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PRR302
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Name: Molly
Interests: I currently work for Professor Jim Bingen, doing data entry for a project of his. I also work in the Center for Integrated Plant Systems for a Ph. D. student named Jeff Evans. I have been working for him since May, helping with his doctorate project dealing with the invasive plant Garlic Mustard.
I have a lot of interest in agriculture related environmental issues, specifically industrial agriculture and GMOs. I also care about urban sprawl, land use, impacts of mass tourism and ecotourism, and global warming, among many others.
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Member Since:
10/4/2006
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| This whole thing is a mess. I sound like I want people to tear
everything down and be hunters and gatherers or something. I've been
battling the feeling of hopelessness all semester it seems, but I have
a feeling I better just get over it, it isn't going to help anything. I
do know that. But I'm still fairly new to all of this.
Nothing much has changed since the last big entry I wrote. I decided to
not get the microwave at all. I found out there are no energy star
microwaves. That's not why I'm not getting one, I just found that out
when I was doing some research on them.
I just don't know what to say anymore. Hopefully I can have more of an
impact when I graduate and get a real job. I plan to ask the Land
Policy Institute for a job, or just be free labor, for spring semester.
I have gotten very interested in land policy and development being in
RD 491, and I think it is something I should know more about.
So, I have done some work to save an endangered species, I study
invasive species in order to find a biological control to get rid of
it, and hopefully next semester I can learn a lot more about smart
growth and stopping sprawl. I guess that isn't so bad.
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| I've figured out what I am trying to say.
That just me being here, is being unsustainable.
I can turn off all my lights, I can turn my heat down, I can take short
showers and not run the water when I'm brushing my teeth all I want.
But the lights outside my apartment will always be on. The impervious
roads and parking lots are dumping pollutants into the rivers through
storm drains right now. The MSU library has countless computers
running, lights ablaze. 24 hour QDs, McDonalds, and Meijers are all lit
up, running water, using electricity, just in case someone wants a
slurpee, some fries, or decides they need to go grocery shopping on a
whim at 3am.
I can try as hard as I can to be personally sustainable, but all of
these things are there for me, essentially. The lights are on incase I
leave my apartment. The roads are there for me to drive on. The stores
are open just incase I feel like going there.
Maybe this is just late night ramblings. I actually got out of bed to write this.
I want to go shopping really badly this weekend. I probably don't need
new clothes, but I want them. I feel bad being a consumer. But I'd like
to have nice clothes. I feel like I have to constantly convince myself
it is ok to do things lately.
I want to buy Brendan a microwave for Christmas. He has a really really
old crazy thing. I plan on looking through student classifieds on the
site AllMSU.com. That's a good thing.
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| ok, so I misunderstood the end date, but I'll start writing.
Yesterday I cancelled a couple of my store credit cards. I never used them anyways. I cancelled victoria's secret and the gap.
http://www.victoriasdirtysecret.net/
I found that along the way, so I called and cancelled my catalogs, felt good about that.
When I wrote my reflection on my diary, I didn't feel like I got everything I wanted to say.
I talked a lot about my interactions with other people, but I think
that was important for me this semester. Last year I worked on myself,
and learned a lot. Now I am beginning to get others involved. Even
today, my mom called me up to talk about Bush ignoring global warming!
She had heard about the Supreme Court case thats coming up soon. I said
the line about waiting 2 years and hoping, from class, and she says no,
if the Supreme Court doesn't take action or something, it will be
easier to pass legislation on it, and congress can overturn vetos with
enough votes, which they have, according to Mom.
She says they are working on global warming in her classroom right now.
Then she started talking about ski resorts are asking to move farther
up mountains where the snow is, sounded pretty upset about it.
She got into a little fight with a substitute teacher yesterday at
lunch. They were all talking about school stuff, and mom mentioned how
there never used to be hurricanes in the Southern Hemishphere. Mrs.
Gaines said yes there were. So she brought in An Inconvenient Truth and
showed her what Gore said. Then she says "don't you just hate it when
people argue, but they don't know what they are talking about?"
that made me laugh, and I agreed.
I've been thinking about my own actual sustainability. I tried to
explain it in my reflection, but I had to cut stuff out because I was
over 2 pages. What I think is, that I don't think as a student, I can
be sustainable. I don't even think I ever could really live
sustainably. I use computers and cell phones, which I think are
horrible to actually make.
ok, I found something Manufacturing
computers is materials intensive; the total fossil fuels used to make
one desktop computer weigh over 240 kilograms, some 10 times the weight
of the computer itself.
http://www.it-environment.org/compenv.html
It's a book, but they give some points about computer assembly.
I go to school, and use computers that are always running, in buildings
with lights on all around. I know that's not me, but my whole life
revolves around unsustainable things. My clothes are all synthetic, I
own a lot of books.
Again, when I think about it all, it is depressing, but I am trying. I
can do what I can do. And I do feel like being in my major, and just
having the discussions with my mom like I had today, that helps. She is
a teacher. My best friend is going to be a science teacher. She asks me
about this stuff all the time, and wants to emphsize it in her class
room. I think that kind of thing is really great.
(I have been thinking a lot lately I guess)
Being in RD 491, it's really starting to have an impact on me. I
absolutely love that class. The opportunities we have had and the
people we have met are such an advantage. We went to Stuart Gage's talk
last night about a sustainable Michigan. We were introduced to someone
and talked to him about development at a local level, and how we can
get things done. I can't remember his name or his company, but I'm sure
I could get it tomorrow. But I ended up walking out to the parking ramp
of Kellogg with him at the end, and got to talk one on one with him
about my career aspriations. It was awesome.
I really really like the research I am doing, and I had always hoped to
work for a State Department like the DEQ or something, but I'm
realizing I do not have the science background usually required. But, I
do like to talk, as muchg as you might not believe that from my in
class participation.
I've been thinking a lot about land use because of 491. I think Land
use is a major environmental issue, which isn't usually seen as an
environmental issue. I'm also learning that you can really have an
impact working with the right people. I have a friend at the DEQ, and
he hates sitting at a desk giving out water discharge permits. Land use
is a big possiblility. I want to talk to Soji Adelanja about possibly
working with the Land Policy Institute next semester.
Smart Growth. More people need to know about it.
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| As the turnin date approaches, I've been thinking about how this project has influenced my daily life Good things: I've started a recycling bin at my new apartment
I only turn on my computer whenever I am going to use it
I've had a crazy interest in recycling pop cans
I've done a lot of thinking about why it is I do and believe certain things, like how to explain myself to others, buying locally and avoiding big box stores, processed foods, etc
But I don't feel like I've really changed anything from last year. I recycled last year in my house, but I hadn't started it up again until I began writing this project. It was something easy to do to mark down on the good side. I do feel like I have had a small influence on some people around me though lately. My mom calls me frequently to tell me things she has done that she thinks I'll like. Yesterday she called to tell me she went to a bazaar at church and bought fair trade coffee and crafts from "indiginous" people. I think I saw flyers around campus for that same bazaar being held at the People's Church. She is an avid recycler, and has gotten a big interest in environmental issues. She is a middle school science teacher, and she often tries to incorporate environmental issues into her classes. I hope some of that is my influence from conversations we've had. My best friend Shawna lives in some apartmens very close to the East Lansing Food Co-Op. We went shopping there once, and now she likes to run over there for groceries rather than driving to Meijer or anything.
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I've found the perfect comic for my life!
I went to the website you mentioned in class, and it is cracking me up. Then I came across this strip. It's perfect for me!
This is funny, I came across another one about how Earth Day brings
about a rage and hatred of humans. I tend to feel that way sometimes.
Ok, a lot of the time. When I saw that coyote last week, the day we
talked about them in class, it just made me so mad about what happened
to that one in the story, and what happens to them in the West.
Reading books just makes me mad sometimes, and I still feel completely helpless, and that I can't do anything.
I have a pathetic recycling box, I mean, I recycle everything still, I
talked to Andy, he agreed to put his stuff in it too, which was
awesome. But I mean, its a measly little box. I know every little bit
counts, and if everyone did it how much of a difference it would be,
blah blah...
There is just so much. So much to learn, so much harm going on...
It seems like I am busy explaining why everything is bad all the time
My mom was talking about going on a cruise over winter break, so I
launch into a lecture from my Tourism and Regional Development (GEO459
by Sarah Nicholls) about how cruise ships are horrible to the countries
and cities they visit. Her response was that "uncle Frank says the ones
he goes on are the all-inclusive, that those are the best to go on,"
and I preceeded to practically fall out of my chair.
I love learning about everything. I went to a lecture tonight from
Michael Shuman, author of Going Local, and the Small-Mart Revolution.
Now I have a revived passion for small local business, and plan to find
a local store for all of my grocery, pharmacy, books, etc.
I really do try hard to practice what I preach. Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed. I guess that is the point of this entry.
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