#FossilFreeFriday. A hashtag created in my shower...
SHOWER + IDEA = SAVE THE WORLD
This is a story about me having a shower epiphany that I believe can change the world.
You know how some people have their best ideas come to them in the shower? The science of creativity and how one gets great ideas is actually kind of simple. You’ll need, a dopamine high + distracted brain + relaxation. Essentially, adding these three things can have ideas hit you like a screen door to the face.
Showers provide all three things: dopamine is released when you’re relaxed, you are distracted by washing your butt, and being away from life’s non-sense in a non-judgmental shower is a breeding ground for thoughts to wander freely. Cool fact, a cognitive scientist described a study showing that 72% of people get creative ideas in the shower.
Story Time: Here I am taking a shower, minding my own business and I had this thought. This GIF is pretty much actual footage of my shower, more on that later :)
Social media as a sustainability kid/marine science nerd can be tough, especially for the anxious type like me. I can’t keep up with all of these day-of-the-week-environmentally-savvy #ecohashtags, trending hashtags, and posting all day trying to push environmentalism in a non-pushy way. Examples being: #motivationmonday, #MeatlessMonday, #TrashTuesdays, #TransformationTuesday, #TuesdayTips, #WaterWednesdays, #wcw, #tbt, #ThriftyThursday, #WeekendVibes #FactFriday, #PplasticFreeFriday, #fbf, #SmallBusinessSaturday, #ScienceSaturdays, #SundayFunday, #SustainibleSundays, you know the usuals. lol.
I get overwhelmed thinking about what to post when to post, what hashtags to use, how many posts, to try and keep up with the algorithm, so naturally, I froze. My relationship with social media has been very much a fight, flight, or freeze kind of relationship. Definitely not healthy.
Anyway, I realized at the time in the shower “TODAY IS #FRIYAY” and it was also EARTH MONTH. I MUST DO A #PLASTICFREEFRIDAY (or so the internet gods, and society, says I must to stay relevant). at this point, I had just started shampooing with my shampoo bar.
It’s 9:47 pm.
I’m still in the shower,
there is NO WAY I’m posting a thoughtful,
well-curated,
trendy/on-brand plastic-free post right now…
Then this idea hits me like shampoo in the eye…
BOOM
WHAT IF YOU MADE A NEW HASHTAG TREND. CALL IT:
#FossilFreeFriday
#FossilFree
or for my fellow sailors #F*ckFossilFuels
I repeat to myself, “#fossilfreefriday because…F*CK FOSSIL FUELS”
…
I’m Ded.
(no, I didn’t spell it wrong lol #internetmademedoit)
This is gold! I’m a genius! Or at least I feel like I am. I quickly scurry through 39,873,453 ideas, thoughts, jokes, memes and realized I’ve traveled through the universe at warp speed cruising on a manic rage and I need to calm my neurons before I get too excited and explode in ideas of grandeur. Let me explain.
#FossilFreeFriday is a day you dedicate to being as #fossilfree as can be by doing our best to avoid petroleum-based lifestyles to help combat our climate crisis
We all know our climate crisis is in dire need of radical acceptance and radical action. But, the thought of trying to change the world as one human on a huge planet sounds a bit daunting. But listen. It doesn’t take giving up your life to make a change. Just little bits here and there you know? And if you have the option to choose to be fossil-free for one day, why not try?
This #FossilFree hashtag to me means trying your best to avoid as many or as few fossil fuel-related activities, products, or outings, etc to help our climate crisis. From practicing plastic-free living for a day to turning off your electronics and lights when you don’t need them (and being diligent about it). Anything that you do or interact with on a daily basis that is linked to the use or processing of fossil fuels, we’ll try to avoid. Coming up shortly is the list I thought up in the shower.
Some of my examples may be a bit too deep-in-the-rabbit-hole but bear with me. I believe this is a game-changing movement, and all you need to try is one, or two. A lot of these are things environmentalists tend to already do, but if you are up to the challenge, take it a step further.
Refuse single-use plastics all day. BYO (Bring your own) vessels to the coffee joint down the street, BYO baggies for groceries, and buy ONLY plastic-free produce, jarred/canned goods, or brown paper bagged snacks….. No plastic wrap. No plastic produce bags. No laminated snack boxes with plastic bags inside. You know the drill with this one. If you need help finding good alternatives to BYO check out my Amazon Recommendeds
Turn off and unplug any and all unused electronics. Completely unplug! Even if you turn things off, not unplugging still draws electricity from your outlet and is STILL pulling electricity from the grid, costing you money, and consuming fossil fuels. Unplug
Avoiding your gas-powered vehicles & vessels like cars, buses, boats, planes you name it. Try walking, biking, skateboarding, or scooting (lol not like a dog on the carpet, like using a scooter).
Fossil Free Driving. Whenever your vehicle is at the end of its rope, consider looking into electric options. More and more companies nowadays are jumping on the sustainability train and there are lots of affordable options out there!
Save Hot Water, Use Less. In the US, families use over 300 gallons of water DAILY, most of which is wasted indoors!!! The largest contributor to wasted water is flushing the toilet, followed by taking showers and baths. To combat this, we have a few options. Take a cold/cool shower, reduce the temp a little, or try a military shower. When we turn that faucet to HOT, we are turning up our fossil fuel consumption by heating the boiler that feeds our hot water systems. Also, it’s great for your hair, and also exhilarating!
Fossil Fuel Free Foods. Buy food that is locally produced. Food less traveled = fewer fossil fuels. If it is produced at a farm near you, then less fuel is needed to transport it. Also, wherever possible, avoid buying packaged processed foods. Not only are they wrapped in petroleum plastic-wrapped containers, but it also takes more energy and resources to produce. Plus, fresh foods are always more nutritious!
Fossil Free Cooking This one is a bit advanced for the novice climate activist. Avoid anything that requires you to use fossil fuels to create your food. No toaster oven, no stove, no microwave….so what’s left? Well if you wanted to get real heavy, you could just eat what you have out, in cabinets, in baskets, or in the fridge raw (which also consumes electricity and therefore fossil fuels lol, it never ends). Eating raw for one full day for some may be easy, but for most, this one may be a hard one so eating a little rawer still helps a lot!
Fossil Free Potty. The largest contributor to wasted water is flushing the toilet remember? Wasting water still consumes fossil fuels in that the plant that some people’s water comes from is still consuming resources (fuel, electricity etc). So, here are a few hacks.
Get a better toilet. Many of you aren’t really in the market to just buy a new potty, but Most non-efficient older style toilest flush 5 gals every flush, newer ones 3, and water-conserving toilets can use 1 or even less.
You can also practice “if it’s yellow let it mellow if it’s brown flush it down”, I’m not joking. Some arent into peeing on top of your family members’ pee, but to me & my husband, we don’t mind. Think of it like when dogs mark :) “MY TOILET!” Even if it’s just 1-3 fewer flushes you are already saving the planet.
Reusable toilet cloth wipes. This one is also a bit out there but thousands of zero-wasters do it why not try it! I have been 90% paper-free/plastic-free for my toilet usage for about 2 years now. By transitioning to cloth wipes (that I made, check out my video on how I made some basic wipes), we have saved SO MUCH MONEY on toilet paper. Not to mention when the pandemic hit, I wasn’t hoarding toilet paper…
Like most other people we ALSO invested in a BIDET! Using family cloth and bidet is a paper-saving-fiend!
GO SOLAR. I have not reached this point yet, but it is on my list of big kid things to invest in once I can. Installing solar panels on your roof, allows you to generate more renewable energy from the leisure of your own home. This breaks the dependency of relying entirely on oil, gas, etc, and in the long run, will save you money and our planet.
Fossil Free Thermostats. Reducing the temperature on your indoor heating system one degree less, will save you ~10% on your bills as well as using less fuel. There are also a lot of smart thermostats on the market that have energy-saving modes that allow you to set your own conditions which is pretty rad!
Choose your battles, but every battle goes towards winning the war on fossil fuels. Like I always say “you win some you dim sum”. I’m sure there are a lot more examples but I got soap in my eye which distracted my thought train and this is what I had at the time lol. I’m now driven to cruise on this rage-fest of energy I now have, and the only logical next step is to record some video content as to not forget all these ideas. So, I recorded my entire thought process in video form…starting in the shower.
The footage will be edited soon. My computer literally caught fire, and need a new one… lol
6 minutes have elapsed since the mind explosion
All of this whizzing through my head like your dog on its best zoomie day had choreographed this all in my head. Sounded better at the time, as of this point. I finish up, get changed, dry my hairs, and it’s now 10:45 pm. I did some quick googling, some research, and started writing this blog. I realize It does feel a bit overwhelming of an ASK. To be fossil-free for a day. We are so dependant, and disconnected from it we most of the time don’t even realize the gravity of our addiction to fuel.
But I am still asking.
World, for ONE DAY, or 1/7th of your week, can you partially or completely rid your day from polluting-climate-change-inducing-dinosaur-sludge?. What do you think the world would be like if we all did this?
Would you join?
Next Friday, will you make a post, tag me and use the tags #fossilfeulfriday and #fossilfree to join the movement?
I dare you. :)