Green Gal

Yesterday morning, I picked up tiny pieces of plastic, cigarette butts, and other trash carelessly left by beachgoers during a two-hour beach cleanup at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz. It began at 11 AM, so after a quick breakfast, I biked from my new place to the shore of Monterey Bay, looking forward to my first beach cleanup. I had been struck by a desire to participate in a beach cleanup on Tuesday of last week after stopping by West Cliff Drive on my way home from work. Sitting on a bench overlooking the Bay, I realized that I had never done a beach cleanup, although I've helped with cleanups of other kinds before on campus at UC Santa Cruz. I committed to myself that I'd do one soon, and then pedaled on home. That same afternoon, I checked my email and saw a message from Surfrider Foundation, announcing a World Surfing Reserve beach cleanup on Saturday, July 19. Wow, talk about the universe really aligning things for you! I immediately joined the Facebook event page ...

To celebrate 30 years of oceanic wonder and opportunity to learn about the secret world of the sea, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California had a week of free admission for residents of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties. My co-residential adviser and I decided to bring two van-loads of our residents to the aquarium because as UCSC students, we also had access to free admission. See all photos from my visit here . We headed to Monterey today in the rain with 12 residents and 3 RAs including myself. I took tons of photos and enjoyed learning about and observing jellyfish, puffins, penguins, sun fish, sea stars, and ton of other interesting creatures. It was really crowded because of the free admission, but I was inspired by how many people took the opportunity to visit the Aquarium, which normally costs about $40 per person. Free admission allowed community members and families of all means to visit and experience the wonder of the Aquarium. Se...

This week, I took Beth Terry (of MyPlasticFreeLife.com )'s  Show Your Plastic Challenge . I met Beth last Sunday at a lecture she gave for Science Sundays at the Seymour Center at Long Marine lab, and I was inspired to be more conscious of plastic in my life and begin the process of living without it. You can read a little about Beth and the lecture that I attended  here . I purchased a copy of Beth's book at the lecture last Sunday, and I am LOVING it. She has not only great resources and facts about plastic, but she also includes practical solutions. I will be writing more about her book in future posts. The challenge is to " Collect all of your own plastic waste, both recyclable and non, for a minimum of one week ." I tried my best to do the challenge this past week, but I went home for the weekend (I spend most of the year on campus at UC Santa Cruz) and lost track of a few of the plastic items that I used while out to lunch with family. I also didn't pr...

This week's Change the World Wednesday Challenge on the Reduce Footprints blog was the following open-ended challenge: This week, suggest a challenge. This can be a repeat of a past challenge, a version of something we've already done or something completely new ... anything which you feel we should address. And/Or ... Tell us about something you're struggling with ... a green-living activity which is difficult to adopt in your life. On my blog post on Wednesday where I posed my challenge idea , I wrote: I am going to combine the two options this week and choose a challenge that will benefit my wallet as well as the planet. I struggle sometimes with remembering how must waste is generated by eating out. It often feels easier to just buy food for lunch instead of preparing it at home, and stopping by Starbucks often sounds delicious... But most fast food or to-go establishments generate waste--not to mention it costs more money than just eating the food alr...

With the free time that has come with summer, I have decided to spend a little time each day browsing the blogs that I follow. Life gets so hectic during the school year that I barely have time to post to my own blog, let alone visit the great bloggers (listed to the right in My Favorite Blogs) that I "follow." One of my favorite bloggers is Small Footprints, writer of the blog  Reduce Footprints . She is also the founder of the  Change the World Wednesday Challenges , which are updated--you guessed it--every Wednesday. I used to do these challenges on a more regular basis, and I always love the ideas, inspiration, support, and stories from the community that participates in these weekly challenges. It's Thursday, which means a new CTWW Challenge was posted yesterday ! Let's take a look... This week's challenge comes from EcoGrrl . It really asks us to take an honest look at our actions and make improvements. Here it is ...   This week do a 'waste a...

Since Saturday, my family and I have been enjoying the fresh mountain air of the Sierra Nevadas of eastern California. Despite wanting to just leave behind all of our cares, we've been conscious of our environmental impact and have been thinking green (hard not to, when you're surrounded by beautiful green pine trees and pure, blue skies). Thought I'd share a few of the easy things we've done and are trying to do to make our vacation a little greener: 1. Traveling close to home. Any vacation is going to have its mileage footprint, but try thinking about places closer to home that you can visit and still feel like you're escaping. My family has been coming to the mountains for years, and while we could probably find a place a little closer to home for vacation, the drive to our favorite mountain town is only about 2.5 hours and we never have to think about carbon offsetting due to plane rides. Not to mention that going someplace closer to home costs less in gas an...

Earlier today, I arrived at the UC Davis campus for the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference . It's a week-long conference focusing on sustainability at the university/college level, and participants include students and staff from throughout California.  According to the website , "The California Higher Education Sustainability Conference highlights cutting-edge research, as well as case studies with proven successes in curriculum development, operational programs, and community partnerships. This unique event is jointly organized by independent/private colleges, California Community Colleges, California State Universities, and the University of California creating the opportunity for dialogue across institutions. The University of California, Davis envisions hosting a conference that deepens connections among sustainability practitioners, academic and adminitrative, across all sectors of high education, utilizing the Davis Campus as a living laboratory dem...