Joan Olawski-Stiener
POINTS TOTAL
- 0 TODAY
- 0 THIS WEEK
- 517 TOTAL
participant impact
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UP TO1.0documentarywatched
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UP TO105minutesspent learning
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UP TO3.0public officials or leaderscontacted
Joan's actions
Land Use
Forest-Friendly Foods 1
#5 Tropical Forests
I will spend at least 10 minutes researching the impact of my diet to see how it contributes to deforestation.
Materials
Mulch the Base of Trees and Plants
#46 Water Saving - Home
I will prevent water runoff and increase absorbency by mulching the base of trees and plants in my yard.
Food
Explore Other Food Solutions
All Food Solutions
I will spend at least 30 minutes researching other Drawdown Food Solutions.
Food
Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture
#11 Regenerative Agriculture
I will spend at least 30 minutes learning about the need for more regenerative agriculture.
Electricity Generation
Learn More about Micro Wind
#76 Micro Wind
I will spend at least 30 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of Micro Wind.
Food
Smaller Portions
#3 Reduced Food Waste
I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.
Food
Learn More about Silvopasture
#9 Silvopasture
I will spend at least 30 minutes watching videos and/or reading about the environmental benefits of silvopasture.
Electricity Generation
Communicate With My Elected Officials
#2 Wind Turbines (Onshore)
I will write or call 3 elected official(s) telling them not to support fossil fuel subsidies and instead support wind energy generation.
Electricity Generation
Watch a Video about Methane Digesters
#30 Methane Digesters (large), #64 Methane Digesters (small)
I will watch a video about methane digesters (also commonly known as anaerobic digesters).
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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REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Explore Other Food SolutionsWhat did you find out? What is the most interesting fact you learned?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 8:26 AMI learned a lot about ways to turn food production from a source of GHG to a sink, where carbon can be captured, and in the process, things like water availability and yields can increase, as well as food security. One of the most interesting facts that I learned is that if we "add to livestock all other food-related emissions - from farming to deforestation to food waste - what we eat turns out to be the number one cause of global warming." (see p. 37 of Drawdown). Also worth mentioning is "if cattle were their own nation, they would be the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases." (see p. 39 of Drawdown.) Hmmm... -
REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Learn More about SilvopastureHad you heard of the term silvopasture" before now? After learning more about it, what do you think is the biggest advantage of silvopasture?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 8:19 AMI had heard of the term "silvopasture" before, but did not know anything about it. I think the biggest advantage of it is that it is a win-win for the farmers doing it - for so many reasons. It can reduce greenhouse emissions, provide diversity of products for the farmer (cattle plus a variety of crops) - plus the yield may be higher, make the environment cooler and more protected because of the trees, and it can retain more water than an empty field. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Learn More about Regenerative AgricultureClean air, clean water and healthy food are three reasons to care about regenerative agriculture. In what ways can you support your closest regenerative agriculture farm?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 8:12 AMCurrently I am working on making my 2 acres as regenerative as I can. We've planted fruit and nut trees, berries, kiwis, perennial herbs and other things so we can have a seasonal source of good fresh food. We purchased a greenhouse which expands the growing season for us, and have several raised beds which help us because our soil is full of shale. We now have four rain barrels that supply a lot of the water for our garden. Our "grassy" area is full of low growing wild flowers that the bees and other insects love, as well as dandelions and other edible wild plants that are very nutritious. We have lots of cover and food for the birds (part of our property is left to grow wild for the wildlife), bats and insects, so get some natural fertilizer and pollination. I hope to get chickens and/or ducks etc. someday. I have been reading about permaculture, and am hoping to learn a lot more from reading Drawdown. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONElectricity Generation Communicate With My Elected OfficialsWhat inspires you to act on sustainable energy and other energy issues?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 7:51 AMThe beauty of this planet and the spectacular species that live here motivate me to do something to protect them. My heart goes out to the people that care about these issues and try so hard to make a positive difference, to the other species that are confronted with the impacts of climate change and other human impacts, and to the beautiful environment of this planet. -
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 7:46 AMThis has been a great eco challenge and I've learned a lot. I've purchased the book Drawdown and am reading it and will continue to try to make a positive difference. I will educate whenever I can others about climate change and things that we can do to make a difference. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONMaterials Mulch the Base of Trees and PlantsName some of the human activities impacting the health of water systems, both locally (your watershed) and globally (freshwater and oceans). What can you do to improve the health of water systems?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 7:44 AMSo many activities impact the health of water systems. Pollution of all type - that from manufacturing processes, even "permitted" discharges; throwing trash onto the street that gets washed into the waterways in a rain storm; dumping unwantded chemicals down the drain; all the excessive use of pharmaceuticals that may not be cleaned out of the water systems by their cleaning processes; dumping trash into the ocean and waterways; using strong chemical pesticides and herbicides when something more natural might work; and so on. We can switch to using eco-friendly, natural cleaning products and pest control, make sure that we recycle, help clean up our neighborhoods from all the trash and educate others about all of this; don't put things down the drain that shouldn't be in drinking water, donate and support environmental groups that try to clean up water both locally and internationally. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONLand Use Forest-Friendly Foods 1How is your diet currently impacting deforestation? What can you do to decrease your negative impact and increase your positive impact?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 7:36 AMThere are so many ways that I and others are impacting deforestation. So many of our products include ingredients that come from rainforest areas, and with increases in demand, including increasing population, rainforests are cut down, such as for palm oil in Borneo. Palm oil is included in so many processed foods. The same goes for meat eaters and the rainforests taken down for grazing areas. And from an overall perspective, rainforests and other areas are destroyed because of demand for fossil fuels which are found in so many places, so things like growing your own food, buying locally from local farmers and other producers, driving less and using less fossil fuels overall can help. -
REFLECTION QUESTIONFood Smaller PortionsFun fact: Your brain and stomach register feelings of fullness after about 20 minutes of eating. While dishing food out, we tend to load our plates with more than we need. Using smaller plates helps to mitigate this. Aside from the environmental benefits, what other benefits might come out of this?
Joan Olawski-Stiener 4/25/2018 7:29 AMThere could be some seriously good health benefits, including losing weight, feeling more energetic, and for those that have certain health issues, perhaps those issues will go away if they lose weight and exercise. Using smaller plates helps one take less food and feel good about it. The large plates seem to encourage us to fill them. -
Joan Olawski-Stiener 3/28/2018 11:44 AMI'm looking forward to this challenge and to reading "Drawdown". I aim to learn new things and make a positive difference at this critical time.-
Carey Compton 4/15/2018 10:20 AMHey Joan how is it going? Did you also know that if you did one of daily goes but did not log in that day you can go back to that day and check it off, getting points? Back up by using the arrow to the left of the date on your dashboard to do that. FYI. Come on you can do it. -
Carey Compton 3/28/2018 5:44 PMI am with you Joan, looking forward to learning a new angle.
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