literacy because it allowed me to see exactly what people are throwing away, and possibly why there are. It also allowed me to check my own habits and see if there were living up to environmental standards. Walking in the pouring rain for three hours, scraping up cigarette butts allowed me to reflect and just how preventable some environmental problems are, and how we could possible go about doing that.

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