Elise Wu

For the past few days, I have been eating raspberries and grapes every day. Eating more fruits and vegetables while reducing our meat consumption benefits our planet because it uses less energy, land, and water, while producing less greenhouse gas emissions than animal based foods (particularly red meat, dairy, and shrimp). I did some research, which indicated that that animal farming accounts for 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry which makes up 25% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of benefits on a personal level, fruits are a good source of minerals and vitamins such as potassium and vitamin C which can help prevent digestion problems, strokes, heart diseases, etc.

In addition to environmental benefits, eating/serving smaller portions also contributes to our health benefits by improving our physical health (by keeping our blood glucose levels consistent, improving digestion, and avoiding weight gain), as well as our mental health (by avoiding guilt of eating too much). Eating smaller portions also provides financial benefits by lowering grocery and dining-out costs. Knowing these benefits will motivate me to use smaller dishes when prepping food at home, and potentially splitting a meal too large into two meals.

After completing my own plastics audit, I found that I use the most plastic when buying groceries, where most things, whether vegetables, convenience foods, snacks, or cleaning supplies, come packaged in plastic containers or wraps. The easiest actions that I have already been doing to reduce my own plastic consumption is to use my own Hydro Flask instead of one-time use plastic water bottles, and also reusing previous paper bags that I've purchased at the grocery store instead of paying the ten cents for a bag every time I go. To further my actions, I will try to make a conscious effort to purchase alternative grocery items that do not necessarily have to be packaged in plastic such as fresh produce where I can bring my own bags and choosing alternative items that can be packaged in paper or glass.

Today, I spent 30 minutes researching alternative transportation solutions, specifically regarding electric cars since my family has two of them. I wanted to see if they were truly as environmentally friendly as I previously perceived them to be. And indeed, according to Project Drawdown, if we increased the number of electric cars on the road to 866 million by 2050 compared to 5.2 million in 2018, we would be able to save almost 8 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions, AND also save trillions of dollars in fuel costs. EVs are also associated with reduction of air pollution, improvement of air quality, and reduce heart and lung diseases. With this knowledge, I hope to continue encouraging any friends to carpool with me in my EV when we need to go places, and heavily consider purchasing EVs for my personal car in the future.