From mid-January to February, people are wrestling with the resolutions they made after the New Year. Typically people vow to watch their diet, get more exercise, manage money more responsibly or make more time for their families. Probably very few people take a vow to live more sustainably, but actually, making one of the resolutions listed above and keeping it can lead to a more sustainable life.

If you manage your diet by eating fewer calories, fewer calories have to be grown to meet your needs. This will mean less water consumption, less soil erosion, less pesticide use, and less energy consumed in planting, harvesting, processing and distributing food. This will be especially true for someone who has a lot of meat, milk or eggs in their diet. On average, only 10% of the calories in animal feed gets converted into animal protein, which means the burger in a hamburger may have taken 10 times the resources that the bun did. Assuming a diet with half the calories from animal products, every pound you lose and keep off is 0.2% of an acre or 87 square feet that doesn't need to be farmed.

If you decide to get more exercise by replacing at least some of your driving with walking or biking, you reduce the fossil fuels required and the air pollution generated by using a car. Every mile you walk or bike saves the atmosphere from a pound of CO2, and 0.2 ounces of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxoide, which contribute to health problems, acid rain and global warming. If you made a resolution to look after your money more carefully, the ways you cut costs could also cut your energy and materials consumption. For example, you might insulate doors and windows in your house, turn down your thermostat in winter, get more energy efficient appliances, replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescents, maintain your car by getting regular tune ups and keeping the tire pressure up, buy fewer heavily processed and packaged foods, buy used books, furniture and clothing, repair damaged items so they could be reused, or cut down on impulse purchases. By reducing energy consumption and impulse purchases, and by reusing and recycling used items, you could live more sustainably while you were saving money.

And if you want to increase quality family time, you don't have to rely on trips to expensive family oriented venues and events. The first step might be to limit the amount of electronic diversions in your family's life. One night off from tv and computer games to play board games saves from 3 to 4 kWh depending on how many tvs normally are on. The added benefit is that it reduces your exposure to commercials, which play a very large part in what and how much stuff we buy. Depending on your children's ages, you can turn chores into experiences - sort buttons or screws, fix up old toys, teach them how to mend a rip, knit a muffler, start seeds for spring gardens, repair bicycles or cars, or restore old furniture.

If keeping your New Year's resolutions is good for the planet, than maybe taking care of the planet is good for keeping resolutions. That means there is a connection between taking care of the planet and taking care of our physical, financial and emotional health. We don't really need an environmental movement to tell us that rampant consumption is bad for us, we know that already. But it helps to know that there is a connection between what we need to do to really take care of ourselves and what we need to do to take care of the planet.

The Center for a New American Dream helps connect the dots between sustainability and well being: http://www.newdream.org/core/

Feedback - An acquaintance pointed out that even the population and grain estimates posted in last month's newsletter might not be that reliable. In the U.S., data is only collected every 10 years, and may undercount hard-to-count groups. The reliability of population data is even more suspect in places like Chiapas or the Northwest frontier of Pakistan, where local populations may be in conflict with government forces. With respect to grain estimates, lots of production is for local consumption and does not move through markets that would allow it to be counted. And the problems with population and grain estimates are compounded when they are combined to represent calories per person per day, and if one fails to consider the amount fed to livestock and losses to processing, insects and rodents. Finally, world hunger has more to do with distribution of production and income than caloric level of world grain production on a per capita basis.
(Thanks to Whitney Hicks - comments were summarized - errors of fact are my responsibility)

Bio Regional Quiz: How many acres of parks does Columbia have?

JOB OF THE MONTH: Computer Science Assistant, Tides & Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades (TIME) Project Ð U.S. Geological Survey; Reston, VA. Responsibilities: Intern will work alongside hydrologists, numerical analysts and various research scientists to develop computer simulation model & visualization system to appraise model results and interpret ecosystem behavior.Tasks will include: 1) Transform data into formats for input to numerical simulation models and run models. 2) Modify models, under guidance, to incorporate new algorithms. 3) Maintain the project database, which includes reformatting of incoming databases. 4) Visualize numerical simulation output using existing graphical tools. Status: Full-time 1 year internship, with possibility of extension to two years. Qualifications: BS in Computer Science with at least 2.9 GPA; BS in Environmental Science, Engineering or Civil Engineering is acceptable if applicant has significant computer programming skills & experience; capability to work with NT Workstations and Unix servers is essential; ability to write computer code in PERL is required; desirable qualifications include: ability to write FORTRAN code, experience with computer visualization tools (AVS, GIS, Arc View), experience with analytical tools (Matlab). Salary: $14.17 to $17.57 per hour. Application Procedure: Send resume to Jaina DÕAmbra Email: jdambra@eco.org; Mail: 1795 South St., Boston, MA 02111; Fax: (617) 426-8159 Ð Include Job Number (245) in cover letter. Application deadline is February 23.

Special Events/Classes/Programs/Talks
AUDUBON FIELD TRIPS: Saturday, February 7: Rock Bridge State Park, 8:30a at the Devil's Ice Box parking lot. 886-8518 or KraftL@missouri.edu. Saturday, February 28: Little Dixie CA, meet 9 am in the southeast corner of the old MegaMarket parking lot at Broadway and Highway 63886-8518 or KraftL@missouri.edu. Saturday, March 27: Courtship at a Prairie Chicken Lek, rendezvous at the Country Kitchen restaurant parking lot on the east side of US 65 in south Sedalia at 6:30 a.m.
PLANT PROPAGATION WORKSHOP: Monday February 9, 7 pm, at the Unitarian Church at 2615 Shepard Blvd. A joint MO Native Plant Society/Wild Ones workshop led by Ann Wakeman
EXPLORE ROCK BRIDGE: Saturday February 14, 9 am Park Office, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park - Joe Engeln - The Geology of the Park; ~10 am - join park staff in hunting and documenting sinkholes in the Grassland area. Friends of Rock Bridge MSP, 815-9255 for more information
COMMUNITY STORMWATER PROJECT SPEAKER: February 17 7:30. Phoenix Conway will be speaking at the Osage Sierra Club's General Meeting
STORMWATER/RAIN GARDEN WORKSHOP: Saturday Mar. 20th , 10 Columbia Public Library. Judy Allmon of the Grow NativeProgram (Missouri Dept. of Conservation). Wild Ones http://wildones.missouri.org/

MU Organization Meetings and Contact Information
Ê ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL: http://www.missouri.edu/~jesse105/committees/pages/environmental.htm
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES EXEC COM: 882-7116
RECYCLING COMMITTEE: 882-3091
STUDENT SIERRA CLUB: 882-7116 Wednesdays at 7:30 pm, meet in Rm. 200 A&S

Organization Meetings and Contact Information
AUDUBON SOCIETY; 874-3904 / columbia-audubon.missouri.org Meet 3rd Wed 7:30 pm, USGS, 4200 New Haven
BOONE COUNTY SMART GROWTH COALITION; http://smartgrowth.missouri.org/, 1st Wednesdays 7:15 Boone Co Govt Ctr.
CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING; 875-0539 or http://peaceworks.missouri.org/
CHOUTEAU GROTTO; http://chouteau.missouri.org/, Meet 1st Wed, 7 pm, Community Room Boone Electric Coop
COLUMBIA FOOD CIRCLE; 882-7463 or email hendricksonm@missouri.edu for information.
COLUMBIA PUBLIC WORKS VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS; 874-6271 or http://www.ci.columbia.mo.us/dept/pubw/ÊÊ
COMMUNITY STORMWATER PROJECT: http://www.GoColumbiaMo.com/PublicWorks/StormWater/cswp.html
ENV EDUCATION WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/teacher/workshops/
FRIENDS OF ROCK BRIDGE S. P.; 815-9255 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org/ Meet 4th Tues, 7 pm, Outdoors Bldg, 200 Old 63S
GREENBELT COALITION; 442-4789 or http://greenbelt.missouri.org Meet 1st Tuesdays, 7 pm, Outdoors Bldg, 200 Old 63 S.
MO NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY; npshawth@hotmail.com 2nd Mondays (Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, Nov) 7:00 p.m., UU Church, 2615 Shepard
MISSOURI RIVER COMMUNITIES NETWORK; 443-0292 or http://mrcn.missouri.org/ÊÊ
PEDNET COALITION; email: pednet@pednet.org or http://www.pednet.org
RIVER RELIEF; http://www.riverrelief.org/
ROCK BRIDGE MEMORIAL STATE PARK; 449-7402 or http://rockbridge.missouri.orgÊÊ
SHOW ME CLEAN STREAMS COALITION; (573) 751-4115 ext 3169 or www.mostreamteam.orgÊ
ÊÊÊÊ SIERRA CLUB; 443-4401 or http://sierra.osage.missouri.org Meet 3rd Tuesdays 7:30 pm Hillel Foundation, 1107 University AveÊ
ÊÊ WILD ONES; 499-3749 or email wildonesmo@yahoo.com, http://wildones.missouri.org Meetings 2nd Saturdays. Call for location

Answer to BioRegional Quiz: About 2,090 acres or about 0.02 acres per person.

Feedback - Got an opinion? If we have space, we will consider publishing it. Submit it by email (envstudy@missouri. edu), snail mail (Environmental Studies, 211 Lowry , MU, Columbia MO 65211), or call Jan Weaver to talk about it (882-7116). MU Environmental Network News is published by MU's Environmental Studies Initiative. All opinions expressed are the responsibility of the editor. Any part of this newsletter may be copied for distribution but please give us credit.

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