[TRAVEL] "Portlandia"

"Portland, Oregon won't build a mile of road without a mile of bike path. You can commute there, even with that weather, all the time." - Lance Armstrong

I hope you enjoyed a snippet from the show, Portlandia. The exaggeration through comedy is beyond verbal to me, but I'd realized the portrayal is quite close to truth when I read a menu at an Italian restaurant in Oregon that says “Anderson ranch (Willamette valley, Oregon) grass fed free range natural braised lamb shank”.

Local, check. Organic, check. Ethical, check.

The “fact” that Portland, Oregon is really, really nice is no longer a secret. The claim that Portland, Oregon is an actual hipster town (no, not Brooklyn) is a prominent argument now. When my family lived in a suburb of Portland back in early 2000s, the above stated were anomaly.

The city is famously known to house the headquarter of Nike (You’re right. The “just do it!” brand), the original Ace hotel and high quality coffee roaster, Stumptown Coffee, named after the city’s nickname. But Portland, in fact, is much cooler than you would imagine because of its eco-friendliness. I fell in love with this city all over again and was impressed by green gems I encountered on an everyday basis. There are a few things I want to share based on my observation and minimal research from this trip.

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What makes Portland so GREEN?

[1] Portland is a bicycling utopia.

Even though Citibikes are prevalent in New York City, I am always reluctant to bike around this crazy city with tourist crowds, aggressive yellow cabs, and narrow bike lanes that are often invaded. But Portland’s Biketown bike users rule their city. Biketown is a bicycle-sharing system in Portland, owned by Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and sponsored by Nike, Inc. There are 125 stations to pick-up and drop-off the orange bikes. 25% of the city’s workforce commutes by bike, carpool or public transportation. No surprise, because look how wide bike lanes in the middle of downtown Portland are!

[2] Oregon is the second most green state in USA.

Environmental-friendliness of a state or a city cannot be determined by mere air quality an average individual feels. It’s not that easy and there are so many standards to measure. WalletHub, a website that provides free credit scores and reports, accomplished a methodological evaluation of 50 states in the United States on their levels of eco-friendliness based on environmental quality, eco-friendly behaviors, and climate-change contributions.

Through this particular methodology, Oregon has the second highest environmental score after Vermont. In sub-categories, Oregon ranks number 1 in having most LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings per capita and number 1 in consumption of renewable energy. A lot of these qualities cannot be visualized or experienced as a commoner just visiting or even living in the state of Oregon. However, the state government’s efforts to preserve the natural habitats, build the city based on environmental standards, and encourage sustainable practices are worth giving credit.

[3] Waste versus Recyclable

While walking around downtown Portland, I’ve often spotted well-maintained trash cans. Well-maintained meaning that they looked clean and frequently emptied. And adjacent to those trash cans, I could always find a separate bin for recyclables. Those recycling bins were impressively well-kept as well and seemed to contain ONLY recyclables.

Every metropolitan city has trash can regulation as to how many a city should provide on the streets, but it is rare to see recycling bins so well taken care of. For example in New York City, people do distinguish regular trash from recyclables despite the fact that there are two different slots to separate wastes. While the habits in New York City would be very difficult to regulate and change, habits of citizens in Portland seems rightly on track.

[4] Reusables

I had brought reusable water bottle and reusable grocery bags to Portland and they traveled with me at all times. Nothing is too special about reusable bags and water bottles or tumblers. It is beyond normal to carry them around and as I’ve noticed, the majority of the people in grocery stores bring their own bags in Portland!

However.. I had found REUSABLE & RETURNABLE GLASS MILK JARS at Whole Foods Market in Portland and absolutely fell in love with them. Yes, glass milk jars still exist but mostly in farmers’ markets. And many dairy vendors at farmers’ markets do take back empty glass jars and give back deposit money. Despite knowing this, I was blown away by milk jars from local dairy farms in Oregon displayed in the refrigerator with other packs of milk at a common grocery store. If you love this sustainable practice too, visit farmers’ market and look out for a sustainable dairy vendor!

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WE SHOULD NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

“Climate catastrophe seen just 12 years away” Time Magazine

“Climate change impacts worse than expected, global report warns” National Geographic

“Melting glacier in China draws millions of tourists - and climate concerns” The Toronto Star

“Trump may not know what’s behind warming, but scientists do” The Associated Press

“The world has just over a decade to get climate change under control, U.N. scientists say” The Washington Post

“UN Panel warns drastic action needed to stave off climate change” Wall Street Journal

The Above are a few headlines that appeared on news since the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new report on October 8th. For decades, the scientists have understood the dire state of the planet and warned the world about various degrees and types of catastrophic events in nature. Therefore, the newest IPCC report suggesting 1.5°C global temperature rise, as a threshold the planet Earth cannot exceed before encountering devastating effects of climate change, IS NOT SO NEW. The similar assessment report in 2013, the number IPCC methodologically came up with was 2°C, and by this year, the temperature has already risen about 1°C.

IPCC's assessment reports are written and peer-reviewed by the scientists of all fields, economists, sociologists, and policy makers. Thus the group strives to establish communicative discourse in discussing and mitigating the issue of climate change. In other words, climate change is not a problem in the hands of environmental scientists, but also in those of policy makers, politicians, corporations, and all the rest of us. We should read "global warming" in a literal matter and understand as the chairman of IPCC says, that "every bit of warming matters." At the current rate of human activities causing the rising temperature of the globe, the planet can easily pass that 1.5°C threshold as early as 2030.

But okay, do those scientific numbers and time frames mean anything to you?Despite the efforts the scientists at IPCC have been making for the past decades, policy makers are not doing much to force using renewable source, cut carbon-dioxide emissions, or anything that can keep temperatures from rising. President Obama has recognized climate change, as a national security threat and pushed for actions. Co-signing the Paris climate Agreement was one of them, only to be retracted by Trump administration.

Climate change should not only spark interests when IPCC releases a special report to warn the world out of desperation in a current physical status of our atmosphere. There is very little time for the world to take action before the catastrophe we are already experiencing get worse to the point where we have no room for action.

Below is a list of what climate change and "1.5°C temperature rise" really means.

HURRICANES (Harvey, Irma, Florence, Michael etc.) Extreme heat & wildfires (remember..California wildfires) Water drought & BEER DROUGHT Increased number of diseases affecting YOUR HEALTH. Destructions of historical/cultural sites Sinking islands (Alaska to Japan) Deadly airborne dusts that kill humans Extinctions of cute animals. Poverty and hunger and the list goes on...

If this helped you understand the urgency of stopping climate change, stay with me and find more ways to help.