How My Sustainability Journey Began
Recognition
Every journey starts with a conviction that something isn't right and needs to be fixed. Many of us have lived most of our lives believing that what we consume, do, or dispose of has little impact on the environment around us, or that the systems in place somehow mitigate that impact. We often rehearse narratives in our minds to bolster this belief. It's only when we face one or more consequences of our daily actions that we may recognize a need to do something different. I say "may" because it's a choice whether we ignore what we see or do something to fix it. This is my story.
The Great Salt Lake is drying up
In April 2022, my brother- and sister-in-law, and one of their sons, visited from Virginia. My wife and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to show off the Great Salt Lake, so we took them to look at it. It was our first time in many years seeing it too. What we saw was astonishing. The water's edge had receded so much that the water around the docks was too shallow to allow boats larger than a rowboat to dock. Where we stood on the shore had been covered by water not too long ago. At the time, I thought, "OK, we've had a drought, so this is normal for that. It'll bounce back."
As the year progressed, I began to see news articles about the Great Salt Lake drying up and how that was a threat to life along the Wasatch Front. Besides being an ecological catastrophe for migratory birds, brine shrimp, and other wildlife that depend on the Great Salt Lake habitat, the desiccation of the Great Salt Lake also hinders the winter "lake effect" that produces snow accumulation in the mountains sufficient to see the Wasatch Front residents through the summer. Even more dire is the news that scientists from both the University of Utah and Brigham Young University have taken soil samples of the lake bed and found toxic particulate matter (including arsenic and mercury) that could make the Wasatch Front uninhabitable in the future, much like the fate of Owens Lake in California. This toxic lake-bed dust is already finding its way up to the mountain snow, contaminating it, and causing the snow to melt earlier than is ideal, increasing the chance of avalanches and flooding.
Why is this happening? Scientists say it's a combination of the Mountain West being in a drought since the turn of the century and an ever increasing demand on water resources as more people move to the Wasatch Front. Lack of precipitation and the diverting of fresh water to supply existing communities and farmlands as well as new residential areas contributes to the Great Salt Lake being the lowest it has been on record.
All of this hit home. This was in my backyard. But that didn't convict me enough to change, yet.
The Overstory
In the fall, I began reading The Overstory by Richard Powers. This novel touched me to the core and made me feel for trees. The trees in the book are as much characters as the humans are. Powers inspired me to take a look at myself and see how my actions were affecting the environment. The intertwining of the natural world with the lives of human characters who begin to realize the fragility of the world around them moved me to do something. It speaks to the power of fiction to change you. I cannot recommend this novel enough. Go. Read. It.
Climate Change
I started big picture. The first thing I did was to ask Google:
"What is the evidence for climate change?"
I was led to NASA's website talking about what they have found. I read An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. I watched YouTube videos and documentaries like 2040 and Cowspiracy. The visual evidence and the science was pretty compelling. Politically, I have been right of center, and I was keenly aware that many conservatives dismiss Climate Change as a hoax. But the more I investigated the issue, noting what I could see around me and what I had experienced, even here in Utah, the more I became convinced that at the very least a thinking human being could agree with the premise that we humans impact our environment for good or ill. I didn't understand all the science, but I could see that human choices compounded by the billions could indeed impact our world drastically. I thought about my own daily actions and the waste that I alone produce. I decided that change would begin with me, and I hoped that others around me would follow.
Earth Hero
Enter the Earth Hero app. Once installed, the app asks you a series of questions about your lifestyle to measure your carbon footprint. I started out with a relative emissions score of just under the American average of 19.6 (annual tonnes pollution, CO2e). By trying out some of the suggested actions, I have reduced my score to 15.9 (a start), but it still puts me 211% higher than the global average of 5.1. If my goal is to match the global average, then I have a long way to go. But I'm motivated to do what I can. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, many of the suggested actions converge with ideals and practices that my grandparents' generation (depression-era) held dear: reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, and rot (compost it). The five Rs. In a strange way, my recent obsessions with preparedness, survival, health, and frugality all guided me to more sustainable practices. Check out the app and see what you think.
Goals for this site
"Sustainability, low-impact living, environmental stewardship" are the watchwords for this blog. Follow me on my journey as I strive to live more sustainably with my environment. As I succeed in living with a lesser impact on the environment, I will share ideas, tips, and tricks with you, as well as report on what worked and what didn't. Finally, I embrace the ideal of environmental stewardship. Being a steward means you have been given something to watch over, take care of, and in turn, leave it better than you found it. Our planet is a gift we are responsible for. It is not single-use or disposable. Join me in a journey to live in harmony with that vision and be wise stewards.
What does your sustainability journey look like?
