small world!!

i was at mike's house the other week and for some reason i thought to mention that i was entering the 5 gyres contest. he perked up a bit and went to another room and came back with the book plastic ocean asking if i'd read it. coincidentally i hadn't read it, but did own it, and in fact had even held up the book in my video, haha! here's the crazy part. mike's neighbor wrote the book. and mike is mentioned in it. and the reason mike knows much about gyres in general is cause he was with the author when he first like "discovered" the "garbage patch."

amazing cool!

since then mike has been EXTRA amazing. he wrote the nicest things on fb reminding people to vote. and he even talked to author captain moore about me to see if he had room for me on his next trip with his own organization: algalita marine research institute. the last few years i've really come to love mike. he's is always supportive and i have always so appreciated his giving me the chance to run the steering program all those years ago. he's taught me so much and i've really come to think of him as my mentor. :) so lucky to know him!

save the rain!

a few months ago there was an article in the la times about resources conservation that mentioned rainwater harvesting (i know it's big in some australian communities, but know nothing about it stateside). i did some quick research and here's a short summary: for homes in the burbs, there are two main kinds of simple rainwater collecting: one that stems from your rain gutters, and the other really low tech way of regular plastic barrels with large openings on top. seeing as how it does rain much is so cal, the rain gutter way is the more practical and efficient way. for more info about the gutter way, including a pictorial how-to go here.

i seem to remember hearing that even during the rainy season, california is always suffering a drought. but with all the rain lately (it's rained like a week straight! and it isn't really intermittent either; it's all day long), i wonder if we (the govt, that is) are doing anything to try to hold onto the rain water.

i couldn't find any answers for that, but i did find out from the california energy commission website that "Energy represents the largest controllable cost of providing water or wastewater services to the public. California water and wastewater agencies spend more than $500 million each year on energy costs. [their italics and bold]" i also read on the national resources defense council website that "The California State Water Project is the largest single user of energy in California. In the process of delivering water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to Southern California, the project uses 2 to 3 percent of all electricity consumed in the state."

i get that $500million a year isn't that much when compared to the rest of california's yearly budget. i also get that 2-3% is hardly anything at all. but we could be spending this money and energy on other things, no? and seeing as how southern california's rainy season is especially short you'd think we'd be trying to retain as much water as we could when we actually got it for free!

efficiency (h20)

rereading my last post made me want to also talk about other stuff you can do to help out the environment. cause maybe recycling isn't your thing. it can be pretty annoying having to drive all around town to drop off stuff at the proper place, and if you city already makes you sort your recyclables from your garbage, maybe what you're doing is good enough.

besides all the usual things people do (turn off the tap when brushing your teeth, only run the dish washer / laundry with full loads) i also do these simple things:

water:
i take pretty fast showers. i usually undress (as i wait for the water to warm up), shower, shampoo, shave, dress in less than 15 minutes. and luckily, our shower head has this cool button thing so you can "pause" the water (so i can shampoo / condition without immediately washing away my product). btw, i usually shampoo and condition first, so as i wait for my conditioner to soak in, i soap up the rest of my body, also with the water off. even if you don't have the pause button, just switching up your routine can help you be more efficient with water.

i don't recommend this for everyone, but i do it anyway because i do my sport on saturdays and sundays but i don't do my laundry saturday night. i wash my clothes in the shower. you're not supposed to use warm water when washing dry-fit stuff anyway, so i'll toss my clothes into the shower, get in, turn the water on, and and as i wait for the water to heat up, i hand wash my laundry. it's not super clean, but i'm going to wear it again the next day (after which i machine wash) so as long as it's clean enough...

i used to do this and will probably start again. keep an empty bucket in the shower. but make sure it only catches the clean water, which you can use to water plants with when you're done.

don't just rinse your produce, wash it in a little bucket thing so you can collect the water, which you can use to water your plants with. it'll also catch the dirt, bugs and small plant break-offs which i'm sure is good for your garden anyway. besides, if you wash your produce in a bucket you'll know when it's actually clean. you can rise your veggies for 5 minutes but how will you know when the water is running clear?

a few other super simple things: water your lawn at night. if you water during the day a lot of the water will evaporate before it gets to soak into the soil anyway. but if you do it at night the water will have a chance to actually reach the roots.

lather up your soap before you turn on the tap. you're supposed to wash your hands for however long it takes the sing the birthday song and you can't do it correctly if all the soap is being rinsed away from your hands anyway.

only use hot water when necessary. not only will you save the energy it takes to heat up the water, but you end up wasting a lot of cold water as well. if you need to use hot water, put a bucket under the tap to catch the cold water and use that to water plants / mop your floors...