Category: Sustainability

Sustainability Month 2021: The Oregon Wild Fires

If you’ve read the blog, you know there’s been some debate over whether or not I would have time to write articles for a month dedicated to sustainability. According to the research I did, a sustainability month doesn’t exist. There is a month in October which is weirdly limited to higher education and after that there is Earth Day in April. Those are the two I found. Of course April is World Poetry Month and since I write quite a bit of poetry, I opted to forgo a month dedicated to sustainability entirely. But then late at night I realized I could do it any month, so why not July? With my schedule, I can plan ahead and not worry about a mad blitz to write an article the week of.

September 2020

My Birth month and now the month of perpetual fire. Where once Autumn brought a cool breeze, now the winds howl and bring an inferno to set Hell loose on Earth. A decade ago this would have been a wild dream. And as I thought about it more and more, I realized we are living in a world that is in decay. The planet will survive but we will not. The children born after my generation will be worse off then we were to no fault of their own; for them, they will inherit the apocalypse. We are looking at the last generation of human beings and in the twilight of my years, as the sun sets on my life, so too will the sun set one last time for our planet. The year twenty one hundred.

An interesting prospect, no? Our parents have answers for the economy and life yet how does one go about even expressing the devastation that will be wreaked upon our lives? Perpetual war, terrorism, and a global pandemic will pale to what we will see by the end of the century. Imagine a world with an Amazon Rain Forest turned kindling, Coral Reefs as bright as the stars, and Mega Storms the likes we are only now beginning to see.

My first few decades were filled with hope, now more and more I am filled with a sense of impending doom. The forest fires seen in Oregon could have been improper forest management, sure. But a part of me knows that this will not be the last time I see fire of the magnitude I saw.

And do we act?

Throughout my Life, I’ve had the pleasure of watching Documentaries starting all the way back with Planet Earth in 2006. There’s a lot of beauty in our planet and I would’ve loved growing up decades earlier to truly appreciate that beauty. A time when there were few people and growth wasn’t the only mindset. I’ve only ever lived in a time where there have been cities and people are nigh unavoidable. There is always hope but we are walking a fine line between seasteads and “The Road” right now. Forget “Fahrenheit 451”, we’d be lucky to end up in that dystopian reality. I truly believe that if we don’t act within the next decade, it will be like toppling dominoes.

The Fear I Felt

The sky was blackened and clear blue gave way to an orange glow. For a couple weeks I had a taste of the apocalypse and all I could do is watch the fire consume Oregon as it crept towards my doorstep. I never saw the blazing infernos fortunately but I had my things ready in case our alert status changed. High winds the likes I never heard howled throughout the nights and made what was already bad, worse. I thought trees were going to topple and we’d all be blown away. Then, the other night, I heard the winds once more. A “freak” occurrence they called it but I had to wonder if this reality wouldn’t become all too common…

This is the start to my first ever Sustainability discussion. I’ve been looking to weave causes into my blog for a while now and the Wildfires of 2020 seemed like the perfect opportunity to talk about a terror that is still relatively easy to ignore at the moment. I wrote the bulk of the article when the fires were still fresh in my mind and while not all the articles for Sustainability Month will be like this, I thought it important to talk about. It’s a worse case scenario and I’m hopeful that it’ll only ever be a bad dream. Next article I’ll be talking about going vegan, so take a breath and recover if you are sitting agape in horror.

The year the Earth Said, “enough”

Today is Earth Day and I wrote an article. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this break from the Apocalypse!

So it’s Earth Day and we’re all inside. Unless you’re in Georgia, then you’re probably getting your haircut. This year is a little different from other Earth Days, isn’t it? While it’s easy to focus on the negative right now, an unforeseen consequence of the pandemic is people are driving less, have a new found appreciation for wanting to be outside, and are starting to garden. All in all, doesn’t sound too bad, does it? While the effects of the pandemic might not last for the environment, given long enough some individuals might form positive habits from being forced inside. This year, I wanted to take some time to discuss some of my personal habits and what makes me feel good.

I’ve always been inclined to walk. When I lived in Corvallis, I either walked or rode my bike to class, I never drove. If I needed a car, I’d carpool. It was a simple, elegant lifestyle. Corvallis was the perfect town for college. Public transit was also free but I only ever took the bus a handful of times, opting in most situations to walk. Towards the end of my senior year, I was running almost every day. It was great.

In Corvallis, I rarely ate out, which was a huge transition for me. Freshman year I went from eating out almost every day to kneading bread and crafting quiche by my Junior year. I learned to compost and use energy efficient bulbs and shower heads. I took sustainability courses and environmental economics.

And now I have Pokemon Go and an electric bike! I made a decision early on to not drive and opt for public transit when I moved back to Portland. I drove for a bit but ultimately stopped when it came to the economics of it all. I could buy a car for a couple thousand and then make car payments on top of that, or I could by a fold-able bike with a motor and a basket for around $2000. Now that I have plenty of time on my hands, I plan to be using my bike a lot more.

My primary hobby before the plague was learning to ferment food. To date I’ve made miso paste, hard cider, bitters, and sauerkraut. A DIY project was to make soap. I opted for an oatmeal textured, grapefruit scented soap. From the consumer end, I’ve been trying to find creative uses for cardboard and when I make purchases, making an effort to purchase all at once rather than a thousand different packages with one item each.

The next task is DIY projects and gardening. We are a wasteful society and I want to make positive change. If I can’t recycle plastic, I can at the very least learn how to re-purpose it so it doesn’t end up in some foreign country America has deemed its landfill (or create a completely new continent…).

And it wouldn’t be Earth Day without a call to action, would it? I spent the majority of the article talking about individual actions that I’ve done and that have made me feel good; in a perfect world, this would be enough. But, we do not live in a perfect world. In the 70’s corporations shifted responsibility away from themselves and led effective marketing campaigns to convince the consumer that the environment was their obligation and they should be good stewards. I can’t disagree with this. What I can disagree with is many companies have absolved themselves of responsibility and pollute as much as they can get away with. This needs to end. My recommendation is start with an education. Watch “Broken” and “Rotten” on Netflix, learn about supply chains. If you’re a student, consider sustainability courses and even down the road, a degree in sustainability (eventually I want to get my Masters in the subject). When you can argue beyond a doubt for the environment, that’s when people will listen and change can happen. Then, share your message. Start with friends, then governors, and then, perhaps one day, with corporations themselves. Profit shouldn’t be the bottom line, our health and the health of the environment should be. Happy Earth Day!

Like my content? Remember to like and follow. Share with your friends! If you want to support me financially, consider subscribing to my Patreon or buying me a cup of coffee through Ko-Fi! Below is the link:

Support this Blog!!!

I’ll also be trying something new this post! I’ve picked a cause and I’d recommend donating to them! The Ocean Cleanup is an Organization I’ve admired for a while now and their whole mission is to make the oceans a bit cleaner. Below is their link:

Ocean Cleanup Donation Page

I’ll be working on ways to improve donations and fundraisers on this site in the future as I’d love to integrate social change causes in the day-to-day of the blog as the site continues to grow and expand. For now, expect to see the occasional donation link but who knows what the future might hold! As always, I’d love to hear your feedback.

And it’s been a while since I’ve done a prompt, so here we go! What are you doing this Earth Day to make an impact? What is something unique or that you’re proud of that you do to have a positive impact on our environment? Looking forward to your responses!