It’s been a while since we last went on a trip; Recently, we visited Mount Shasta and Lake Tahoe. I saw these places after a time; I was surprised at how we consumed the most precious natural resources.
Mount Shasta and Shasta Reservoir are one of the largest ( In the USA) artificial water reservoirs built during the great depression (1930–1945). This reservoir is now at its lowest level in history. And there is not much ice cap on Mount Shasta and the nearby mountains. I learned that only 5% of water is from nearby IceCaps and the rest of the water comes from 3 different rivers. This facts information can be found on the internet, but when I visited the place and looked at the water level, I became a little curious about learning from where other rivers are getting water.
The other three lakes get their water from Rain or Ice in the northern part of the state. I was not there for long enough that I could judge or conclude the overall rain per year in California, but at least in the last one and half decades, sure, the rainfall kept getting less and less. But water consumption was not going down to balance the rain.
I recently visited Lake Tahoe, where I learned how there is a significant imbalance in how we are consuming natural resources and how fast nature can replenish. One good example of this ratio of drinking water is if we give 10 gallons of water a day to a person, we will empty the water in Lake Tahoe in 20 years. But to refill that, it may take around 700 years! This can show how fast we are consuming natural resources.
When I combined these two data points, I realized that overall our natural rainfall is going down at a rapid rate, and during the same time, our usage of resources is going up. We all need to realize that the rate at which we are consuming our natural resources is not sustainable, so we need to be conservative to make sure we give enough time for nature to restore itself.
I decided to reduce my impact on natural resource consumption by limiting water usage. Reduce the power usage, reducing different mineral usage, which takes time to replenish. Also, start composting daily so that whatever food waste can go back into the Soil to improve and feed Microbioms in the soil.
This year’s strategy is to
Reduce water consumption by 20%
Eat Local food (Preferably) vegetarian
Increase food scrap composting by 80%
Improve recycling.
Reduce Carbon emissions by 30%
Increase the reusability of products that I already have.
The overall goal is to reduce the consumption of resources and improve the conservative approach where I will be resuing any product I purchase to its fullest in every aspect of life.
