Is Sharing Our Stuff The Answer to Our Planetary Problems?

It's always an endearing moment on a made-for-TV movie when the 8 year old girl shares their half sandwich with an 8 year old boy (or vice versa). The reality in classrooms, however, is that we teachers really don't allow sharing of food because of "all the reasons": potential of food allergies, "your parent packed that lunch for you and wants you to eat it," "other kids could get jealous," and more.

But I was fascinated when listening to the February 23rd TED Talk Daily entitled "The Surprising Climate Benefits Of Sharing Your Stuff" from Tessa Clark. The concept of saving our planet could indeed lie in the idea of not only food sharing, but other things as well. (You can find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.)

When Tessa Clark started in with the idea of food sharing, at first it struck me as an automatic "nope, not doing it." Get your food from someone you don't know versus from a grocery store?!? Feels blasphemous! Feels like there's a potential to be poisoned! (Which led to the immediate secondary thought of "Why am I so jaded and why did I automatically go there?") 

But, the more she spoke about it, it does make sense to share. For instance, if I have the lawn mower and my neighbor has the leaf blower, we both save money and we can just borrow from each other. Saves on space in my garage too. So, why can't that hold true when it comes to my refrigerator? Especially given the overwhelming problem of food waste in the United States, which amounts to 30-40% of our national food supply. Minimalists will agree: we have an over-shopping problem on top of a waste mentality!

Thinking about the option to share our "stuff" definitely is an interesting thought exercise. With the growing number of "share" apps that are out there, maybe Tessa Clark is on to something.

Take a listen for yourself and see what you think. I do agree that it is going to take thinking in a different way from our current way of thinking (and have been thinking for decades). Nothing will change unless something changes...and we do indeed need to come up with a way to bring about positive, lasting changes to help our planetary problems, environmental issues, and global climate concerns.

Sandwich image from https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2022/08/food-safety-packing-school-lunches.html, Sharing economy image from https://medium.com/nomobo/the-sharing-economy-is-good-for-the-environment-heres-why-db37214215f7, TED Talk Daily audio from https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RMta72fSsZilhao7Io0eX?si=oewsdVXhTp2IJsInrkfMOw

One Year: Through The Eyes of a Quarantine

As we hit the one year anniversary of when many schools and communities in the United States went on shutdown March 13th, 2020 due to the novel coronavirus, the phrase "through the eyes of a quarantine" came to mind. This led near-instantly to Lin Manuel Miranda's song from Hamilton coming to mind:  "Through the Eyes of a Hurricane." I played around with modifying it:

In the eyes of a quarantine

We are homebound.

While the virus swirls,

A pandemic.

March 13 of '20, a quarantine

Locked us all down

In every town.

Near nation-wide, a long year now.

That's about as far as I got.

A year ago, I didn't have an inkling that we'd be here, in this way, an entire year from then. Silly us, as we prepped through the end of February and the start of March for the potential for remote learning, none of us thought it'd be more than a few weeks or a month at most. When glimmers of conversation cropped up in the news it could be until 2021, I found it unbelievable and despairing. 

And here we are now. A year later.

Some schools and children have been on remote learning for an entire year, or darn near close.

Last spring, I wrestled with remote learning. Then I learned this fall that hybrid learning and teaching to half the class in the classroom and the other half simultaneously via zoom is actually harder. Last April, who would have thought those words would be coming out of my mouth! As teachers and students alike, we have worn our masks--or 2 simultaneously--all day long every day since August. Essential workers in our own classrooms. 

Whether remote or hybrid (or perhaps some schools even full back in--ours is going that route after our Spring Break), we've become worn out. We've watched numbers spike and dip down then spike up again. We've started seeing variants make their way like a wave across the planet. We've missed out on a lot of golden moments and memories and milestones. It's been a really long time since I've seen my mom outside of a computer screen. In fact, all of 2020 and then some. 

And we've also been frustrated as we see people we know (either in our paths or on social media), doing their own things, taking trips or having parties, making us feel like some of us are working so hard to do the right thing, while others gallivant and "live life because its meant to be lived," yet in the middle of a pandemic, it doesn't feel right or just. This leaves some of us "pangry" [pandemic angry--yes, it's a thing], and that too has an exhaustion associated with it. Especially as variants crop up and we feel the never-ending-ness of this pandemic.

But...we've seen the glimmer of hope too. For some, that comes with a new president. For even more, it's associated with the virtual "light at the end of the tunnel" with vaccines and the science and money backing them. More hope coming forth too as more and more of those vaccine make their way into arms. As a teacher, I'm thankful to be bumped up on that list with both vaccines behind me--and in me.

I ran across an article entitled "What the Quarantine Can Teach Us about Zero-Waste Living, Saving the Planet, and Hope" by Sophie Hirsh on GreenMatters.com with the environmental sites I follow. A Google search will lead you to a bounty of similarly themed articles about what we can learn from this time. The eco-tie-ins are many:

During the pandemic, we've eaten at home more--meaning real food, healthier options, and reasonable portion sizes (versus the super-size portions of many restaurants, which then leads to waste or even obesity). We've learned to make do with what's at home because a trip to the grocery store can feel cumbersome with masks or the need to order online. The same is true as we've been less likely to go out shopping and coming home with things we don't need. Inadvertently, many of us have lived a more minimalistic lifestyle. We've seen we can get away with less... and it also has created innovative work environments, making us rethink work and school. We've also seen evidence in the early days of the planet restoring itself with cleaner air and animals reclaiming some urban areas which encroached on their natural habitats. Despite it being a drastic measure, clearly, it's doable. And we are starting to see some of those eco-initiatives come through in Biden's presidency. 

I purposely chose the masked Mona Lisa in my opening art because it feels symbolic of the year. Part of the allure of Leonardo da Vinci's famous work is the mystery of Mona Lisa's smile. Eyes and smiles go together. Part of the intrigue over the Mona Lisa painting is in her eyes, which seem to follow you. It has a name: the Mona Lisa effect. 

Over the last year, especially teaching in a mask (and seeing the daily Zoom thumbnail of myself), it's true that you definitely can have smiling eyes. But, the true connection in the smile is the part that's now-been-hidden behind the mask for a year now. Paralleling a lot of human connection that has been missing in our adapted lives this past year. 

As more and more people get vaccinated, we are able to come a little bit more out of our hidey-holes. We can start to re-gather together into shared living space as Spring starts to flower and warm. May we carry forth some of the importance lessons we've collectively learned. May we really be able to "see".... and may we smile and embrace joy, despite the loss of a hard year.

Art created at canva.com; Mona Lisa masked pic in stock art on canva.com; 3 pandemic pictures from the following: https://www.weareiowa.com/article/news/nation-world/merriam-webster-top-word-of-2020/507-451a352e-c31c-402f-85ee-8938bf785861, https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/12/01/pandemic-chosen-as-word-of-the-year.html, and https://leslieannetarabella.com/2020/12/nothing-good-about-2020.html/

Climate Change Solutions Quiz

A good online quiz is quite satisfying. Here's one that won't name your Hogwarts house or which Friends character you're most like, but it will teach you a thing or two about how to be the best planetary protector you can be!

CNN's Climate Change Solutions Quiz was created by Drew Kann, Will Houp, Judson Jones, and Sean O'Key (April 19, 2019). Created in coordination with the group Project Drawdown and their rankings of effective climate change solutions, it has 8 questions based on the following categories:

• Our food
• How we move goods & people
• Our homes & cities
• How we use our land
• Electricity use
• Materials & waste management
• Empowering women
• Can you rank the top 5

For each category, the quiz challenges you rearrange the 3-5 options in the order of greatest to least impact to cut down on climate change. Once you answer each question, it rearranges your choices (if necessary), shows you your choice order versus the real order, and it gives answers in the following format: "This would be similar to taking ___ million cars off the road." Then it provides vital information explaining the data, and it labels the actions by whether they are ones that can be tackled by individuals, companies, or policy makers.

Having read the book Drawdown (edited by Paul Hawken) last year, I thought for sure I'd ace this quiz. Let's just say, this served as an excellent (and necessary) refresher course.

Go forth, check out CNN's Climate Change Solution quiz, learn along the way, and then see what you can do to start making a difference.

Images fromhttps://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/04/specials/climate-change-solutions-quiz/?utm_medium=social&utm_term=link&utm_content=2019-08-30T19%3A01%3A22&utm_source=fbCNN&fbclid=IwAR3-D9E6HNvSILQ6JX8sl08NyCTSDcZX4lVhm2vlFVgWURd5SpgG6yvLoJA and http://www.clker.com/clipart-515529.html

Minimalism Meets Environmentalism

Minimalism, like mindfulness, are on the move and trending a lot over the last several years. I just recently watched the Netflix show "Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things." It was striking. Here's the trailer:

Both minimalism and mindfulness make so much sense in our over-busy, over-filled, over-tech, over-stuff world! It's not a surprise to see them trending. Don't we all want to declutter--both our brains and our homes? For our homes, you certainly can see the general environmental benefits.

Shortly after watching this documentary, I ran across this video from The Whole Happy Life which pairs minimalism and the environments. It gives you some good ideas of minimalistic ways to save some money, cut down on your spending, and help the environment along the way! Makes sense for so many reasons!

What are you going to minimalism on this month?



videos from https://youtu.be/0Co1Iptd4p4 and https://youtu.be/sN9FrJ23mk0

What's In Your Kitchen Sink For Clean Up?

We all have kitchens, and they all need attention & cleaning.

Watching this video created by 1 Million Women, (which I found on the Unf**k The World Facebook page) it struck me how little we think about the hidden places disposable plastic resides.

It's here that we made environmental decisions with our dollars. The fixes shared are so simple--and more economical! Our consumer mentality has had people creating items and marketing, letting us know "we need these" in order to maintain our life. Do we? If we all pared down and simplified, we'd have more money in our banks and live a cleaner, less wasteful life. May that be a vision for us all here in 2019!

 


Video from https://www.facebook.com/1MillionWomen/videos/440439903029942/
photo from https://startsomegood.com/1millionwomenapp

Reinventing Our Relationship With Styrofoam

Ask my son what my thoughts are on Styrofoam, and he'll let you know: Evil Styrofoam!

Styrofoam, a common name tho really a brand name for polystyrene foam, is everywhere: cups, plates coolers, and more. It's far from eco-friendly in that it never biodegrades. Never... as in not ever. Nor is it recyclable, despite the little recycle symbol with the #6 on the bottom--a common misconception among people who sometimes think if the symbol is there, then certainly it's recyclable.  Additionally, polystyrene is also one of the leading causes of marine debris.

Given that, it begs the question: why is it still even a thing in this day and age.

As time and awareness continue on, more innovation is on the way. Additionally, so are Styrofoam bans. Given that, I'm proud of nearby Baltimore, who's City Council voted unanimously this February 28th, 2018 to ban Styrofoam in restaurants. Violations could lead to a $1000 fine.

"We look at all the litter in our waterways. It's not biodegradable. It's not actually being recycled," said Councilman John Bullock, the lead sponsor of Bill 17-0117. "For the most part, it's ending up in landfills or being incinerated. In water, it breaks apart into small pieces, which makes it very difficult to clear up the water and dangerous for wildlife."

Check out Groundswell's 2014 map of all the areas in the United States that have banned Styrofoam. Likewise, you can find an incomplete listing (though huge in and of itself) updated to approximately 2016 (and self-advertised as not updating regularly at the bottom of their list), check out the list of Polystyrene Ordinances at Surfrider.org.

Additionally, this article from Story of Stuff has some interesting pointers on what you can do yourself!

But...what about all that Styrofoam stuff that's already out there? 

Well, some people have some ideas!

This Attn. video featured below summarizes Ashton Cofer's 6 minute TED Talk from December 2016... and his innovative plan with how we can repurpose Styrofoam. Additionally, Ashton does an exceptional job of highlighting the importance of the design process!

Cheers to the young leaders, innovators, and game changers who are out there making an environmental difference! May we all follow their lead!

 


Video from
Images from https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/styrofoam-ban; http://ohhmywhitecoffin.blogspot.com/p/fact.html; http://guyanachronicle.com/2015/12/13/say-no-to-styrofoam

Recycling Right... & Reiterating the Order of the 3 R's

"Recycling" is a household word these days--or at the very least, it should be.  We've been talking about it long enough, that yes indeed it should be. (Though I will say it still startles me when I am somewhere like a shop or a store that only has one bin, but I digress.)

I think most of us feel like we are wearing our white hats like "Scandal" gladiators, doing good for the world, when we recycle.

Well, maybe they are green hats!

But recycling is tricky.  It's this seductive idea that makes us feel like we are all out there on "TeamGreen," but there's still so many items with those triangular chasing arrows on them that really can't be recycled.  So we feel like we are recycling like a champ, keeping items from the trash bin, when what really happens.... things wind up in the landfill.

It's rather deflating.

These 2 videos help you get more personal with the plastic products you are bringing into your homes--items which you may ultimately "get rid of," one way or another.  It brings up the point that your decision starts with your dollar and what you spend your money on, so make your monetary vote count.  It also reminds us that the motto "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is purposely written in that order.  (Some people even start with "Refuse!")




Pics from https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/04/01/10/59/recycle-98854_960_720.png and https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8383/8558569053_aa89a5f01d_z.jpg;
Videos from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qTelxi3MjU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HuZ6_LOxY8

Planting the Seeds of Change

I love how the author of this Mother Natured article decided to post this poster on her fridge in order to make small steps toward bigger action and future change. Every step in the right direction is going the right way!

Poster from http://mothernatured.com/2014/05/29/save-the-environment-poster/

Gregg Segal's "7 Days of Garbage"

Garbage can tend to gross out most people... except maybe garbagologists.  Even the most avid of recyclers or composters can tend to get a lost of waste at the end of the day...not to mention the end of the week!

Artist Gregg Segal takes a photo-approach to analyzing a week's worth of waste.  Given the average American makes approximately 4 pounds of trash per day, multiply that out by 7 days, and the number of people in your family.  That's a lot of landfill-fodder.  His visuals are certainly eye-opening... and for anyone with an active imagination, you can't help but wonder about the odor!

But I think for me, who is always analyzing the overuse of plastic that abounds in our society, the pictures make an interesting survey of how much disposable plastic there is.  Much like the hotel plastic-wrapped plastic cups or the plastic-wrapped apples I've seen.  Is all of this even necessary?  And, is it all even recyclable?  Is this a good use for our depleting petroleum supply?  I think visuals like this really can make you sit and wonder about the whys, ponder about the pollution, and rethink what it is we are all doing.  Clearly, from Gregg Segal's photos, what we are doing is trashing the planet.

Kudos to Mr. Segal for helping us look at things in a new way and puzzle about why we are doing this to ourselves!!  To view his whole collection, visit it at the 2014 Fence Website (& there, learn more about the 1,000 foot outdoor photo installation in Boston, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, & Atlanta through October 2014).


Photos from the Slate article "Mesmerizing Photos of People Lying in a Week's Worth of Their Trash" by Jordan G. Teicher. http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/07/08/gregg_segal_photographs_people_with_a_week_s_worth_of_their_trash_in_his.html

Active Learners & Learning to Be Active

Yesterday, in my morning tiptoe through Twitter, I ran across what I imagined might become 2 future GTG blog posts. Yet the more I marinated over them the more I realized that they were truly two sides of the same coin--both of which complimented the eco-edtech focus of Green Team Gazette simultaneously.

My first discovery led me to the brief video below.  Entitled "The Voice of the Active Learner," it defines the digital learner of today. I know that in just the year-and-a-half of iPad use at my school, I've seen how the trends are turning, and how heavy hitting mobile learning is becoming in the educational playing field.  I often feel like I am a scrambling sponge who can't get enough or can't keep up with the rapid changing pace in education.  This is coming from someone who is a fairly connected teacher.  Knowing where teachers range on the tech-spectrum from compu-novices to fabulously fluent (with most somewhere in the middle), it causes me to wonder--and sometimes worry--about our nation of teachers.  I think this video does a great job of showing educators how current they do need to be/become in order to keep pace with the active, digital learner.

Yet, watching this video, I was struck too by how inactive (physically) the "active learner" can become with so much screen time.  It is here I often see myself reflected as I count up my own computer/tech-connected hours.  It doesn't take much to get me sucked into the "plugged in" vortex. Yet it is through this that it reconfirms to me how important it is as educators to reconnect students to the natural world.  The more "plugged in" we all become as a society, the more our Nature Deficit Disorder increases, the less connected we become with the outdoors, the more we become a nation of "Obesity in America," and the more we truly are in need of becoming "unplugged."   This is yet another reason why (as a nation) we need to ramp up our environmental literacy.

It was here where I found my second "find" du jour.  And why it made even more sense to combine these two "finds."

Bay Backpack ran a post yesterday on their blog about having a Recycling Relay Race.  In reading the article, I found beauty in the way they married a physical, outdoor activity with a recycling-awareness activity. As I thought more about that, and then again about the above video of the connected learner, isn't physical activity equally engaging?  Aren't we all more connected when our whole body is a part of it?  Can't the outdoors entice us and capture our attention--in the same way any electronics can?  Reminds me of a photo I've seen floating around Facebook and Pinterest:

In addition to Bay Backpack's Recycling Relay, check out the Bay Backpack's resource page for a slew of other lessons/activities to connect you to the outdoors.

  

While you're at it, here are some other resources to investigate in order to become an active steward for our environment.  Don't be surprised if many of them lead your students to become active learners in the whole-body, outdoorsy kind of way.

• The Environmental Literacy Council
• The Green Education Foundation
• The Children and Nature Network
• Other resources highlighted in GTG under the tag "Outdoor Education,""Curriculum" or "Lesson Plans"

Video from   http://youtu.be/CZ5Vy9BgSeY, green grass & iPad image from http://blog.ipevo.com/?cat=126, "The Original Playstation" from http://imgace.com/pic/tag/the-original-playstation/, Bay Backpack pic from http://blog.baybackpack.com/?paged=2.