Ayla Saruhan

My roommate and I made a tomato sauce and spinach ravioli. Usually, when we make dinner, we will add some sort of meat as a protein, such as chicken or ground beef. Today, we decided to make our meal without meat because the ravioli already has a balanced flavor when paired with the tomato sauce. We added some spinach to make sure we were eating some vegetables and getting our fiber and vitamins. This meal was really tasty and easy to make, while also feeling lighter in my stomach compared to when we made it with meat in the past. I can modify this dish by using different vegetables instead of the spinach, such as zucchini or mushrooms.
(The picture was taken before spinach was added)

I was curious to find out if travelers could be more environmentally conscious by researching what environmentally friendly practices hotels are implementing. I was hoping that having this information available would help people make environmentally conscious decisions, such as preferring a hotel that uses captured rainwater for gardening over a hotel that does not. However, when I went to look at the hotels' amenities, they only mentioned things such as whether there was a pool or not, while failing to mention where the water in the pool comes from. This was discouraging for me because they had posted information that felt unnecessary and outdated, such as the fact that they have free WiFi, while failing to mention any environmentally friendly practices, which could potentially set them apart from other hotels. For me, the best part of traveling is getting to experience a new culture and landscape, but the way that the tourism industry operates is environmentally unsustainable and culturally homogenous. It teaches us, as tourists, that we should value superficial symbols of class and luxury such as pools, hot tubs, and bedding that is refreshed every day. While a hotel incites a sense of reliability in travelers, hotels do not give people the opportunity to get a real sense of the place they are visiting; a room at the Hilton in Buenos Aires looks the same as a room at the Hilton in New Orleans or Istanbul. Even smaller boutique hotels are not listing any actions they are taking to fight climate change. I was hoping I could diminish my carbon footprint while traveling by being responsible when choosing my hotel, but it seems that most hotels are not considering the impact they are having on the local environment.

I am here because I want to continue learning more about the climate crisis and what people can do on a day-to-day basis to prevent the Earth from reaching the tipping point at which humans will face extinction. As someone who grew up in a big city, I found that it can be easy to become disconnected from nature and the world around us as we get caught up in school, work, and our daily errands. While completing our daily chores, we may not be thinking about the effects that our actions are having on the world around us as we are already thinking about checking off the next item on our to-do lists. However, it is important to pause and look at the bigger picture and realize that if we are not taking care of our planet then there is no point in the work that we are doing since our planet will become uninhabitable. I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey where the city is intertwined with nature, from the fishermen working on the Bosphorus alongside the seagulls to the street cats that are cared for by city-dwellers and tourists. Growing up in a city surrounded by water fostered in me a deep appreciation for the sea and wildlife. I have many fond memories of spending summer days on the beach looking for shells with my mother, or playing in the waves with my brother and father. I want to make sure that the children of future generations can enjoy the planet in the same way that I did when I was growing up.