Attention: Seniors!

Here's a scholarship contest:
The Castle Ink- Paperless Scholarship is available to students who demonstrate a commitment to recycling and the environment. You must be a U.S. resident currently enrolled in college or planning to attend college in 2010 or 2011 to qualify for this award. Applicants must submit an essay explaining how they "reduce, reuse, and recycle."

Go to their website for more details: Click here!

The Environment & Politics

The topic on yesterday's agenda was the environmental propositions that Californians will be voting on this coming Tuesday. We looked at the Sierra Club's voter's election endorsements which can be found on their website.

Here's some background information on each of the propositions that the Sierra Club has taken a stance on:

Prop 20 (NO): Prop 20 would tilt the rules for drawing U.S. House districts in ways which would systematically decrease the number of environmental champions in the California Congressional delegation, and also systematically decrease the ethnic diversity of that delegation. (Gerrymandering)

Prop 21 (YES):Proposition 21 would ensure a dedicated and reliable funding stream for state parks through an $18 annual State Park Access Pass surcharge and, in return, would provide vehicles subject to the surcharge free, year-round admission to state parks.

For more information on Proposition 21, please visit www.yesforstateparks.com.

Prop 23 (NO): Big Texas oil companies are trying to buy their way out of cleaning up their California refineries and fuels. Companies like Valero and Tesoro recently announced that they plan on fully funding a November ballot initiative that would halt clean energy efforts and pollution control standards aimed at cleaning up our air and atmosphere for our kids and future generations.

Prop 25 (YES):Sierra Club supports Proposition 25, which would allow state budgets to be passed by a simple majority of each house of the Legislature. The anti-democratic two-thirds requirement for passing budgets has created opportunities for anti-environmental mischief. One of the most egregious examples came in 2007, when 14 Senate Republicans held the budget hostage to their demand for non-fiscal legislation weakening the California Environmental Quality Act’s application to global warming.

Prop 25 would move us closer to fiscal sanity and remove one avenue for anti-environmental legislative schemes.

Prop 26 (NO): The core question raised by Prop 26 is: who pays? Who pays to clean up air pollution, oil spills and toxic waste? Who pays for the health consequences of tobacco and alcohol addiction, of lead poisoning and diesel exhaust? Exxon, Phillip Morris and the other special interests behind Prop 26 want you, the taxpayers, to pay. They want to get off the hook for mitigating the damage they do.

(source: Sierra Club CA's November Election Endorsements)

Committees!

Hi everyone,
Here's an update about what's going on with the club...

We've formed committees (see the breakdown below) so that we'll begin planning more events and selling more goodies (t-shirts, bags, etc.) soon! Nataliya K. (our secretary) will be making a flier for the art contest for a new logo.

Activities Committee
Autumn
Nicola
Nataliya K.
Katra

Fundraising Committee
Nadia
Natalia S.
Clare

Volunteering Committee (will collaborate with the Activities Committee)
Rebecca
Jiem
Kamala

Also, we'll be meeting in the IS Garden the first Friday of the month (that we're in school) so please join us for our meeting next week in the IS Garden! Bring tools to work in the garden.

IS Garden

Last Friday we held our meeting at the IS Garden up by the bungalows and had a great time cleaning it up. For those of you who don't know, the IS Garden has a bench and tree in memory of Jim Rudolph, and the garden also holds the ashes of Jon Strebler's father. It was a shame to find it in such disrepair. Anyway, here are some pictures from the cleanup:

Alan attacking the pile of brush we gathered in front of Mrs. James' car. We love you, Mrs. James!

Alan carrying the brush along. He was just rockin' it that day. Also, I don't know why the picture turned out weird like that. I think it adds character.

People cleanin' up.

Mr. Steussy brought us some snacks from Henry's. They were tasty.

Some signs we found on the ground and gathered up. It was pretty sad. We couldn't match them up to their corresponding plants, because we didn't really know what the plants were. I think someone's going to help us out with that, I forgot exactly who.

Kamala and Jiem hard at work, rummaging through the little orange tree in the middle of the garden.

Yeah, you pick up that trash.

So thus concludes our experience in the IS Garden. Even with the cleanup required, it was a very nice place to hold a meeting. It also brought up the usefulness that a school compost pile could provide. We should look in to that. In any case, I hope we can continue to fix the garden and give it the attention it deserves.

Are fireworks bad for the environment?

Although firework shows are infrequent, we do see an effect on the environment. They spray out a toxic concoction of chemicals that do not break down. Instead they find themselves in lakes, rivers, and bays. Because of this we see mercury in fish, and back in the 70's fireworks played a roll in the thinning of the bald eagle eggs. We also see an effect on human health too, although its hard to prove. For more information please visit: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/are-fireworks-bad-for-the-environment

Plans for the Club

Hi everyone,
This is Rebecca and today's meeting focused on what we want to do this year, so to keep everyone in the loop here's what's going on with Save the World Fridays:

1. We'll be working in the IS garden (meeting there next Friday, actually). If you haven't been there in a while, be sure to stop by and check it out because there's some interesting behind it...

Things you might not know about the IS garden:
a) There's a bench and tree in memory of Jim Rudolph, a much loved math teacher who died December 5, 2006
b) Mr. Strebler's dad's ashes are there

2. We're going to be promoting bike riding and carpooling a lot more this year and we're hoping to either start a carpool network or, if the district has one, to use that.

3. We are encouraging students to empty the recycling bins (over by where the old bungalows used to be) of their classes, especially if you are TA-ing for a class.

4. We are planning on doing clean-ups (at beaches, rivers, etc.) during the year. Let me know if you are interested in that or show up at the meetings!

5. A new t-shirt design is in the making, if you have any ideas please let us know! We'll let you know when they're ready so you can buy one and (as always) they will be printed on organic material.

Many thanks to Clare Moran and Mr. Steussy who brought in baked goods today for the meeting! Also, kudos to Geoff and Ben who rode their bikes in today!

Be sure to come to our meeting next Friday on the 15th in the IS GARDEN!