Sue Barns

Climate Reality Northern New Mexico

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
416 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

4.0

miles

traveled by bike
UP TO

30

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

1.9

pounds of CO2

have been saved

Sue's actions

Food

Smaller Portions

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Materials

Research Cement Alternatives

#36 Alternative Cement

I will spend at least 30 minutes researching cement alternatives that reduce the carbon footprint of concrete.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Keep Track of Wasted Food

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will keep a daily log of food I throw away during the EcoChallenge, either because it went bad before I ate it, I put too much on my plate, or it was scraps from food preparation.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

Materials

Mulch the Base of Trees and Plants

#46 Water Saving - Home

I will prevent water runoff and increase absorbency by mulching the base of trees and plants in my yard.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings and Cities

Go by Bike

#59 Bike Infrastructure

I will commute by bike 4 mile(s) per day and avoid sending up to 1.86 lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Sue Barns 4/24/2019 6:21 AM

Last day! Thanks to everyone for taking action, changing behavior, changing the world! Especially impressed with those who were able to shift their diets to more plant-based foods. That can be challenging, but is so worthwhile.

Also, although we didn't score as many points as our rivals in San Francisco, I would suggest that we actually trounced them. They had 24 team members (big city!) to our 13, but *per capita* scored far fewer points (170 to our 274.) So Congratulations to all, and keep up the good work!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials Mulch the Base of Trees and Plants

Name some of the human activities impacting the health of water systems, both locally (your watershed) and globally (freshwater and oceans). What can you do to improve the health of water systems?

Sue Barns 4/19/2019 3:08 PM

I know that animal agriculture, and the fertilizers etc. that go to produce animal feed, is a huge contributor to water use and pollution. Also, farming methods (synthetic fertilizers, tilling practices, etc.) have a big impact in levels of pollution, soil water retention, and other water quality issues. So, careful selection of the food I consume seems like an important step. Rising temps and acidification of fresh and marine waters due to climate change are also huge impacts, so addressing causes of climate change are important.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Materials Research Cement Alternatives

Concrete is a good example of a material that most of us encounter every day, but may its carbon footprint is not obvious. What other everyday materials might have a large carbon footprint? How can you find out more?

Sue Barns 4/19/2019 2:58 PM

I suspect that carbon footprint of a material is largely determined by the amount of processing that goes into making it. A river stone from a local source or a repurposed tire should account for less CO2 than plastics, which require oil/chemical refining and then synthesis into new material. I will seek out used material to rebuild my front walk this year, instead of pouring concrete.

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Sue Barns 4/06/2019 6:17 AM

Wanted to ride my bike yesterday to a meeting, but there is a very scary 1/2 mile of the trip that put me off. No bike lane, fast/aggressive traffic, potholes, lane changes. So I drove, but combined some shopping afterwards, the best I felt comfortable doing.
Smaller plates/portions is going very well! Mindful of that most of the time. Didn't take long to change that behavior! Food log is ok too.
Off camping now until the 16th... so I'll miss most of this Challenge. Good luck all!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Keep Track of Wasted Food

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Where would you rather use this money?

Sue Barns 4/06/2019 6:12 AM

That's easy...camping/traveling!

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Sue Barns 4/04/2019 12:52 PM

I've started my food waste log. This should be very helpful when I set up my worm compost bin in a few weeks. I'm not including as "waste" the veggie scraps that I feed to my dog. She is a family member, and benefits greatly!

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Smaller Portions

Fun fact: Your brain and stomach register feelings of fullness after about 20 minutes of eating. While dishing food out, we tend to load our plates with more than we need. Using smaller plates helps to mitigate this. Aside from the environmental benefits, what other benefits might come out of eating smaller portions?

Sue Barns 4/03/2019 7:46 AM

I need to lose some weight, this should help! Also make me more conscious of hunger issues (my plate is small, but the portions will still be much bigger than many people have!). Less plate surface area to wash= less water, soap, etc. Hope also to adjust my appetite downward... I know I am eating more than I need to be healthy. Less food= less time cooking+ less time eating + cost savings. Also, less food scraps... my compost bins are too full!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Buildings and Cities Go by Bike

How does using human-powered transportation make you feel compared to using other methods of transportation?

Sue Barns 4/03/2019 7:40 AM

Riding my ebike is fun! Some exercise, enjoying the sights, sounds, smells of the community, stopping to talk with friends old and new, and bragging about my ride :-) It gets lots of attention! Good for the brain, too, but challenging with weather, traffic and potholes.

Driving a car around town is stressful and boring (my least favorite combination :-( But I'm glad I have the option to use it when necessary.

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Sue Barns 4/03/2019 7:26 AM

And we're off! It's not on my official "actions" list, but I just got this amazing report, and can't wait to dive in:
I'll do my actual actions, too, no worries! Have a great day!

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Sue Barns 3/21/2019 5:58 AM

So proud to have spent yesterday morning with our Zero Waste Los Alamos group, celebrating our 1 year anniversary! Such a great group of creative, passionate folks working tirelessly to reduce waste and GHGs in myriad ways. Happy Birthday to "Mother Earth's Action Heroes"!!

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