EcoChallenge.org

Drawdown EcoChallenge

April 3 - April 24, 2019

Samantha Hues

SUNY New Paltz

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
468 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

85

minutes

spent learning

Samantha's actions

Food

Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

#11 Regenerative Agriculture

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning about the need for more regenerative agriculture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Learn More about Silvopasture

#9 Silvopasture

I will spend at least 10 minutes watching videos and/or reading about the environmental benefits of silvopasture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Women and Girls

Learn about the Need for Family Planning

#7 Family Planning

I will spend at least 10 minutes learning more about the need for family planning globally.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Explore Other Electricity Generation Solutions

All Electricity Generation Solutions

I will spend at least 10 minutes researching other Drawdown Electricity Generation Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Transport

Explore Other Transport Solutions

All Transport Solutions

I will spend at least 10 minutes researching other Drawdown Transport Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Use

Forest-Friendly Foods 1

#5 Tropical Forests

I will spend at least 20 minutes researching the impact of my diet to see how it contributes to deforestation.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Land Use

Forest-Friendly Foods 2

#5 Tropical Forests

I will replace or remove the palm oil, coffee, and cocoa products in my current diet that are known to contribute to deforestation.

COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS

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 9
DAILY 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

Buildings and Cities

Explore Other Buildings and Cities Solutions

All Buildings and Cities Solutions

I will spend at least 25 minutes researching other Drawdown Buildings and Cities Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME 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?

REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

Clean air, clean water and healthy food are three reasons to care about regenerative agriculture. What are some other reasons?

Samantha Hues 4/22/2019 5:46 PM

Regenerative agricultural techniques should become more and more popular. Not using chemicals and synthetic fertilizers not only are better for the crops we eat, but also for the land and the animals that are on it. I found it interesting that regenerative farming treats the soil naturally which seems like the most logical thing to do when soil is the most important part of farming as it provides the nutrients of the plant and the consumer. It also impacts the animals that eat forms he land or drink the runoff water that contains the fertilizers and chemicals. By creating carbon-rich soil the land, the water, and the people are benefitting.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Women and Girls Learn about the Need for Family Planning

What did you learn about the need for family planning? Share some of the learning with your friends!

Samantha Hues 4/20/2019 8:27 AM

This challenge helped me learn the importance of family planning. I knew contraception can be heard to get for some people because of insurance companies an stuff in the US, but I had no idea how hard it is outside the US as well. In the US alone 45% of pregnancies were unintended. In the US women have the option to go to clinics like plan parenthood to get contraceptions even if they don't have health insurance however in other countries many women can't get the necessary reproductive healthcare they want. I found it shocking that in low income countries, 225 million women want to choose when they become pregnant, but don't have the means necessary to. One article even talks about the fact that contraception was almost seen contraband in Catholic countries. Women should be able to have a right to their own reproductive healthcare and have options available to them regardless of healthcare and other means so they can family plan.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Land Use Forest-Friendly Foods 1

How is your diet currently impacting deforestation? What can you do to decrease your negative impact and increase your positive impact?

Samantha Hues 4/14/2019 7:03 PM

I was very surprised to learn of the four main foods that are driving deforestation, especially palm oil. I had never even heard of palm oil before i started participating in this ecochallenge. I find it very interesting to learn that palm oil is in 50% of all consumer goods and is having a huge impact on deforestation and most people probably don't even know what it is in and how often they consume it. I have been more aware and checking labels on the stuff in my kitchen to see what contains palm oil.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Transport Explore Other Transport Solutions

What did you find out? What is the most interesting fact you learned?

Samantha Hues 4/10/2019 1:27 PM

There was an article in this section that described the way three cities are remodeling their streets to be more pedestrian friendly rather than car friendly. One example was that Barcelona is creating superblocks to reduce use of cars and Brazil repainted the streets to test designing efforts. By making large cities more pedestrian friendly rather than car friendly can cut back greatly on the amount of CO2 released into the air.

Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Buildings and Cities Explore Other Buildings and Cities Solutions

What did you find out? What is the most interesting fact you learned?

Samantha Hues 4/07/2019 9:01 PM

I found it really interesting to hear what other countries such as Colombia and Singapore are doing to keep their sustainability as well as deal with the demand of the growing population leading to urbanization. I loved when the woman said she is becoming more aware thinking about where the piece of paper she is writing on came from and where it will end up.

Read More