Wellness Journalism: Sustained

Sustainability is the capacity to endure, and a very popular concept in an era when we have exceeded maximum capacity. It describes the means by which biological systems (such as human life on earth) remain diverse and productive (and alive) over time. Sustainability refers to the potential for Long-Term Maintenance of Well-Being…and that, my dears, depends on the well-being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

Wake up and smell the organic, fair-trade coffee. The concept of sustainability spans every area of our lives. From sustainable thinking to sustainable housekeeping to sustainable relationships, we create our individual and collective landscape.

According to the Earth Policy Institute, there is abundant scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainably, and returning our use of natural resources to within sustainable limits will require a major effort.

There are many components to going green on a global scale:
• Living conditions (e.g., ecovillages and sustainable cities),
• Economic sectors (permaculture, green building, sustainable agriculture)
• New technologies (green technologies, renewable energy)
• Adjustments in individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources.

Zoom in on that last bullet point…what are you doing, every day, to live sustainably? We have already discussed many important contributions such as recycling, reducing toxic build-up, and conserving energy. Now I would like to bring your attention to a very intimate environmental issue: food.

You are what you eat, and how you eat it. When you focus on sustainable eating habits, you create a frame of mind that says “I care,” and this permeates every cell of your being. Your own health can be vastly improved by taking an environmental approach—sustainable foods just so happen to be the body’s favorite!

I am perfectly aware that not everybody is willing to lead a vegetarian, vegan, or better yet—raw—lifestyle. But even the most carnivorous among us can take steps to reduce meat consumption.

Chew on this: A 2006 United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. This is because the billions of little piggies, chickens, and moo-cows crammed together and tortured on factory farms give off enormous amounts of carbon-dioxide, methane, and nitrous-oxide (see Global Warming for details). Furthermore, in order to make room for this toxic food-source to fester, they cut down trees. Cattle-ranching is the number one reason why Amazonians’s are missing their rainforest.

If you want to support the environment but can’t afford a hybrid car, just go vegan.

It’s hard to change a habit if you don’t have proper motivation. On the other hand, if you thoroughly digest the implications of your behaviors, they tend to change by themselves. Educate yourself. For an enlightening experience, watch Food Inc or visit this website.

Do yourself a favor. Identify two things that you can do with greater vigor and commitment to support your environment. Shop at a healthfood store or farmers market instead of Vons. Eat vegetarian or vegan three days a week.

For starters, here's a link to sustainable eating on campus. I myself eat at the Food Coop almost every day, because people are sometimes playing guitar and sometimes telling jokes, and there are awesome murals and everything is vegetarian and delicious, not to mention inexpensive.

Sustainability is not optional.
There is nothing to discuss, debate, or dissect.
We go green, or perish red-handed.

Wellness Journalism: Got Recycling?

What goes around comes around...

But when it comes to recycling, some of us just get lazy. Should I walk an extra 100 yards to that blue recycling bin over there, or just drop my beverage bottle in this garbage can right next to me? Plop. Another piece of trash has just been created.

It’s just as easy to recycle as it is to throw away. Not only are there recycling bins all over the place, but you can even make some money (go green!) if you save your plastics and glass and take them to the recycling center yourself. One friend of mine rakes in $60 every time she goes to the recycling center, and uses this money to pamper herself with a pedicure or nice dinner. Open a special piggy bank account and use accumulated recycling income to take a nice vacation!

For things that won’t fit in the blue bin, visit Earth911. This toll-free hotline and website has an exhaustive directory of recycling and disposal centers near you, and plenty of information about how to recycle things like batteries, cell phones, gift cards, computers, game consoles, plastic bags, plastic bottle caps and those nasty packing peanuts.

Second-hand, first-rate! If you haven’t met Craig, get on his list. Craigslist is an amazing, adventerous, and versatile resource for buying and selling everything under the sun. I have found everything from sports equipment to moving boxes to furniture to electronics/appliances…in fact, easily half of my worldly possessions have been sold/purchased from Craigslist or thrift stores, earning/saving me hundreds upon hundreds of dollars! (I think of it as supporting my local economy.)

Land of the free. Of course, while cheap used stuff is good, free used stuff is better. Check out Craigslist or Freecycle in your area to see if there are any items that you can score gratis! Once there was even a free jacuzzi….all you had to do was pick it up. While you're at it, you can connect with people who can use something you are finished with. It’s so nice to find a loving home for things that are otherwise ready to be abandoned.

It all counts!

Recycling of 1 aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours.
Recycling of 1 glass container saves enough energy to light a bulb for 4 hours.
Recycling of 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7000 gallons of water.
1 ton of glass made from 50% recycled materials saves 250 lbs. of mining waste.



Did you know?

• Enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild our commercial air fleet 4 times every year.
• Glass can be reused an infinite number of times
• Each year, enough paper is thrown away to make a 12’ wall from New York to California.
• Enough iron and steel is discarded in the United States to continually supply the nation’s automakers.
• There’s an island the size of Texas filled with trash, mostly plastic waste. It’s floating in the ocean just north of Hawaii and west of California.

(Information is compiled from the EPA, Reynolds Metal Company, and Steel Recycling Institute.)

Wellness Journalism: Get Out!

Get out! No, I mean it! Go outside. Walk in the fresh air, breathe deeply, and bask in the fabulousness that is nature.

We spend the majority of our time indoors, in front of a computer or television screen, or driving in our cars…blocking our connection to the earth and its energy. Instead, our minds are conditioned to obtain energy from substitutes that we pay for, obsess over, and crave. That self-consuming relationship? That addiction? This dependence on “fossil fuels” comes at great cost! These short-term stand-ins produce pollution such as stress and disease, while enhancing dysfunction and denial. They put us out of touch with nature's unifying balance and recuperative powers.

Even while we walk in the woods, our minds are conditioned to be elsewhere: thinking about work or school, family or friends, contemplating problems, or conversating about something else. Our minds have been trained to overlook the innate and intuitive senses that connect us to nature's wise and amazing creations. In fact, it is the fundamental pain of disconnection with our mother earth that we seek to remedy or satisfy with gunk.

Us southern Californians pay out the nose in order to live in this sunny weather. So use it. Hit the beach, strike a trail, and try not to step on a snail. The benefit to you? Vibrant health and a sense of well-being. It’s more than just the physical activity that gets your cells to singing. Fresh air and sunshine, both provided by the universe free of charge, are powerful therapies. (Click here for physiological details.) The benefit to nature? Earth wants to be beautiful to you. It works around the clock to sustain your very life. Enjoy it! This makes earth happy. And it’s a two way street—when you appreciate nature, nature appreciates you. It makes life more harmonious and efficient. Rub it the wrong way, and well…nature is a mother.

For priceless presents from the great outdoors:

The Mission Bay Acquatic Center

Outback Adventures

Take a hike. In San Diego, my three personal favorites are:

• Mission Trails- an extensive tranquil valley, with numerous excellent tree forts.
• Torrey Pines- fabulous ocean views, staggering cliffs, trails galore.
• Iron Mountain- a stairway to heaven.

Here’s one more recommendation, and dramatic as this may sound, it could change your life. Find a private place, somewhere out there in the arms of Mother Nature, and make it your sanctuary-- whether on campus under a certain tree, or at a beach or park somewhere. Go to it in times of trouble. Sit in silence or with a pen and paper, and be open to what comes.

Looking out at the ocean or up at the stars
Snaps me back into (self) perspective.

Got a minute?

Coming soon.....

The Price Center LiveWell Space

In the spring of 2010 the Office of Student Wellness will be opening its Price Center Wellness Space! (Located in between the UCSD Box Office and Jamba Juice.)

These 650 square feet will serve as a multipurpose space programmed by Student Health, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Recreation, and the Office of Student Wellness.
It will be a place for workshops, lectures, drop‐in hours, and self‐guided health and wellness information. What would you like to see and hear and learn and do?

This is YOUR Wellness Space, and we want to hear from you!

Click here to fill out our short survey.

Wellness Journalism: Hey You!

(What You Can Do!)

Get Involved.
This will increase your environmental awareness, gently and naturally. From beach cleanups to education and outreach to local recycling (where you can turn empty water bottles into a full wallet), active participation is the most direct contribution. In addition, you will find yourself surrounded by awesome people. What’s not to love?

Check out the many green goings-on around campus, as UCSD happens to be a leader in sustainable development among universities.

Going Green at UCSD


Sustainability Solutions Institute


Sustainability 2.0


Admit the impact of your actions.
The greatest threat to our environment is human behavior: Do you know what you are doing? As with anything else, “what you get out” and “what you put in” are directly related and proportionate. Consume with care. There is a history to any given object or product that goes far beyond the time it spends in your hands. Consider where it comes from, and where it goes when you have finished with it.

Think in terms of re-usability.
We are so loaded down with stuff we take it for granted. For example, most of us don’t think twice about grabbing a plastic fork, or a straw. But all these bits o’ plastic add up. Plastic grocery bags, paper towels, one-time use cleaning products, and excessive packaging are all completely unnecessary additions to an already enormous garbage problem. Don’t buy anything that becomes trash after one use, if you can help it! If it must become trash, make sure it is of the recycled variety.


• Carry a re-usable, stainless steel or BPA-free plastic water bottle and fill it up during the day
• Bring re-usable bags to the grocery store

Show and Tell.
Nothing says, “I am a good person who cares about the earth and life in general” like a little environmentally-friendly role modeling. Sustainability is very attractive and good-looking!

Walk it out.
Leave your global-warming, gas-guzzling car where it is. When you walk or ride your bike, you get the benefits of physical activity and fresh air. If you take the bus, you get the benefits of random, spontaneous human interaction. One bus driver I ride with is continually cracking jokes and bursting into song, and I arrive at school much more amused than if I had spent the morning sitting in my car.

Explore commuting alternatives here.


Conserve energy (and money!) at home.
Daily habits make the difference.

Reduce electricity usage: Turn off lights and other gadgetry you aren’t using (buy those twisty lightbulbs--CFL’s--that last forever and use less power). Make sure your appliances having the Energy Star rating for efficiency.

Save water: Don’t flush your pee (unless it’s that extra-potent morning batch). Wash your laundry in cold water, but not until clothes are actually dirty (the sniff test never fails). Shorten your showers.

Compliments of Environmental Working Group, Here is a Healthy Home Checklist to help you identify environmental to-do’s. It’s an easy way to make establish a nice, green house where you can do some serious thriving. From cleaning products to food containers to the chair you are sitting on, it’s good to know what’s what!

A few examples:
• Do you cook with non-stick cookware? Replace with cast-iron, stainless steel, or glass when possible. Stuck with it? Take care not to overheat it, which releases toxic fumes. Learn more.
• Do you use plastic food containers? We recommend glass over plastic. Never microwave food in plastic containers. For baby, use glass or BPA-free plastic bottles. Learn more.
• Do your product labels list all ingredients? Most don't, but they should. Support companies that disclose all ingredients by buying their products -- you have a right to know. Learn more about labeling.
• Do you filter your tap water? Check EWG's online tap water quality database for local contaminants and a filter that removes them, if needed. Look up your water.

Earth Week!

COME CELEBRATE THE EARTH!!
(and life in general.)

Sunday, April 18, 2010
BALBOA PARK • 10am – 5pm

The world's largest annual environmental fair and
Earth Day Celebration!


April 19-23, 2010

UCSD's Earth Week celebration!!

Monday, April 19

• Special organic features in the Places & Markets
• Trash Sort 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., Town Square. Students, staff and faculty will witness how many recyclable materials are discarded on campus through an educational trash sort. Recyclemania results will also be announced.

Tuesday, April 20

• Organic meals served at Canyon Vista & Foodworx
• E-waste Collection 7 a.m. – 2 p.m., Rupertus Way. Safely dispose of your electronic waste for free. Find out what's recyclable.
• Farmer’s Market 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Town Square

Wednesday, April 21

• Organic meals served at Café Ventanas
• UC San Diego Bicycle Commute Challenge Begins! Earn extra rewards for cycling to UCSD during the third annual UC San Diego Bicycle Commute Challenge. Individuals and teams who log the most miles or save the most carbon dioxide emissions during the four-week challenge, April 21 – May 21, will win prizes from Commute Solutions.
• E-waste Collection 7 a.m. – 2 p.m., Rupertus Way. Safely dispose of your electronic waste for free. Find out what's recyclable.
• Resource Fair 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Warren Mall
• Green Careers Industry Festival 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., Career Services Center Plaza
• Environmental Careers Panel 2–3:30 p.m., Career Services Center Horizon Room
• "Tapped" Film Screening and Water Panel 6 p.m., Price Center West Theater
• Peace Corps Information Session 4–5:30 p.m., Career Services Horizon Room
• John Muir Birthday Celebration 12:30 p.m., Muir Quad. Enjoy a piece of birthday cake!

Thursday, April 22

• Organic meals served at Plaza Café
• E-waste Collection 7 a.m. – 2 p.m., Rupertus Way
• Bike Breakfast 7–10 a.m., Gilman Visitor Information Center. Campus cyclists can enjoy free breakfast snacks and safety information.
• Clean Car Show 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Warren Mall. Green vehicle exhibit featuring a hydrogen fuel cell powered bus, the Smart Car, UCSD green fleet vehicles and more. Calculate your carbon footprint and learn how you can reduce it by using alternative transportation.
  

Friday, April 23

• Organic meals served at OVT
• Tree Planting 9–11:30 a.m. Help plant California sycamore trees on the east side of Sixth College Apartments and along Gilman Drive. All necessary tools, including work gloves, will be provided. To volunteer, contact Sam Oludunfe.
• Video and Multidisciplinary Art Competition Rime: TBD; Sustainability Resource Center. All media accepted. Entries muct be received by 4 p.m. April 16, 2010.
  
• Muirstock 3–11 p.m. Muir Quad. The traditional John Muir Week music festival, organized by Muir students, will celebrate the spirit of John Muir College by officially going green. Muirstock will feature a solar-powered stage, organic food venues and recycled and reusable prizes.

Wellness Journalism: The Toxicity of Our City- Part II

After a long day, you finally get home. Time to relax, take a shower, and wash the wear and tear of the day from your body, right? Er—no, actually, because you are in fact washing your body with toxic chemicals. Whoops.

If you are shopping at a popular venue such as CVS, Vons, Bath and Body Works, or Target, almost every product on the shelf contains chemicals that your body cannot recognize or use in any helpful way. The body will never grow accustomed, immune, or otherwise impervious to them because they are completely foreign. Instead, the body must suffer the taxing effects of such chemical slatherings. For example, Herbal Essences tries to look natural, but flip it over and read the ingredients—then tell me whether you think “Methylisothiazolinone” actually qualifies.

Unless you’ve already made the switch to truly natural products, I gaurantee that something you are applying to yourself contains harmful elements. Here are some of the most common:

• Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) irritate the skin in concentrations of as little as 0.5%, according to the American Toxicology Report. When the concentrations in soaps and shampoos exceed 10-30%, SLES and SLS cause severe skin irritation and corrosion. These compounds are added to soaps, shampoos, detergents and even toothpaste because they are a known foaming agent, and we like bubbles. But in clinical studies, SLES and SLS are linked to direct damage to the hair follicle, skin damage, permanent eye damage in children, and liver toxicity. The FDA reports that shampoos with SLES and SLS cause eye irritation, scalp irritation, and swelling of the hands, face, and armpit. These chemicals are also listed as: lauryl ether sulfate, sodium salt, or polyethylene glycol.

• Phthalates, found in synthetic fragrances, are endocrine disrupters that have been linked to developmental and reproductive toxicity, and immune system and organ damage. If a product’s list contains the word fragrance (rather than pure essential oils), that product probably contains phthalates.

• Propylene glycol is linked to cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, allergies, and skin irritation. It is often found in lotions, creams, cleansers, shampoos, conditioners, and deodorants. It may also be listed as: 1,2-dihydroxypropane, 2-hydroxypropanol, methylethyl glycol, 1,2-propanediol, or propane-1,2-diol.

• Parabens, used as preservatives in a wide variety of body care products, are linked to cancer, developmental toxicity, and reproductive damage. They may also be listed as: 4-hydroxy-benzoic acid, p-carboxyphenol,or p-salicyclic acid.

• Mineral Oil is a petroleum derivative that has been linked to cancer, organ system toxicity, and immunotoxicity. It is also listed as paraffin and petrolatum.

• Oxybenzone, widely used in sunscreens, is linked to endocrine disruption, reproductive damage, allergies, and cell damage. It may also be listed as: benzophenome-3, 2-benzoyl-5-methoxyphenol, or phenylmethanone.

Happily, nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to buy popular, commercialized product brands. You can choose to buy natural and organic products at your neighborhood health food store. Websites such as The Green Guide and Green Home provide lots of product information for home and body. Retrofit your world!

Wellness Journalism: The Toxicity of Our City- Part I

Building us up, or tearing us down?

We know that much of the food pumped into our stomachs is nasty business (high fructose corn syrup, anyone?). That’s just the beginning. It’s ironic, but even our best doctors practice medicine in buildings that are hazardous to our health.

Many commonly used building materials contain chemicals linked to cancer, respiratory problems, hormone interference, and reproductive or developmental harm. While the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has registered more than 80,000 chemicals for use, and identified 16,000 of them as chemicals of concern, they have only subjected 250 to mandatory hazard testing and only restricted five chemicals.

Here’s a potent example: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It’s the most widely used plastic polymer in the United States, with 14 billion pounds produced every year, and the building industry has its hands on more than 75% of it. The trouble with PVC and other chlorinated plastics (found in pipes, weather stripping, walls, gaskets, window treatments, wiring, flooring, and furniture, to name a few) is that the chlorine content produces dioxins. Note the root, di-, as in, this stuff will kill you—dioxins contain some of the most potent carcinogens known to humanity. Furthermore, dioxins are members of an insidious family of compounds known as Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxicants. This means they don’t go away just because we ignore it; rather, they fester in living organisms via air, soil, water, and food. These toxins are stored in fatty tissue, increasing their concentrations by orders of magnitude as they move up the food chain to humans at the top, becoming most concentrated in mothers’ milk. Delicious.

Now let’s look at another gross offender, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). These particles become gas at room temperatures, and as a result tend to evaporate from a building product into the air and down into your lungs. A commonly used compound that behaves in this manner is formaldehyde, which damages your liver, kidney, and nervous system, and increases cancer risk. You can find VOCs in the carpet, fabrics, paints, and varnishes—basically everything that you come into contact with.

Thankfully, in this era of environmental renaissance, companies are employing all sorts of technologies to reduce or eliminate the presence of toxic materials in constructing our world. There are many certification systems in place for builders who want a green sticker on their project, and anybody walking into a Home Depot can choose between poisonous and non-poisonous paint varieties. Educate yourself, and recognize the efforts of sustainable developers!



As if discussing poisonous buildings isn’t enough excitement, in the next blog I’m going to talk about the products you use in your home and on your body. Stay tuned.

Wellness Journalism: Critically Impacted

Treat your environment the way you would want to be treated.

Let none of us remain ignorant to the impact of the environment on human beings, nor the impact of human beings on the environment. We can no longer afford it.

Everything we do is done in the environment, and everything we do has an impact on the environment. We have changed the face of the planet, people. We have carved the terrain and molded it to our liking, and disliking. We have polluted our air and our oceans, run entire animal species into extinction, and even altered the climate.

Our lifestyle requires the burning of fossil fuels (non-renewable resources that alter our atmosphere) to produce energy. Out of the many causes of global warming, climate science writer Derek Markham describes the top three:

• Methane emissions
• Releases of carbon dioxide from both fossil fuel burning power plants and transportation
• Deforestation

Methane is naturally released when we alter the earth’s surface. Needless to say, we are famous for this type of altercation: coal mining, agriculture, landfills, construction. The increased population in recent decades has caused a spike in methane released into the air.

Starting about ten years after the industrial revolution, measurements of carbon dioxide percentages in the earth’s atmosphere began to rise exponentially. With our fancy factories and classy cars, we add more energy to our environment in the form of increased greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions. The rise in human use of electricity and other energy consuming power sources has a direct correlation to the rise in carbon dioxide levels.

Deforestation is another cause of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. Trees are important because they decrease the amount of carbon dioxide and increase the amount of oxygen in the air through the brilliance of photosynthesis. In sharp contrast, our ignorance has caused the number of trees throughout the world to plummet in the past few hundred years. Whether for paper, lumber, or clearing land in general, we have been cutting down the trees. As a result, the pollution we generate from factories and power plants has an even greater affect on the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

As methane and carbon dioxide in our atmosphere increase, so do the temperature and toxicity on the planet. We are really stepping on our own feet in a tragic, very pathetic sort of way.

The world is wide, but it is made up of individual inches—of which you impact many. Stand up! What you do or don’t do to contribute to your environment makes a critical difference. In spite of the fact that human activity on earth has taken on parasitic proportions, we are designed to have a symbiotic relationship…we are meant to honor and care for each other. It is not too late. Reduce your carbon footprint, and take steps to leave a positive impression on the planet! This month's LiveWell blogs will help.

Wellness to the rescue...

Wellness Journalism: Environ-mental?

The habits of modern civilization have emphasized the individual as being separate and disconnected from our environment. This makes it easier to plunder, control, exploit. We take what we want, and throw away the rest.

But when we don’t consider the environment, we neglect our very selves.

The first thing to understand about environmental wellness is that you are a product of your environment.

As a culture we seem to recognize that children need a healthy, positive environment in order to thrive. Yet we forget to create that same environment for ourselves, and wonder why we are miserable. We don’t realize the impact of the environment on our well-being. Instead, we ignore the environment but take ourselves personally. We make ourselves sick.

I once lived in a house with a roommate whose mother, for reasons of her own, decided that I was trans-gender. This would have been fine with me, really, but she made a point to throw comments in my direction that were specifically intended to be hurtful. “You’ve got broad shoulders like a man,” she would say to me in the kitchen while I poured my cereal. Another time, as I was walking past her room, she called after me, “Super-Freak!” This environment was clearly quite toxic.

My friend Melanie works in a restaurant where the cook spends all day stressed out, yelling at everybody, and the walls are coated in lead-based paint.

Then there's the DMV.

I daresay that most of us have been exposed to dysfunctional dynamics: hostility in the home, workplace or schoolyard, or chemically toxic, polluted environments where health is not at hand. It’s hard to feel good when your space is messy or disorganized, in a material or emotional sense. The immediate environment has a tremendous impact on well-being: we literally absorb the energy of our surroundings. It is our responsibility to plant ourselves in an environment that offers the necessary nutrients for growth. Ultimately, our environment determines whether we whither or thrive.

A solid understanding and appreciation of environmental impact on your life empowers you to spend your energy in the most efficient way possible. There may be aspects of your environment you cannot change, but there are many you can.

In a healthy environment, you can make a real living.