If you don’t know about my hero-worship of David Suzuki, you must not have had a conversation with me for longer than 5 minutes. I had long wanted to usurp his job as host of Nature, but only recently have I come to respect the environmental aspect of his work. After (gasp!) finding him on Facebook and reading his call to participate in his Nature Challenge, I, with Kurt in forced tow, have decided to commit ourselves officially to this effort.
The 10 points of the Nature Challenge:
- Reduce home energy by 10%
- Eat meat-free meals once a week
- Buy a fuel efficient, low-polluting car
- Choose an energy efficient home and appliances
- Stop using pesticides
- Walk, bike or take transit to regular destinations
- Prepare your meals with locally produced food
- Choose a home close to regular destinations
- Support alternatives to the car
- Get involved, stay informed
Reduce home energy by 10%
I’m really bad about leaving the computer on. Something about staying connected, I guess. We’re now shutting down our computers when not in use, on top of trying to take shorter showers, not using the thermostat unless it’s below zero (Dec / Jan), and only using the room lights when we need it. The last item has become such a habit that we often turn off said lights when we walk out of a still-populated room–oops.
Eat meat-free meals once a week
This is the hardest lifestyle change for someone as carnivorous as myself to make. Last Thursday was our first attempt at going a day without meat and seafood. Knowing how difficult the transition would be, I had been eating vegetarian breakfasts since Monday. [Others have expressed curiousity at how I can have a meaty breakfast every day...suffice it to say that I'm Filipino and pigflesh is very hard to avoid!]
So anyhow. Thursday comes along and I have a pleasant breakfast and lunch of italian pasta salad and broccoli / cheddar soup. So far so good. 4 0′clock comes around and…bam! I want meat. The craving is extreme: I find myself daydreaming about a nice beef brisket sandwich and and all I wanted to do is jump out of my cubicle and bury my face in the Pig Sampler platter of the BBQ house across the street. I think my skin felt like bugs were crawling all over it. I may as well have been addicted to meth.
Luckily, work and this blog migration has been keeping me busy, so I didn’t succumb to those meatacular urges and managed to flee home at the end of the day, grumpy and starved for protein. Kurt arranged a dinner consisting of spinach and cheese ravioli with marinara sauce and sugar-snap peas. It sounds better than it was–both of us felt extremely malnourished after the meal. I think I could have cried. Fell asleep that night with dreams of going to Memphis Blues on Friday and literally …pigging out.
What happened on Friday, however, has thankfully inspired us with how we can sustainably reduce our intake of farmed livestock. We found a terrific restaurant that has a ton of great vegetarian fare that we plan to emulate for our home-cooked meals. Thank you very much, Habit Lounge!
Buy a fuel efficient, low-polluting car
Check. I’m sure our Hyundai Elantra is also collecting dust from sitting in our garage for weeks on end.
Choose an energy efficient home and appliances
Can’t really choose our appliances in our rented apartment. Our tower is fairly new so most of the installed appliances are relatively energy-efficient. Kurt also claims that our HDTV is EnergyStar-compliant….
Stop using pesticides
I’m pretty sure we don’t use pesticides, but if any of you disagree, please let us know and we’ll work on this one.
Walk, bike or take transit to regular destinations
This is the best thing about living downtown. When our company had a “Bike Week”, I had to not participate, as buying a bike would contribute more to our ecological footprint that continuing to foot it to work.
Prepare your meals with locally produced food
Another difficult part of this nature challenge for us. We’re starting to be more conscious of where our ingredients are coming from, but it often takes more energy to drive to the local farmer’s market than going to the grocery at the foot of our building and grabbing what’s on their shelves.
Choose a home close to regular destinations
Check! 5-7 mins to work by foot for both of us. Grocery, medical clinic, and drycleaners in our building complex; salsa dancing in 4 different walkable venues downtown. Man, I love downtown Vancouver!
Support alternatives to the car
We recently took a Prius taxi coming home from the airport…that count?
Get involved, stay informed
Well, we’re doing the first bit…what are you doing?
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