Waste of water

Where does water I use come from?
Northshore Utility District provides water from Cascade mountain through The Ceder River Reservoir and The South Fork Tolt River Reservoir where filtration plants are.

Where does my waste water go?
Northshoure Utility District's treatment plant is located in between Highway522 and Highway 9. Once our waste water gets there, it pulified by passing through 4 portals in outflow pipe which connects between Woodinville and northern Shoreline. The waste water is altimately drained into Puget Sound.

How much water do I use?
According to the survey, I use the average of 108.3gallons everyday, 758.5gallons everyweek and 39,497gallons annually. On the other hand, according to the actual utility bill simply divided by the number of households, I use 120gallons per day, 842gallons per week and 43,873gallons annually. Acknowledging that we have visitors at our house all the time, this tells that how much the waste of water can go up.

Recalling how small amount of water I used one time in my life.
When I visited Mongolia and stayed with the local family, I probably used only a gallon per day. In the morning, I used a cup of water to brush my teeth, wash my face and hands. The strategy that I was tought by the Mongolians was, first, brush your teeth and use the water to lins your teeth for washing your face with soap that you already put on by keeping the water in your mouth and spilling it little by little into your hand as you scrub your face. The weather is dry enough to evapolate their swet, so they seldom take a shawer every once a while. Their bath room is anywhere outside of Gel(traditional Mongolian house like a tent.) Water is precious for them because they can only get water from the river or the groundwater, so they know how to use water efficiently. I was inpired by them and felt ashame how much water people in advanced society demand and waste it.
After I came back from Mongolia, I was very aware of how much water I use and try not to use it. But now I'm in the U.S. and I use 100times more water. Of course it's almost impossible to use only 1gallon of water per day like I did in Mongolia because where I live and the situation is totally different. but I'm disappointed myself that I almost forget about how precious water is and enormous experience in Mongolia.
It is helpful to remember that I was able to use such a little amount of water when I think about what I can do to reduce the waste of water. I feel that what I have to do is just remember how I used it in Mongolia and make it my goal.
Don't let water out when I don't used it. Be aware of any leaks. and remind myself of the models(the Mongolians.) I'll start with these three goals.

We demand many energy slaves.

172 kilowatt-hours/day;
is the average number of how much energy I and my household need. and I need 30kilowatt-hours to go to BCC and come back home.

73,620.5 kilowatt-hours/year;
is the average of how much my household use per year.

Where the energy source comes from?
The energy company that my house uses is Puget Sound Energy.
The energy sources are; hydro power comes from Snowqualmie Falls and Baker River which generate 2,400megawatts and support one third of the about one million customs in 11 counties.
; there are 6 natural gas power plants which create 1,200megawatt.
; coal fired power plant in eastern Montana and one in Washington.

What if the power plants that we rely on running out of fuel?
If I keep the way I live now, I and my household have to have 172 "Energy Slaves" riding bicycles at the back yard to keep the electricity going everyday. This is a shocking fact of how much energy we demand in daily life. Unrealistically speaking, there is definitely not enough space for 202people with bicycles at our back yard. Imagining each family has probably the same or most likely less number( because we have relatively big family and often have visitors that are staying over at our house.) of "Energy Slaves" at each house, I feel guilty for how much energy I use because I know that I can save a lot of energy.
In what way do I indirectly use energy?
Living cross the ocean from my family, I crossing about 10,000kilometers back and forth between Japan and The U.S. every once a year. The amount of carbon dioxide that the air crafts emit is one of huge impact to the greenhouse gas. There are some groups that are building eco-friendly airplanes at Boeing company and also in London. http://www.daytondailynews.com/green/content/shared/news/stories/green_boeing_071107.html
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/airplane.html
They are testing now to determine weather it's doable or not. So there will be a possible choice for airplanes that have less impacts to the environment.

The irons made in China

It had been my little boom to use an iron that my host family has untill i saw the movie is called "Manufactured Landscape." by Jannifer Baichral http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/2007/06/manufactured-landscape-must-see.html
The iron that I used was made in Mexico, but what is happening at the iron factory in China is enormous and shokking. What I learned was, basically, they make massive amount of irons at miles of factory thousands of people work for, and the products are send to other country like mostly the U.S. And also the important fact is that the gabbage that we made here in the U.S. include the iron that we used up and became old are sent back to the recycle dump in China. What a waste of things, money, time and effort plus huge environmental impact. The things that are dumpped are not even separated in what's recycleable and what not. so there are people who go there to collect recyceable things by hands. Of course, their health aren't concerned. The film shows perfectly how the Chinese workers are involved with American consumers.
Speakig of recyceable products, I think recycling is important things to do as one of solusions. But we have to keep in mind that recycling takes a lot of energy, so reduce is the best choice for less impact as long as it's impossible to completely erase components. I learned from ENVSC class that things can transform by fixation and so on, but nothing can be erased in this world.

Importance of Soil

I would like to share a story of a farmer, Akinori Kimura, who grows apples because it tells us how important soil is. Now he grows organic apple with 0% pesticides and doesn't even use the fertilizer; some farmers still use chemicals that are less amount than the limit even if their products are sold as organic. Since he stopped normal way of growing apples from the reason of his wife's illness came from the usage of pesticides, his struggle lasted almost 10 years till he overcame.
A year later since he stopped spraying was no too bad because of the left over of pesticides from last year. But the following year, the leaves turned out severely yellow color and all seemed dead eaten by strongly resistant pests. Kimura and his wife picked the pests every single day endlessly for 6 years till they saw the first apple flower. During the struggle, they had three other jobs to keep them and their kids alive.
They were even called eccentric by the neighbors so they were mentally and physically in a discouraged situation. He tried to kill himself several times. but the third time, when he climbed the mountain to find the place to hang himself, he found the smell of the soil is different than the soil at his apple farm. and the root of the weeds are strongly spread out in the soil so it isn't easily pulled off while the weed at the farm was very easy to pull out. so then he realized the significance of the soil and he started to study the soil.
He tried many things to fertilize the soil without chemicals. For instance, he used root nodule bacteria to scatter beans at the farm at the year that they saw one flower blooming. In the 8th year, only one tree had 7 flowers and had two apples that are not even close to selling them. Next following year, white flower finally flowerished all over the apple farm. Kimura and his wife were so delightened that they walked by every trees to say thank you.
Kimura calls fertilizer "Toxin" even if it's organic. He emphasizes how important it is to leave as it is and that's the most functional and strong condition for the soil. His apples are said to be miraculous and he goes all over the country to have lectures for other workers try to be organic farmers hoping that his success effect otheres.
Thinking how severely we have been treating soil which is fundamental for our lives, I again became to hate people.
How about me?
Recalling what I have done as a landscaper at the very rich family's property from the shore of Lake Washington to the top of the hill in Kenmore, I even had moments that made me think if I was doing right thing for the soil or not without the environmental knowledge. Now I know all of the things were crucial for the soil. For example, when I was painting the repaired deck with usual chemical paints, I dripped the paint on the plants, weeds and soil that are right next to it. I have even thrown some of the paints away in the yard. Most of the time when I was told what to do even if I had a feeling that's not good for the environment, I just followed what my clients wanted me to do to look clean at the yard. After I learned about how important soil is and closely related to our life, I started to at least tell them what I think not necessarily against them. Other than that, it's their choice to concern about the environment or looks.
Personally, I've never recognized soil as a dirt because I simply liked to toutch it and be in a nature. It's just very relaxing,

Genetic Engineering

I personally don't appreciate the things that are not natural in general because it breaks the ecosystem somehow in some ways; everything is interconnected. Distructing ecosystem untimately leads people's illness and metal disease that are unusual and illogical. These days, I have heard many health problems that relate to hormones. The number of women who have brest cancer, untering cancer and endometoriosis have been increasing, in last a decade, men's sparm 50 percent decreased, and One senventh of American girls have way early menstruation. A lot of it make sense because we overuse and manipulate hormones of grow crops and animals that are strong and efficient. For instance, inserting animal genes to plants to make it strong and resistance to pests are very common. and using hormone drug to domestic animals ultimately unbalances people's hormone because we eat them. In addition, Japan has been significantly decreasing its population because many people don't have ability to fertilize as much as people don't want to have kids.
Also, significant number of immoral crimes have occured in any gender in advanced society, and that connects to luck of health care; less nutritrients and more aritificial food that has chemicals. A body and mind are interconnected so that unhealthy people tend more to comit a crime.
So then, how can we be physcally and mentally healthy? It seems very difficult in any society because how the society structured lead people to luck of health which is very sad but true...
I don't agree with genetic engineering. It seems to me now is it's totally commercialized. I strongly feel that the focus must be exclusively on people in need.

Saving our environment by cooking our food.

Quinoa immidiately became my favorite food from the first try of quinoa dinner because of its taste and healthy value. I made quinoa salad with dried fruits and walnuts. It was easy and fast to make than rice which I make almost everyday. Following the recipe that I got, I just had to get three seasoning spices such as paprika, cumin and coriander. I added the salad with dried fruits. I generally appreciate foods that are light taste and light in my stomach, so quinoa is perfect meal for me to satisfy with my need for enjoying the food but still healthy.
This exploring of new food was my wake-up call to start cooking healthy in my daily bases because even me who care what I eat tend to choose easier things to cook as I get more busy working for school and cooking becomes less and less of my priority. People have to realize how important it is to cook what you eat. I've been noticing that people don't cook!! include me... and go to restaurants where tons of food thrown away for professional and economical reason. so people don't know how to cook! so I've realized that some people count making sandwich and salad as cooking which I don't think you cook them. It might be just because I came from food perfectionist country, Japan, and grown up with Japanese food, so I must have different idea for those dishes. But all what I'm trying to say is just convincing people to cook more and understand how important it is to cook their food and to know what they are eating should help discipline our consumptional behavior. There are too many low quality of products at stores and I think most of it is unecessarily big and wasteful. To change this tradition, the most powerful impact, we as consumers have to change our mind-set from efficiency or expence based to environment based which altimately for ourselves and our descents.
Save the species and our environment by cooking our food.