Environment

The Paper Cup Demise

-Tamara Feingold

There’s something about holding that venti-sized paper cup with a cardboard sleeve that I just can’t get enough of.

I’m not going to lie, I texted about five friends in panic when Starbucks updated its cup design last March without warning me. Needless to say, I’m a drip coffee with a little bit of half-and-half and Splenda connoisseur and there’s nothing that says “I’m ready for class” like a good strong cup o’ joe. It’s the last dirty little un-environmentally-friendly habit I’ve hung on to. I ride my bike, don’t use paper towels, and carry reusable grocery bags. I judge people with Hummers.

But when I walked into The Buzz coffeehouse on campus a couple of weeks ago, my usual twenty-ounce drip coffee was $2.75. A little steep for a black cup of java, right? Right. That’s because The Fishbowl, The Buzz, and Union Market have all adopted a new pricing plan:

Use a disposable paper cup: You pay the beverage price plus 50 cents

Use a reusable mug: You pay the beverage price minus 50 cents

As attached as I am to that status symbol of steaming joy, this new payment plan is irresistibly sensible. The concept, which is the result of a recent contest hosted in the EMU called Fifty for Five Thousand, includes all profits from the paper cup tax returning to future sustainability projects.

For those of you hoping to save some money without carting a travel mug around campus all day, fear not. There’s an Adopt-a-Mug program allowing students to use a mug stocked by the coffee shop.

What’s so wrong with an occasional paper cup of coffee, you ask? Usually, the coffee cups aren’t made from recycled paper and the plastic coating that keeps your beverage warm also means it ends up in a landfill. According to the Environment Action Association, Americans consume about 400 million cups of coffee per day, which is disturbingly comedic.

If nothing else can get to poor college students, it’s a raise in prices. Especially in coffee, which I consider to be vital to the finals/no sleep/early classes experience that is the University of Oregon.

For that reason, as I sit in The Buzz listening to The Black Keys I’m sipping out of my brand new, twelve ounce, stainless steel with a screw lid and mug full of piping hot coffee. And if I, a diehard daily paper cup fiend, can switch over, so can the rest of Eugene.

NOTE: 12 OZ coffee mug not recommended for true coffee drinkers. What was I thinking? Someone get me a 20 OZ for my birthday.

A Community Art Project: Before I Die

-Jamie Hershman

What do you want to do before you die?

When I first pondered the question, I kept coming up with short term goals. But, thinking in the long-term, I know what I want to do before I die: make a difference, whether that be through my story-telling, or traveling the world and working hands-on in making a difference. Who knows? All I know is before I die I want to do something meaningful that will make a difference or impact somebody else’s life for the better.

A new community art project has whole neighborhood’s pondering the question, as well. It began with artist Candy Chang turning the side of an abandoned house into a chalkboard, having many slots open for residents to share what they want to do before they die. After the death of a loved one, Chang decided she wanted to up her spirits and the spirits of her community.

With the great response and participation from Chang’s community, there have been more and more walls going up throughout the world. “Before I Die” walls have gone up in Brooklyn, NY; Montreal, Quebec; Portsmouth, NH; and Queretaro, Mexico, as well as many other places. More are in the process of going up as well within the year from Johannesburg, South Africa to Denver, Colorado and Wolverhampton University in England.

These walls allow people to write down their hopes and dreams, and all responses are taken on record. This positive community art project is inspiring people to find and follow their passions. From past responses, many want to travel the world and reconnect with old family members. The walls encourage people to truly stop and think about what is going to make them happy in life. Some responses are funny, while others are a little more serious, but all have meaning to the person who wrote them.

Other groups have started projects to encourage people to find their passions with the “before I die” phrase. A group of four guys called The Buried Life made a list of 100 things they want to do before they die and have gone on a mission to complete every item, which MTV picked up as a reality television show. The Buried Life has influenced many young people to create their own bucket lists and try to complete them.

With so much negativity in the world, these walls provide a little center of hope for those who want to believe in their dreams and for those who want to lead better lives. Chang started with just a wall, but her one idea has sprouted walls up throughout the world and has changed the normality of the day-to-day life by encouraging people to find their passions.

So now, take some time and think about it. What do you want to do before you die?

Tuff Climbin’ -A Smith Rock Time Lapse

Tuff Climbin’ – A Smith Rock Time Lapse from Tommy Pittenger on Vimeo.

Personal Farms in the Sky

-Laura Lundberg

Climate change is beginning to threaten and hurt our environment more and more each year. With the human population continuing to grow at rapid rates, and with deforestation, ocean acidification and air pollution, it seems that this world is in need of some innovative technologies to help repair some of the damage. There have been many different types of new, sustainable practices that have been gaining support and being implemented inside cities and individual homes all across the world. One of these nifty inventions is known as the SkyFarm.

Manuel Dreesmann, a designer, is the genius behind this concept. A green technology that aims at improving individual lifestyles and health, Skyfarms aim to raise awareness and make sure that people know exactly where their food comes from – by growing plants and crops themselves on their own balconies.

The Skyfarms operate much like hanging ornamental baskets do on balconies. They aim to save space for apartment owners (or renters) by hanging from the ceiling, and each plant or crop sits neatly inside a white acrylic pot that has a transparent domed cover.  One interesting feature about these Skyfarms is that they also come with a handle and a balance, so with just a pull of the handle, your Skyfarm will lower itself to you to be tended to. Another pull and its back up to the ceiling.

According to Dreesmann, Skyfarms aims to “[improve] the quality of living, reducing energy and water use, and generally making the building more sustainable — here’s a gardening solution also geared towards green-thumbed residents of apartment towers that’s decidedly a bit more tangible (and a touch less frightening).”

This is certainly a handy invention that thinks into the future of humanity. Manuel Dreesmann believes that more people will be moving into closer quarters, and cities will begin to overrun the countryside, leading to the loss of the essential acres necessary to make and produce food. Dreesmann says on his website that, “You can grow your own food, which means you can be sure that no toxics are sprayed and you can see by yourself the process from a little seed to a delicious arugula salad.”

Skyfarms are just one new way of looking at the world and thinking about something that can be changed. Something that is a relatively cheap, easy fix that will sustain the human population, so that everyone can know where their food comes from and doesn’t have to worry about whether they live in cities or in the countryside.

A Lamp that Requires a Sacrifice

-Laura Lundberg

There are some very interesting gadgets and gizmos out there that are meant to help keep the world sustainable and reduce the amount of energy humans consume. One of the most interesting new gadgets on the market is something that is 100% sustainable, emits cool colors, and requires just a bit of a sacrifice that really gets people thinking twice about how much energy they use. What’s this item? It’s called the Blood Lamp.

Invented by Mike Thomspon, an English designer based in the Netherlands, Thomspon wanted to make people stop and think  before simply wasting energy. He came up with the idea of this somewhat disturbing green gadget when he was studying for his masters at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He was researching chemical energy for a project when he discovered the Blood Lamp’s chemical component – luminol.

Luminol is a chemical that forensic scientists use to find traces of blood at crime scenes. Luminol works by reacting with red blood cells, turning the red blood cells a bright, neon blue that glows. While the chemical used to make the lamp work seem simple enough, it’ll be more work to actually get yourself to light it. The lamp works by someone mixing in an activating powder into the glass. Then, all you do is break the top of the glass, cut yourself and a few drops of blood into the glass. Sounds simple enough, but is also extremely daunting and will make you think twice before using this type of lamp.

Thinking twice is exactly what Thompson wanted too. He said in an article for LiveScience that, “It kind of triggered this thought in my mind, that if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it,” and that the lamp “forces the user to‘rethink how wasteful they are with energy, and how precious it is.” He explained. If you want to see a video of the Blood Lamp in action, you can check it out on YouTube, although we warn you, there is blood.

While the Blood Lamp is a cool idea, and a great way to get people to start really thinking about how much energy they use, one has to think that there is an easier and just as green way to get light – and light that isn’t a weird neon blue color either. Still, I guess if worst comes to worst (perhaps in a post-apocalyptic world) one might be all too willing to cut their fingers to get a little light.