Since I arrive at my house at 7:45 p.m. I walk into my house through my front door. I walk in and right away I turn on my kitchen light since the one in my living room is broken. As I get dinner ready I have the TV on and its normally on for about two hours. I do have an elcetric stove which is used for about an hour while I prepare dinner. I go to bed around 11:00 p.m. and I connect my cell phone on to its charger which I then connect to the wall. I do have an alarm clock which is constantly plugged in. My day begins at 6:45 a.m. and the first thing I do is turn on the TV to hear the news as I get ready. I turn on the bathroom light and is on until I finish taking a shower. The total time the TV is on is about 45 minutes. The bathroom light is turned off once I exit the shower, cause by then the sun is out. The AC unit is not on today, Wednesday,

due to a cool front pass through. Also since it is Wednesday, no laundry will be done.

The total usage of my plasma TV is about .8kWh for three hours. The clock radio uses about .1kWh, lights alone take up to 2.4 kWh, since the refrigerator has to be connected at all times, it can use up to 57-160 watts.

I travel everyday to work with my son who attends the daycare at my job. We commute from Cape Coral to Fort Myers for a total round trip mileage of 20.60, which releases 7.1 carbon into the atmosphere. For being an average person, I do think that I have cut down on leaving the lights on and leaving things connected when they can be unplugged. I guess I finally realized this after I bought my house and had to pay the bills myself.

Water Rights Reflection

I must say that after reading this article I am against the selling of water for profit. First of all water is not a commodity that you can go and pick up at a mall, its something that we all need to survive. Whether we like it or not we need it. Before the United States became a divided country everyone shared what the nation had to offer. Now, since everyone owns their own land, it does not give them the right to control what everyone needs and what the land has to offer. This project can affect the community when for example the economy is down and companies decided that they want to raise the amount on your bill. Or if they decide to go into a a poor neighborhood and threaten people by saying that if they don;t pay they will not get water. Wildlife will also be impacted by not having some pond to go to drink because the owner might have hunters on he lookout for anything or anyone who is trying to drink their water. There might be a situation like this in Florida since the electricity is already being controlled, for each city you have a different company.

Water usage

On a regular day I must say I use a good amount of water for my daily uses. My mornings start off with a nice 15 minute shower, in where I also brush my teeth while I leave my conditioner in my hair. A 15 minute shower consists of 30 gallons of water usage. I use the bathroom twice at home and about once at work, its about 3 gallons a flush so I would use 9 gallons a day. My house did cone with a dishwasher but since its been broken for the longest time, I wash my dishes by hand. What I do first I just somewhat wet them, soap them up first and then turn on the water when I'm ready to rinse. In order to was a load of dishes you use approximately 5 gallons. I have a schedule for my laundry, I only wash starting Friday night after 7 and Saturday morning. Now I only wash big loads I try to stay away from doing mini loads. My washing machine takes about 10 gallons of water to do one load. While at home I do try to drink as much water as possible, but one glass of water is 1/16 of a gallon. I think I do take water conservation into consideration, I limit my showers and I don't let water run why doing the dishes or etc.

The website I used to help calculate my information was ga2.er.usgs.gov

20/20

This is the first time I have heard of Conservation 20/20. The programs main focus is to protect and preserve natural wildlife habitat, protect and preserve water quality and supply, protect developed lands from flooding and provide resource based recreation. This program was in charge of putting on the voter's ballot the option of increasing taxes to help preserve Florida's native land. Thanks to this program we can go to places and experience firsthand what Florida's nature is like. I honestly think this program is awesome, it wasn't too long ago when the city of Cape Coral was one of the nations fastest growing city in the nation. Us humans when building or expanding we tend to go outwards instead of up, by doing all this we are destroying habitats. The only conservation 20/20 property that I have been to is the Matanzas Pass Preserve in Lee county. I would like to visit the Six Mile Cypress slough with my son one day.

Ecological Footprint

My score after completing the ecological footprint was 4.3 planets. Si, it would take 4.3 worlds to sustain my type of living. I must say my score did surprise me. I honestly thought I was doing my part to help conserve our planet. My family and I scored high on food consumption(10), home (2), electricity (1), recycling (1), transportation (4) and goods and services (1). After taking this quiz with my husband by my side we were concerned with our food consumption; we have noticed that we do eat a lot of red meat. So, we came to an agreement that we would eat red meat once or twice, at the most, a week instead of every other day. Another agreement was once the toilet paper was done, that we would put the paper holder into the recycling bin. We discovered this after watching a special on a woman who only throws out her trash once a year. What she does is she sorts out the trash and most of it is all recyclable. This inspired us, we went out and bought washable napkins, instead of paper towel, and all kinds of stuff that can be reused instead of throwing things away.

Everday items

When actually having to sit and think of all the items I handle daily, I realize that I tend to handle certain items daily. The list of items are cell phone, of course, my purse with my wallet inside, credit/debit cards, hair products, makeup, mail, and my shower and hygiene products.

When I received my cell phone, after ordering it online, it arrived in a medium size box. Once I opened the box there was a smaller box that actually contained my phone in it. The phone was wrapped in a plastic bag, which was had Styrofoam around it which helps protect it from getting damaged. My purse and wallet didn't come wrapped, when I bought it but I'm sure it did when it arrived at the store. My credit/debit cards came in an envelope along with a letter stating this is my new card. Just like my credit/debit cards my mail arrives in a sealed envelope.

My hygiene and shower products were all wrapped in a plastic bag and some do come a box just like my makeup.

Corkscrew Swamp

This was my first time hearing and going to corkscrew swap. While on our way I was informed that the state purchased several acres of land to have as preserved land. The facility was very different compared to others. They actually have a treatment system on their property just a few feet away from the restrooms. This allows them to reuse their water supply. If I remember correctly, once the toilets are flushed the water would go the treatment plant and come so clean that it is considered drink able. As we walked through the sanctuary I saw a red ribbon, I believe it was called a turkey vulture, and a lot of spiders in their webs, big cypress trees that have been there for ages. I also learned about the Plume Birds, and how they were almost extinct due to people wanting their feathers. I enjoyed walking through all those trees, the cypress trees are just huge, I kept hearing about cypress tree and I thought that they were going to look average. I enjoyed the experience and would go again, in hope to see some wildlife, besides spiders.