Day 64

            I failed to complete my final lived ethics blog on time which has generated several effects on the project. First, my data has become skewed and my goal of continuing the project for three weeks was thrown off balance. Due to a concussion I was unable to truly record my water usage during the final week. In fact, I used even less water because standing in the shower was too much of a strain for several days. My friends also brought me beverages that weren’t directly from my Nalgene bottle which broke one of my first goals as well.

            However, I don’t consider the project a failure. The extended period of time has allowed me to see the effects of my water conservation plan over a lasting period of time. It has been 64 days since my last post and in that time several things have occurred.

·         I have reverted back to taking showers with warm water, and I tend to stay in for roughly 3 minutes instead of 30 seconds

·         I have continued to drink predominantly from my Nalgene bottle

·         I have continued not to flush the toilet after urination

·         I have continued to wash my hands only when necessary

Based on my calculations from the first blog, three minute showers save close to 2,000 gallons of water a month. I admit there have been days where I go over and fall into the five minute or more shower range but there are also days where I don’t need to shower so I feel like those cancel each other out and for the most part it has been relatively easy to put on a three minute song and stick to the regiment. So over the course of 64 days I think it’s safe to say I’ve saved at least 4,000 gallons of water by cutting the time down.

            As I also stated in my first blog, limiting my toilet flushes to once or twice a day yields about 21 gallons of water saved in 24 hours. I would estimate that I’ve been flushing around four times a day since my concussion and that equals 15 gallons of water saved a day, so if I multiply that time 64 I’ve saved close to 960 gallons of water a day.

            With these two methods alone I have been able to preserve close to 5,000 gallons of water in the last 64 days. Which seems astonishing to me at first, however if I were to gauge myself with teenagers in other parts of the world, I would still come out looking like a greedy, American, water hog.

            However, the point of this blog was to make a significant change in the way that I live my life and to try to inform others about how they can make similar changes in an effort to conserve water. I can definitely say that these two goals have been accomplished and if I’ve been able to do so for 64 days, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop any time soon. 

Day 7

Day 7

It has been one week since I began my water conservation project. I must admit however that there have been instances of weakness in my actions and will power.  Mainly points of forgetfulness like bringing my Nalgene to one of the cafeterias on campus in which I drank out of plastic cups which were then washed with unnecessary water. I also failed twice to stick to the cold 30 second shower at night. However I did realize that the motivation to stick to thirty second cold showers is actually easy to do in the morning when I need to wake up, so I learned that to avoid unnecessary water usage it is best to stay away from showering in the evening while tired.

Despite those failures in my ethic I have stuck to the reduced flushing after urinating and it has proven to be a very simple technique to conserving a great amount of water. I also have discussed the statistics and consequences with many peers about how this technique is an easy change in one’s life that will benefit the earth and it seems like most people have responded to it well. At least no one has called me gross and decent amount of people said they would actually try it, so I take that as my biggest success thus far.

These issues of mental capability to stick with a challenging program have provoked me to think about what our environmental concerns stem from. This class is only in the third week and my own personal ethics and environmental opinions are nowhere near fully formed but for me it is clear that our individualism is what has brought us to destroy so many natural habitats. Kant stated that we have the  ability to recognize the individual “I” and that we are capable of making choices whereas animals react solely off of instinct. I believe that this ability holds great power, but that we have not used it correctly in many aspects. We have polluted the air and the water in the search for supreme comfort. It is like Christopher Stone said in his article Should Trees Have Standing? “Many of our so-called ‘material comforts’ are not only in excess of, but are probably, in opposition to, basic biological needs.”(197). However if we have the ability to make choices, then all is not lost. Mankind is not draining resources and destroying habitats out of instinct, it is because we have chosen to do so with great ignorance towards the damage that comes with our decisions. To most people it is obvious that we have done so out of our own choosing, but what is not obvious is that we also have the ability to make other choices. Choices that may not be comfortable but that will in the end be sustainable not only to other animals but in the long run to ourselves as well. When discussing the mindset of using nature as a tool to aid human progress Stone also says that in order to get away from that perspective “…We have to give up some psychic investment in our sense of separateness and specialness in the universe.”(198). I realize this may seem incredibly opinionated but it’s not asking for certain individuals to make great sacrifices it simply takes small efforts from everyone, nothing too grand or tiresome. As Rachel Carson stated “… I Think we’re challenged, as mankind has never been challenged before, to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature but of ourselves.” The mind is our most powerful asset as a species and living simply does not require strenuous choices, it only asks for consciousness in everyday life. 

Blog #1

Water scarcity is a major concern in our day and age. Nearly every continent is affected by it and billions of people around the world suffer from lack of clean drinking water. This is part of the reason why I have chosen to make a change in my water consumption over the next three weeks. Here in America and at Colorado College, I have not felt at all pressed to conserve the amount of water I use. Hot and cold water are always available, therefore I am vowing to cut down on my consumption over the next two and half weeks and hopefully the habit will stick.

 Some of the rules will be
 • 30 second showers with cold water only(5 minute showers save 1,000 gallons a month, so 30 seconds should be a great deal more approximately 16,500 gallons)
 • Flushing the toilet and washing of hands only after excretion(an average toilet uses around 3.5 gallons per flush so flushing only once or twice a day will conserve roughly 21 gallons a day)
 • Drinking only from my Nalgene bottle (less dishes to be washed, as well as an added benefit of cutting down on my plastic consumption and disposal)

 I also understand that one person making a change is beneficial for the environment but a group of people is even more powerful, so one of my challenges will be to explain how easy it is to conserve water to other students on campus during these next few weeks.

 Some statistics -
 The U.N. predicts that By 2025, 1800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.
 * 3.9 trillion gallons of water are consumed in the United States per month. (AWWA Journal, June 2006)
 * The average American uses 176 gallons of water per day compared to 5 gallons of water the average African family uses each day. (www.water.org)
 * An estimated 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation and 1.1 billion people are without access to safe water. (WHO-UNICEF, 2004)

 Much of this will not be comfortable, cold showers are definitely enjoyable in the summertime but they may not feel the best during the Colorado Winter. Also my hall neighbors will most likely not appreciate opening the stall to find a yellow toilet bowl, but in the long run what value is comfort going have when the world is drying up or better yet when I’m dying? Comfort may seem like an important factor in many decisions but it’s starting to seem more and more like a distraction and in my opinion it’s one of the biggest reasons why money controls a great deal of human thinking. In other words if the environment or even concern for other humans and animals came before money did, the world would be a different place, therefore comfort could actually be seen as a hindrance. So maybe the big thing that I’ll take away from this project is the beginning of a new mindset for myself, one that isn't driven by comfort, but instead focused on more productive undertakings.