Dr.Ellingson: AP Environmental Science Teacher
Recently there has been a significant amount of progress in spreading awareness, educating, and starting the halting of climate change. Is there a environmentally friendly practice/practices that you do daily. If so, can you expand on one of those practices.
Dr.Ellingson- “I tend to take an imperfect, holistic approach when I can. I don't tend to focus on one practice. For example I'm not a vegetarian but I will go several days in a row without eating meat and that's very intentional. I also have a truck and a motorcycle that both burn gas but we also have an electric car and I try to get rides from Mrs.Ellingson when in it when I can.
There are a few things where I'm like absolutely no I won't do that thing or I will always do this thing and so I really try to work it into everything that I think about: from not running the AC too cold at home, to planting native plants at home that don't require a lot of water, to my diet. I do what I can I look for every opportunity and sometimes it's opportunistic or what I would call the low hanging fruit. The things that are easy are the things I know I can keep up and I try to think about all the things I do in my life and every single one of those things how can I make a smaller impact on the environment”.
Is there a piece of advice or recommendation that you would give to us and other high schoolers that don't have the same resources as an adult may help contribute to stopping climate change or any subset of it?
Dr Ellingson- “ I recognize the importance of climate change and start developing habits that reduce your impact. I think at your age it's really going to be important for people to get politically involved, there is no way that our individual actions are going to fix this problem. There is a giant system in place that makes it almost impossible for someone with the best intentions to never throw away plastic and not buy stuff thats in plastic because almost anything that you get at a store is in plastic packaging. So, policy and governmental regulations has to be the thing that drives it. I personally think that's the only realistic way that we're going to have a major change”.
LA is one of the most, if the not the most polluted city in the United States despite its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. If you were in charge of the environmental policy of LA, what two things would you incorporate to lower emissions.
Dr Ellingson- “I am going to be realistic and say it's hard to know what the city can do because I know there are people in the city government already thinking about these things. And I know there are plans to for example to increase accessibility to public transportation and things like that already in place.
I honestly think I would want to try and reduce the influence of industries like real estate development. We have a huge shortage of affordable housing for people. I saw this when I lived in Hollywood, big luxury apartments like 3-4 bedrooms that would be $5,000 a month were getting built that have a concierge and gym downstairs, while people still slept on the street. Inequality is a big part of what is driving this because you have a relatively few number of people consuming a huge number of resources and creating a huge amount of emissions.
I also think addressing the inequalities of financials and the tax system in some way would probably have to change. I think Transportation needs to be addressed. I think water use needs to be addressed and and not having grass lawns”.
