Rowan Fay

The creation of green spaces is essential, especially in large cities, in response to climate change. The creation of green spaces can provide urban cooling, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, and places for the community to rest and play in. However, often the development of said green spaces comes at the expense of racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Often areas that are developed with greenspaces become more expensive to live in, as green space is an attractive feature. This pushes out marginalized groups from their homes and neighborhoods due to unaffordability. I think a way to work around this trend is to add or improve green spaces throughout an entire city. That way, green spaces won’t result in increased cost of living and displacement. I also recognize that it is a much more complicated issue that encompasses factors like where is there room for green spaces, and the costs associated with developing and installing green spaces. More importantly, I think it is critical to address the root causes of these inequalities such as income disparities and lack of opportunity that put specific marginalized groups at risk of displacement in the first place.

I learned that access to family planning materials is critical in societal development. Access to family planning materials, such as education, counseling, and contraception allows people with uteruses to control when or if they have children. This gives people with uteruses the freedom to pursue other aspects of life besides parenthood, such as a career or education (not to say you can't have both, but it creates more options, especially for individuals whose culture it is to have many children).

I have really enjoyed looking at the changing leaves on my daily walks this week. It was a great mindfulness activity for me - they changed so much in just 5 days. Typically, my walks involve walking along the Willamette. It is a paved trail with several outlets and seems very accessible. Once I get off the trail and back into my neighborhood, I notice it is less accessible. For example, some of the roads I like to walk do not have sidewalks on either side of the road. I feel like this is dangerous and not walkable infrastructure. Another thing I noticed is how much less walkable South Corvallis is than Central Corvallis around downtown and the OSU campus. South Corvallis runs mostly along 99E and I don't really feel safe walking along the highway, even with a sidewalk. I find the opposite to be true in Central Corvallis, with many crosswalks and safe sidewalks.

I feel like I am pretty mindful of single-use items. For example, I have a metal water bottle I carry with me so I don't need to buy plastic, and I have a bento box I use every day to pack my lunch so I don't have to buy a packaged meal. When I go to the store, I always remember my reusable grocery bags. This action made me more aware of other single-use items I use. For example, I was invited to a potluck this week. Before I thought about it, I covered the food I made with saran wrap and tin foil. I realized that those are single-use items, and felt bad for using them, but saran wrap and tin foil are not things I use on a regular basis. At that same potluck, a friend of mine brought her food covered in a beeswax wrapper. These can be used many times and gently cleaned in between uses. I want to invest in some of those. Another single-use item I realize I use frequently is Ziploc bags. I think they are very useful for a variety of things but are very wasteful. I could start rinsing them out and reusing them, or invest in some durable, multi-use silicon bags. Lastly, I am not very mindful of single-use items when it comes to coffee. I enjoy getting a weekly coffee as a treat, but I never bring a reusable mug for it. The worst part is that I own a reusable mug, I just forget, or find that it isn't convenient to carry around with me. Thinking about how quickly a coffee cup a week adds up, it's pretty silly of me not to wash it out and carry it with me. I will work on not purchasing drinks in single-use vessels.

This was a pretty shocking statistic to me. That is 100 lbs more than I weigh! I could do a lot with $1,500. For me, $1,500 is 3 months worth of rent. I could use that extra money to pay my bills, or I could save that money as I do not make many other big purchases in my life currently. I could use that saved money to take a graduation trip, as a down payment on a new car, or as the first and last month's rent on a new apartment. It’s disturbing to think that I literally throw out $1500 worth of food a year, but I wonder if that number is less for college students like me who are on more of a tight budget. Regardless, this action made me a lot more aware of my food waste habits, and I really considered the value of any food I had to throw away this week, both in terms of my money and my time.