Anne Mowat
POINTS TOTAL
- 0 TODAY
- 0 THIS WEEK
- 648 TOTAL
participant impact
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UP TO44locally sourced mealsconsumed
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UP TO42meatless or vegan mealsconsumed
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UP TO75minutesspent learning
Anne's actions
Materials
Recycle Everything I Can
#55 Household Recycling
I will recycle all materials that are accepted by local haulers or drop stations in my community.
Buildings and Cities
Research Heat Pumps
#42 Heat Pumps
I will spend at least 45 minutes researching heat pumps to see if installing one makes sense for my home/building.
Transport
Conduct Virtual Meetings
#63 Telepresence
I will not travel for meetings and will instead conduct them virtually.
Transport
Use Muscle Power
#49 Cars
I will cut my car trip mileage by only taking necessary trips, and I will only use muscle-powered transportation for all other trips.
Land Use
Local Perennial Biomass
#51 Perennial Biomass
I will spend at least 60 minutes finding out if anyone is working on perennial biomass projects in my region and how I can get involved.
Food
Reduce Animal Products
#4 Plant-Rich Diet
I will enjoy 2 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.
Food
Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture
#11 Regenerative Agriculture
I will spend at least 60 minutes learning about the need for more regenerative agriculture.
Food
Smaller Portions
#3 Reduced Food Waste
I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.
Food
Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates
#3 Reduced Food Waste
I will spend at least 15 minutes learning how to differentiate between sell by, use by, and best by dates.
Food
Support Local Food Systems
#4 Plant-Rich Diet
I will source 2 meal(s) from local producers each day. This could include signing up for a local CSA, buying from a farmer's market, visiting a food co-op, foraging with a local group, or growing my own ingredients.
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
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Anne Mowat 4/25/2018 11:51 AMThe 2017 EcoChallenge has both inspired and motivated me to try a little harder to reduce my carbon footprint. New behaviours (eating less meat, studying drawdown research and solutions) are becoming new habits. It is wonderful to view the team feeds and to know we are collectively having an impact. -
Anne Mowat 4/24/2018 8:27 AMThis EcoChallenge has been, for me, both instructive and encouraging. I hope that NWEI and the Project Drawdown organizers continue to build on it and engage our best efforts beyond Earth Month... It would be excellent to sustain and build on the impact of individuals, even as we recognize the need for systemic, cradle-to-cradle policies that shift human reliance away from fossil fuels. Thank you to the organizers, thank you to the teams... -
Anne Mowat 4/21/2018 10:18 AMThe violent volatility of our weather—so easy to forget on a sunny morning in Spring— struck me hard this morning as I was out with my dog. In a matter of seconds, I watched the storm approach from the far side of the river. I barely made it back up our driveway and into the house, and then: crazy intense wind, hail, ice pellets, mixed with driving rain. The temperature dropped from around 10°C to freezing. And now, half an hour later, the clouds are breaking to make way for the sun. -
Anne Mowat 4/17/2018 7:56 AMMany of the actions offered through Drawdown are habits of living for us. For example, I burn next to no gas on my commute upstairs to my home office. (smiling) I am fortunate to be semi-retired and working part-time with a trusted longtime colleague. Based in a faraway city, my colleague handles client-facing meetings, and engages me to provide specific consulting services remotely from behind the scenes. This is an amazing gift—thanks to the acceptably fast broadband service provided by our WISP, I can work from our off-grid homestead. Weeks can go by when I don’t use the car. I gather up errands and appointments so we get the most out of a single trip into town. The next challenge for us is figuring out how to fund an EV or even an EV hybrid. It bothers us that these options are really designed as status objects for the affluent. My life-partner and I do the best we can, mostly using our small fuel-efficient car, and reserving the carbon-heavier truck only for jobs that demand it. But we have started to think about the possibilities. That’s for another post. -
Anne Mowat 4/15/2018 10:34 AMLast night, my life-partner and I had an extensive discussion around the Drawdown quiz in the NYT, originallly published in June 2017. Although we are committed permaculturists, we still learned a lot from this exercise. Highly recommend. I may return to it in 6 months to ensure the knowledge sticks! Here’s the link if you’re interested: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/09/climate/drawdown-climate-solutions-quiz.html -
Anne Mowat 4/14/2018 1:01 PMAs our winter season wanes here in the southern interior of Canada’s Pacific Northwest, I anticipate the special sound. In 2013, that sound began in late February. Usually it begins in early March. This year, however, it did not begin, for me, until this morning. On my walk with my dog, Jake, at last, we heard the sound of water streaming down our steeply sloped mountain to the valley. The Spring melt has begun at last! We have between 120% and 140% of normal snowpack accumulation in our high mountains this year. And so, while I’m happy to see spring, these years, these recent years, my joy is shot through with apprehension. Flooding and mudslides are more common now. I resolve to try harder to minimize my carbon footprint, eat, waste, and consume less, grow and give more. I am making small bargain with the gods weather, If I do these things, will you spare us extreme flooding…will you keep our ferry afloat as the river rises...? We will see if the gods of weather accept my offering! (Photo: Taken of our village waterfall in the forest by my brother-in-law, August, 2015).
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Anne Mowat 4/07/2018 10:21 AMI have been thinking about meat consumption. While I am still cutting back, I wonder if meat raising can be done sustainably, and actually help advance the goals of lower carbon. For example, our chicks eat food waste and provide rich compost. They are a natural no-till soil conditioner. They give us eggs, and, eventually, meat. But up to that moment, they well. I’d welcome thoughts from the Drawdown Team on this, as I am still learning...
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Anne Mowat 4/07/2018 12:07 PMThank you, Sharmel Roussel! -
Scharmel Roussel 4/07/2018 11:58 AMI applaud your efforts toward responsible sustainability. -
Anne Mowat 4/07/2018 11:00 AMThanks, Chris! I am going to look into it as a part of permaculture living. I do believe that the challenges and trade-offs are a bit different for rural residents than they are for city people. Stay tuned! -
Chris Kane 4/07/2018 10:31 AMHi Ann - I'm no expert in this field for sure, but just thinking about this to me is a big deal. Not a lot of people even give it any thought at all. From what I've read and heard there are differing viewpoints on the subject of whether man is meant to be a carnivore or an herbivore. Now, I'm a pescatarian, but from what I know now I think if I were to go back to eating meat I would treat it kind of like what Temple Grandin says, or what a lot of native americans believe, in that I would thank them for their sacrifice to feed me and know that when they lived they were treated well. I would also use meat as an accompaniment to my meal - not the main part of it. I don't believe we were meant to eat the huge amounts of meat we now believe we're entitled to. It's a really complex issue, but, like I said in the beginning - just thinking about this to me is a big deal and I wish you the best of luck. I'd be happy to talk out anything you'd like.
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Anne Mowat 4/05/2018 9:13 AMIn 2011, we embarked on a permaculture approach to living, when we moved out of the city and 3 began to develop our homestead on 5 acres of land in rural BC. A brief progress report since then:
1. We live off-grid on solar power, with propane backup (about 1200 litres per year), most of it te result of water pumping for house and gardens.
2. Nearly all of our lights are LED DC bulbs. Our fridge and freezers are DC applicances.
3. We grow more of our own vegetables, trying to increase this each year. For eggs & meat, we keep chickens. Soon, we will raise rabbits for meat.
4. We have increased local food as a percentage of our total consumption.
5. Our straw bale house keeps us warmer in Winter & cool in Summer without the use of air conditioning.
6. We built a high efficiency masonry heater for burning wood more cleanly at a super high temperature.
7. We take fewer baths, and wash using the sink most days.
8. We have planted trees, introduced pollinator attracting plants, and nitrogen fixers like clover to our land.
9. We use humanure composting, based on Joe Jenkins Humanure Handbook. This provides future compost and reduces water consumption.
