Reflection

No Impact Boy Reflection

 

 

 

For my final project in American Literature Nature this semester, I decided to do a project on making my life greener entitled No Impact Boy. My original purpose in doing this project was to experiment with different methods of making my life greener, that I found in two books including Generation Green by Linda and Tosh Syverstein and Do One Green Thing by Mindy Pennybacker. The inspiration for this project came from the film called No Impact Man, where a man named Colin Beavan lives a lifestyle in which he has no impact on the environment. For my project, I did not go to the extreme of making no impact, but I did take simple steps to reduce my impact on the environment. By creating a blog I was able to extend my information to a larger audience, and to inspire other people to become greener as I have. I established two main issues that I concluded from my research including the environment (trees, water, ocean, and animals) and non-renewable resources (green-house gasses fossil fuels). The physical purpose of my project emerged in this step, which was to reduce my impact on these global issues. These issues, as I would discover, not only affect the earth, but also anything that lives within it, including humans. After I had researched and collected many facts and methods I decided to break down the information into four topics including hygiene, energy usage, food, and recycling. I used these topics to provide methods within them that related to how making your life greener in these topics can help counteract the issues in the environment (mainly hygiene and food) and non-renewable resources (mainly energy usage and recycling). I broke the information that I gathered into these four categories because many people in America can change their life in at least one of these aspects; these four categories affect almost all Americans in the world today. This step in relating the information I gathered because people could then connect with the information I was providing. In Generation Green Lynda Severstein states, "In the real word, there are a lot of second chances. And here's the thing about being green: it's never all or nothing. Every day you can start again, make other choices-better ones" (xvii). This quote was the main message in my project that you can choose whenever you want to be green, and that even if you fail you can always start again. The important thing is to make the choice to become green. In American Literature Nature I learned about making connections to nature, and with this project I was able to make connections to the environment. I was also able to explore the SECR dimensions that gave quality to my work.

            My first intention in this project was to establish the issues that I would be addressing. In American Literature Nature our class researched and analyzed information particularly the Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. In Am Lit Nature we learned how to make table tents. Table tents are basically short three paragraph essays where the first step is to establish the issue. The issue that I was addressing my project was that humans are having a negative impact on the earth that needs to be addressed in order to save the earth. The impact that humans have on the environment comes in the form of pollution, CO2 emissions, chemicals being released into the environment, and many more. So the focus of my project was to make use methods that I found in my research to lessen my impact on the environment (This impact on the environment is also known as a carbon footprint). In order to establish the issue I was addressing I brought in certain quotes to show the impact of the issues in our environment. In Generation Green Lynda, Severstein states, "Scientists conservatively estimate that because of global warming the sea level could rise anywhere from eight to thirty-eight inches by the next century" (5). Rising waters would affect all of the coastline areas where humans live would have to move. The fact is that while humans are effecting the environment we are actually affecting ourselves. In this sense I discovered that humans have a connection to nature. Another one of these discoveries came in Pennybacker's book Do One Green Thing in which she states, "bald eagles" egg shells were thinning, harming reproductive rates to the point that the bald eagle became endangered" (156), because of harmful chemicals found in popular hygienic products that are sold in America. I also found out in my research however that these hygienic products not only hurt the environment, they also hurt the people that use them. Linda Syverstein states, "A 2006 article in Ms. Magazine explains that some of the chemicals in popular cosmetics-phthalates (a hormone disrupting chemical), formaldehyde, petroleum, parabens, benzene, and lead-have been linked to breast cancer, endometriosis, reproductive orders, birth defects, and developmental disabilities in children" (121). The underlying theme here is that human's health and environmental health is connected. By this point I had established a definite connection between humans and the environment. The connection that I discovered between humans and nature essentially represented the spiritual aspect of the SECR credit. The importance of establishing this connection was so that anyone who read this blog would understand that we have to save our environment in order to save ourselves. This fact motivation for myself, as well as anybody who read my blog to take action into making there lives greener.

After giving motivation to change the next step that I took was a call to action. The facts that I discovered in my research shaped what is known as the call to action. In American Literature Nature I learned how to make an effective call to action from the table tents that I helped create. A effective call to action is first of all something that has a purpose for doing, and second of all is able to practically implemented. The goal of my project was again to find simple ways to reduce my impact on the environment. In the book Do One Green Thing, Pennybacker provides a method to, "hang at least one load a week to dry" (84). I picked this method because it was a practical and effective method to become greener. I also gave information that the effect of making this change does for your impact on the environment, or carbon footprint. Pennybacker states, "every time you hang-dry a load of laundry instead, you save 4.4 pounds of carbon emissions" (82). Showing the effects of how changing your life to become greener was important to show how much of an impact is made when you change your life to become greener. I guarantee that all of the methods that I researched and provided on my blog would save money. So when I was making my life greener I was making a ethically and economically correct choice.

Another part of the SECR credit is to explore community relationships. By helping to reduce my impact on the earth by becoming greener actually helps the community in a way, since I am not polluting as much into the earth. However, I also helped the community directly particularly by recycling, reducing, and reusing. On my quest to become greener I went to the Honolulu cat clinic to donate unwanted towels. I also went to Punahou School's Tank where I donated more items that I didn't need anymore. By doing these tasks I helped the community and the environment out. I gave back to the community by donating things that I didn't need anymore for someone else to use. I also helped the environment out by not contributing to the landfills where these unwanted items would have gone. I even went to my local park to do a trash pick up. In this way I helped clean the community that I live in as well as the environment.