Solvie Karlstrom: Citizen Reporter

• No Impact Week is Over. What Now?

  I’m not really sure what it means for No Impact Week to be over. It certainly doesn’t mean that we now have license to go back to our old consumer haze. I suppose we’re on our own to keep our impact in check. But I have to say that I’m truly impressed with the project’s ability to show me the ugly truth about my personal consumer behaviors in a meaningful—I’ll never be able to enjoy takeout with a clear conscience again—kind of way. Here’s a rundown of the many lessons learned this week:

  1. I have too much stuff, and I should use the stuff I have before buying new stuff.
  2. I can walk to the grocery store in ten minutes.
  3. Getting rained on is not a big deal.
  4. I haven’t been gaining weight because of stress, later dinners, or too many lattes, but because I have been very, very lazy.
  5. When you cook for yourself, you can control the ingredients you use and can choose foods that are good for you and your community.
  6. Yeast ...read full post
  
  
  Comments (1)  |  November 24, 2009

• No Impact Week Day Six: The One-Gallon Shower Plan

  I take long, indulgent showers. I spend a minute or two under the showerhead for no other reason than to bask in the rush of water. I even step out from under the water to lather up, shave, and wash my hair, letting the water run directly down the drain. It’s terrible. I’ve known it’s terrible for a long time, but this is one daily ritual that I’ve been, up till now, unwilling to change. My long showers have always felt central to my sense of wellbeing.
  
  Fortunately, my water footprint is smaller in other areas. As a vegetarian, my diet consumes less water than it would if I ate red meat regularly. I turn the faucet off while brushing my teeth, only run the washing machine when it’s full and keep a close eye on drips and leaks around the house. I’m also very conscious of my role in keeping our collective water clean. I’m careful about what goes down the drain, and only ...read full post
  
  
  Comments (2)  |  November 23, 2009

• Day Five of No Impact Week: Lights Out

  “What? I’m not going without overhead lights for the rest of the week, you crazy hippy!”
  
  Admittedly, Seattle is dark this time of year, but really?  Is Greg truly more attached to overhead lighting than he is to video games and 30 Rock?
  
  I too have always considered overhead lighting mandatory. It’s just a reflex. As the sun goes down, lights go on. And in Seattle, where the sun doesn’t even come out much this time of year, the lights tend to be on all day, and usually up until bedtime. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. We need light to do the majority of things we do, and it’s not reasonable to suggest that people should sit in darkness from sun down till sun up. But do we really need as much light as we use? And does it have to come from a light bulb?
  
  Greg and I have already switched over to green power with our utility company, unplug chargers that ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 21, 2009

• No Impact Week Day Four: Foreign Foods

  To say I am disconnected from my food is an understatement. Root vegetables frighten me. A whole fresh squash makes about as much sense to me as cognitive neuroscience. Needless to say, I’m not really much of a cook. It’s not so much that I’ve tried and failed. The issue is that I don’t really feel like it. I would rather spend my time writing, walking the dogs or reading a good book. I tend to find myself in the frozen foods aisle quite often and I’m great with pre-made pasta and a jar of sauce.
  
  Greg, on the other hand, is an amazing cook! And he likes to do it. We have a great system. He cooks, we eat, I do the dishes. I suggest ingredients for the stir-fry, he rolls his eyes and comes up with something better.
  
  And then comes Eat Local day of No Impact Week and Greg, a bar manager at a local restaurant and pub, has to go to work, leaving me to fend for myself. I ...read full post
  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 19, 2009

• Day Three of No Impact Week: Walkin' it Off

  About four months ago I moved back to Seattle, where I use a car almost daily, from New York City, where I was car-less for eight years. After eight years of daily, crowded and musty subway commuting, I have to admit that I was anxious to leave that all behind. And I did. I left it all on my behind, which has swollen eight pounds (one for every year I lived in the city) in just four months. Sure, my weight has always fluctuated. But this, two pounds a month for four months straight, all gain no loss—I don’t think you can call that fluctuation. There’s a pretty clear pattern here that I’m not a big fan of.
  
  Let me say now that I LOVE Seattle—maybe even more than I love New York. With it’s ample green spaces, impressive compost and recycling program, fresh air and culture of conscious consumerism, I’ve had many of moments of relief upon finding the issues I care so deeply about, so deeply ingrained here. But when compared with Manhattan, Seattle’s public ...read full post
  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 18, 2009

• Day Two of No Impact Week: Wading Through Wasted Stuff

  This morning was triumphant. I opened my bag where I had been gathering garbage from the day before, and found it virtuously lean. The contents included one foil and film apple chips bag, one aluminum cat food can, one cardboard toilet paper roll, and one paper pint that once housed the delicious pumpkin sorbet I finally finished off last night. And these materials didn’t bother me at all because they were all the remnants of purchases made long before this experiment started, and therefore atypical of my new waste-free way of life. Or are they? The apple chips I can certainly get without packaging at the cooperative supermarket in my neighborhood. But what about the sorbet? I’m definitely not going to stop eating ice cream. I don’t think that would be healthy for me or for anyone who knows me. Maybe I should learn to make my own. Or maybe I can find a creamery that will fill reusable containers. Yes. I can do this.
  
  But then there’s the cat food can. This is going ...read full post
  
  
  Comments (0)  |  November 18, 2009

• Day One of No Impact Week: Coping with a Consumer Hangover

  In preparation for No Impact Week, my boyfriend and I compulsively had takeout five nights in a row, used the car to run close-by errands (well, it was raining…) and went on a mini shopping spree for things we “needed” around the house. That we were about to drastically reduce our impact for seven days in a row seemed justification enough for our splurges. Funny thing is, most days we would consider ourselves greener than the average Joe. We use reusable shopping bags, watch our water and energy consumption, buy organic… And we make the effort not just because it’s trendy, but because we understand the issues behind our choices and want our actions to be as healthy for ourselves and for the environment as possible. (Brief aside: I say “we,” but as the eco-writer and green thumper in the relationship, he’s mostly green to win points with me. But hey, whatever works.) Yet somehow, the nagging thought that we were about to enter a week when we suddenly couldn’t have ...read full post

  
  
  Comments (1)  |  November 16, 2009

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