Educating Others on Environmental Conservation

In this blog I will talk about ten things one can do to become a more sustainable person. It's really simple and sometimes these changes can be fun and drastic difference to your life. It's going to be quite a bit of information, so bear with me! :)

What brings you hope for a sustainable future? 

Personally, it's the thought that if everyone can have a sound environmental ethic then that's the first step in working for a sustainable future. Over the last few years, a lot of environmental awareness has been brought up and being spread to raise attention on quite a few serious issues, and I feel during this time a lot of people are starting to think about their own environmental ethics. 

What do they value in nature? How do they value nature? How do they really treat nature? How do nature inconvenience them? How to bring about a more friendly relationship with nature? How to be more aware of your every single action that do have an affect on the environment? How to educate and raise awareness with those around you to be environmentally friendly? 

Take your time and think about it.

Tips of shopping locally! Shopping locally helps put economic stimulation back into your own city. Plus it's a way of establishing a community and creating connections with others. Look up local shops that you can take your usual shopping to. Farmer's market, love it, it's like a fair and you meet new people and have fun. I found a local butcher shop that raises their own meat sustainable and animal friendly way, it's pretty cool.

Global warming, I'm sure everybody is familiar with this topic. Don't just automatically think that you have to change all your household appliance to energy efficient, or sell your car and use public transportation, or don't turn on lights or use any water. It can be simple steps, like shopping at your local farmer's market, put out two trash cans to make recycle and regular trash (I started doing this, it's so simple!), walking to grocery shop when you have time, or plant one native and species friendly plant one per week, eventually you'll have a whole garden full of beautiful plants. I'll attach a video about global warming, it will be very detail orientated on how certain human activities are causing disturbances to global life cycles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVQnPytgwQ0

This link will provide you simple steps to reduce your impact on most activities you do. http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/live_green/

Oooh, have you ever looked video that shows you amazing data about human life through out hundreds years? Well, the video I am about to attach below will show you human population from the beginning to present history. It's so fascinating to see how population thrive and decline, and how it spreads. https://vimeo.com/130468614   Show others this video! It's so cool because you can aligned the population rate based on the history. It will change your perspective on the world and how you are just an individual among billions of individuals going through similar things.

Did you know mushroom can save the world? I didn't know either. Mycelium, a type of mushroom, can do these:

1. Mycelium, infuses landscape and soil together.

2. Support multi transfer of nutrients from mycelium to rest of the soil and plants.

3. Restore habitat from pollution.

4. Antibiotic.

5. Kill insects without the use of harmful pesticides.

6. Produce sustainable fuel known as Econol.

Right! Here's a link to a TedTalk about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5gUSyKTCx4

Water is scarce, and precious. One way you can help reduce your consumption of local clean water is to create your own rain catchment system. This is if have a home and have a bit of extra money that put turn this project into something really helpful. I have done a bit of math to show how much water one can save from rain. A typical 1,500 square feet rooftop collecting 88 inches of rainwater annually can sum up a total of 6,800 gallons of rainwater. Harvested rainwater can be replaced with most household used water supply except for drinking and cooking water. It can replace dish water, laundry water, toilet water, gardening water, and showered water. That’s a lot of water that can be replaced easily by rainwater if one were to harvest it! Watch this, http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/street-runoff-harvesting/backwater-or-eddy-basins/

Involve yourself in learning about species that are in need of support. It's really amazing to learn how many different species are out there and how their lives are impacted by our lives. 

First one, the life cycle of Salmon. It's so sad, they worked so hard their whole life and travel miles and miles of obstacles and challenges to give birth to their children and die soon after. Such hardship, sometimes they can't even make it back because their path are blocked by dams and barriers that humans have built up. https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/the-salmon-life-cycle.htm
And cute mountain lions! :( They are so cute and so relate-able. Watch this cute and sad video: https://vimeo.com/157288534 Thankfully there people out there supporting these animals and bringing back their population. It was really interesting to learn about what we can do and how to support these animals.

3 Simple Steps' in getting ready for wildfire

1. Assess property to prepare for hotter months to come.

2. Defensible space, one hundred feet around the property, areas to slow or hold fire from engulfing your property. 

3. Hardening your home. Fire can find weak points on your home to penetrate and engulf. No dead trees or vegetation, no leaf or litter.

4. Prepare wildfire action plan in case a wildfire approaches. Escape location, pre-pack evac items, etc. Also plan escape routes for your doggies!!! Don't forget about doggos!

Bark Beetle Infestations!

a.  Why is there an infestation of bark beetles?

When a tree is disease or stressed by drought it is unable to fight by the beetle's burring. And since at least some California trees are disease, and most stressed by drought it has been unable to fight back. 

b.  What are the 'signs' of bark beetle infestation?  

Small white or reddish brown pitch tubes outside of the bark. White means the tree has successfully defended itself, if reddish brown means that bark beetle was successful in infesting. Pitch tube follows sawdust like substance called Frass, either on tree bark or on the ground. Bark flaking or hole by wood pecker could also be a sign of bark beetles. 

The top of the tree starts to fade in color, it could quickly after infestation or years after when it's dead. 

c.  What can homeowners and land managers do to manage the bark beetle infestation?

If an infestation is spotted on limbs or branches, cut off immediately and dispose of it properly without spreading it to other trees. If spotted on the trunk of a tree, must remove the entire between it spreads into the roots and infest other nearby trees. 

Replant native species. Thin and prun your trees in late fall and winter. 

The top ten hazard counties that are expecting 80-100% die off are near middle of CA. 

Wildfire can be a good thing! If you see smoke while driving through 101 North past Mendocino, it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad and scary thing. It could be a good thing where forest service is reducing fuel built up plants at the base of the forest and supporting the old growth forest to be healthy and maintain biodiversity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUTw5xegyG8



One more thing, last night I read a chapter from Post Carbon Reader, the chapter is called Personal Preparation by Chris Martenson. He talks about how to become resilience as he experienced through natural disaster and it's a really organized thoughts that will help reduce anxiety and stress about being prepared. https://www.scribd.com/document/63670448/RESILIENCE-Personal-Preparation-by-Chris-Martenson
He also has his own website that shows what he has done in preparing for being resilient.

Guys, all of these information are in my previous blog posts. These are simple and useful tips to becoming sustainable yourself, share it with others, share it with your family.