Can you hear the Eco? by Alexis

Can you hear the Eco? by Alexis - August 2018 Scholarship Essay

I am a person of many interests and many passions. I once watched a TedTalk about people just like me; we’re called Multipotentialites. [Side note: it’s definitely worth a google if you haven’t heard of it.] Multipotentialites are defined as having no “one true calling”, rather having many interests and creative pursuits in life. The reason I’m telling you this is because my podcast would reflect my Multipotentialite personality; many topics, many talks, all under one overarching theme: sustainability. I love anything dealing with the topic of sustainability: from the plastic free and zero waste movements, to rain gardens and composting toilets. I especially love to talk about toilets.
For example, have you ever watched a toilet whirl away your waste in perfectly clean and clear water? I find this particular commonplace practice as infuriating as it is peculiar. For example, let us say a toilet uses 3.5 gallons of water for one single flush, and let us say that this particular toilet is being flushed, on average, five times a day. Over the course of a year, that amounts to over 6,000 gallons of water, quite literally, being wasted. That is for one toilet, in one household, over one year. Let your mind wander to how many toilets an average person has in their house, or workplace, and it’s enough to make you sit down…and hopefully listen to my podcast!
My overall goal for this podcast would be to stress that sustainability is a process, not a destination. There is no award for being the most perfectly sustainable person (and if there is, I would have a lot of questions, ha!) and there is no competition to be absolutely zero waste all of the time. I think that this preconceived notion of ‘perfection or nothing’ has done a disservice everywhere to people who want to be part-time eco warriors. I would focus on educating others how to be more mindful and aware of what they are doing and consuming, while also suggesting they treat themselves with grace because there is no way to be perfect in this world.
Ideally I would highlight all the familiar things: recycling, meat consumption, straws, solar power, etc. but I would like to introduce some potentially not-so mainstream topics like what salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest has to do with someone who lives in landlocked Colorado (spoiler: it has to do with dams!), and why the tiny house movement is here to stay. It’s my belief that making any educational topic humorous, accessible, non-judgmental, science based, and relevant is the key to sustained audience interaction and compassion. So sit down, grab a cup of tea (in your reusable mug of course) and get comfy while I drop some eco knowledge on you.