Water. We all need it, but what many people don’t realize is how much energy we use to transport it to our homes and how much we unconsciously use it. During my stay at Earth Camp, I discovered where our used water goes and some ways we can reuse it. I also learned how there really is no “away,” because things always have to go somewhere. When we flush it goes to a treatment plant, and when we put something in the trash it goes to a landfill.

I will live better in harmony with the natural world by using creative engineering to invent appliances that use less electricity and more natural forces. The earth has many properties that we can use without disturbing wildlife. For instance, the spade-foot toad will bury itself several feet underground so it can avoid the heat and drought. So why couldn’t I make cooler that uses the cold temperatures from underground to preserve foods? Or, I could use a solar-oven, made of reused wood and glass, to cook pizzas and other large meals, because we get a lot of sunlight here in Tucson.

My personal favorite activity during Earth Camp was getting to see all of the animals, because even though most of them live in the desert, some of them are very hard to find. Like the nocturnal coati, and the spade-foot toad which only comes out during the monsoons. Some people will go their entire lives in the city and not even stop to look at the desert around them or the animals that live there. The Desert Museum has many of the creatures native to the Sonoran desert for people to see in their semi-natural habitats.