No Impact Week - Mission About Protecting Our Environment

Yimeng Su

J 460

Reflection Paper

        No Impact Week is an unprecedented experience in my whole life because I have never been asked to do this kind of mission about protecting our environment. I know that the environment is destroyed by humans but people do not reduce bad behaviors. After experiencing the eight nights, I realize that I have some behaviors and habits should be changed such as using plastic bags and eating packaging food. I feel that I have experienced eight kinds of lives in those days because I had different missions everyday.

        The most challenging day for me is Water Day. I work in Hamilton Dining so I have to wash my hands twice before doing work due to the rules. I found that I needed too much water to clean the table and wash things so I wasted so much water in dining. Therefore, I have to save water in other ways such as washing dishes and clothes using hands. Also, it is not easy to take a shower in 10 minutes, and sometimes I take two showers one day. I did not realize that it was a kind of waste of water before No Impact Week. For that day, I just took one shower at night and washed everything by hands. Before I used water, I asked myself if it was necessary to use or not. Most of time, I found that I did not have to use water because it was just my habit.

        The easiest one for me is Transportation Day. For that day, there was no bus to take from my apartment to campus, so I had to walk to school. I do not live near campus so it took me 40 minutes to walk. Therefore, this was a good chance to reduce the release of Carbon Dioxide. It was easy for me to do because I like walking. Wherever I go, walking is always the first choice if the destination is not too far. I have no car so walking and riding bike are the best ways to go to somewhere. I will keep the way that walking and riding bike.