CONTENTS

• Photography “Geese” and “Owl” by Heather Barrett, Miramonte HS, Orinda“Wings” by Matt Sieving, EarthTeam’s new staff Intern
• Quote of the month Chosen by Maggie Young, Mercy HS, Burlingame
• The Green Advisory Internship Announced by Matt Sieving, EarthTeam Intern
• Asha Setty and Fort Funston's Dunes by Jenny Leonard, College Park HS, Pleasant Hill
• A Rave (with a Small Rant): The Iron Horse Corridor Restoration Day, December 1 by Natalie Nava, Monte Vista HS, Danville
• Where Making Green Meets Saving Green: A Look at Socially Responsible Business by Meika Hollender, Vermont Commons School, Charlotte, VT
• Poetry “The Ocean is a War Zone”by Yesenia Padilla, St. Ignatius HS, San Francisco “Mussel Rock”by Davidson Lao, St. Ignatius HS, San Francisco
• Action of the Month– Write to stop water privatization in Ghana
• Answers to the Question of the Month for December
• Question of the Month for January
• Letters to the Editor
• Contact Us
• The Green Team
• Previous Issues
• Editor’s  comment  - We encourage you to send comments  to the   writers.   Their emails are below their articles.

Mission Statement: Our mission is to strengthen and unify the young environmental community in the Bay Area by sharing interests, information, and calls to action. We seek to inspire participation in projects and events between groups, strengthen journalistic skills, and foster career exploration.

January 2005
Issue 24

Photography - (Click photo to view larger Image)

"Geese" By Heather Barrett Miramonte H.S. Orinda		"Wings" By Matt Sieving Earth Team's new Staff Intern
	"Owl" By Heather Barrett Miramonte H.S. Orinda

Quote of the Month

Chosen by Maggie Young, the Green Team, Mercy HS, Burlingame

To waste, to destroy our own natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.

– President Theodore Roosevelt

maggiey@earthteam.net

The Green Advisory Internship Announced

EarthTeam is excited to announce the formation of the Green Advisory Internship!  Five or more student interns from around the country will be working with EarthTeam in the coming months to improve The Green.  Among the planned improvements are four exciting new sections:

• Ask Dr. Green: Got an eco-question?  Confused by techie-science mumbo-jumbo?  Ask Dr. Green and look in the next issue for the answers!! 
• Eco-Update: Finally, a student-friendly source for environmental news updated each month!!
• Interviews: Interesting, informative conversations with environmental movers and shakers!!
• Rants & Raves: A forum for discussion concerning a wide variety of environmental topics, no issue too controversial.  Send us your opinion, then look in the next issue for the other side of the coin!!

You’re probably thinking “Wow! With all that great stuff they can’t possibly keep up the creative writing, poems and photos I’ve come to love in The Green, can they?”  Yes we can! In fact, now we’ve also got an intern doing just that! That's me- a recent University of Pennsylvania grad.

But we still can’t do it alone; we still need your help too! Keep on sending us the great submissions we’ve relied on in the past and we’ll keep on printing them. 

The times they are a-changin’!  Keep your eyes open in the upcoming months for The Evolution of The Green and let us know how we’re doing. 

matts@earthteam.net

Asha Setty and Fort Funston’s Dunes

by Jenny Leonard, College Park HS, Pleasant Hill

Asha Setty is the nursery manager at Fort Funston, one of the largest remaining chunks of sand dunes along the San Francisco coast line in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  At Fort Funston, volunteers work with Asha to grow plants, remove seed banks or iceplant duff, and plant the native plants in areas where iceplant and grasses used to thrive. 

Asha Setty studied California native plants at UC Berkeley.  While studying there, she realized there were many opportunities for internships in San Francisco.  She worked with Americorps and also worked at Crissy Field in San Francisco, where she learned how to remove nonnative plants from wetlands and dunes.

Asha has been working at Fort Funston for the past five years.  She finds working with nature to be really rewarding.  Over five years she has definitely seen the dunes be transformed into what they should look like.  What she really likes about Fort Funston is that the work is pretty straight forward, which enables people of all ages to participate in restorations.  Anyone can come down and volunteer from 10 am to 1 pm every Saturday.  Young people, older people, mothers, fathers and children all can find some way to improve the dunes for the benefit of the native plants and animals.

A Rave (with a Small Rant): The Iron Horse Corridor Restoration Day, December 1

Where Making Green Meets Saving Green: A Look at Socially Responsible Business

by Meika Hollender, Vermont Commons School, Charlotte, VT

There is a common misapprehension that once you graduate college you are faced with the choice of making a difference or making as much as you can. The truth is that there isn’t a wall that divides those who don’t go to the “office” every morning with those who put on a suit and tie and make their way to the 50th floor of a skyscraper. Today we are in the middle of an economic revolution: a time when it doesn’t have to be a choice between money or the environment. The idea of having to choose one or the other is slowly fading away due to the evolving presence of socially responsible business.

Being socially responsible can be defined in hundreds of ways, but when looking at businesses one tends to focus on the social, political, and environmental aspects of a company. Globalization is happening, but what is beginning to slow it down is this new idea that when a company treats their employees, investors, and customers equally, their capital, as well as social value tends to increase. Companies, worldwide, are beginning to catch on to this not so obvious phenomenon, and companies that are still choosing to act irresponsibly are starting to be affected by this.

Over the past few years hundreds of large and small corporations have begun changing their ways. Whether it is paying their employees more, reducing their overseas production, or simply using recyclable materials for their products, business is taking a turn. A company like Chiquita Banana, for instance, is known historically for its exploitation of labor, land, and trade regulations, but starting in 2001 Chiquita decided to make a change in their habits. They began issuing annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports, and these reports have shown tremendous improvements in the working conditions at the plantations, the company’s ecological footprint, and their efforts of make peace with the locals over the land issues in central America. All this has made it one company that has reformed the most in such a short amount of time.

Another company that is commonly assumed to have unimpressive salaries and employee dissatisfaction is Starbuck’s. The truth is that a shockingly high percentage of Starbuck’s employees surveyed seem to be very content with their working conditions, and the heads of Starbuck’s have publicly acknowledged that they are in the beginning stages of moving towards more socially responsible practices. They have gradually begun to look at growing coffee more sustainably and at increasing their use of fair-trade coffee (currently about 3% of their sales).

Next month I will explain how these companies that are investing tons of money into the transformation of their businesses, are actually in the end making, not losing money.

meikah@earthteam.net

Poetry

The ocean is a war zone

and on the waves ride in the white horsemen

and their powerful steeds, the wild pounding of their hooves

and the roar of their ungodly anger is enough to shake the heavens,

and the sea spray is the arms of the mothers widows and daughters,

                 raised to God in despair and pleading for help,

and the water, grey as rotted flesh, flesh that falls off into murky deep,

and the craggy rock blocks the attacks as the infantry advances and

                 retreats,

and the very ocean is the mouth of hell, the deep chasm of destruction,

and I would give everything to be in the midst of the war zone.

“Mussel Rock” by Davidson Lao, St. Ignatius HS, San Francisco

Breathtaking

My only thought as we reached mussel rock.

Water could erode the foundation of the boulders,

But not sweep away its natural beauty.

The air was moist and cold.

A chilly wind blew.

Some shuddered, some embraced it.

This foggy, frigid weather would not ruin great sights.

The ocean was fully alive,

Never resting to stop bashing the rock foundation.

The sound of waves pounding the mountain filled my ears.

The water battered the rocks that lay before us.

Sea mist sprinkled our faces when we came close.                     

Cautiously, I made my way down the rock path.

None of these “steps” were safe.

One slip could mean injury.

I cautiously maneuvered from rock to rock,

Looking for a safe, stable spot.

“Is that one OK? No. Maybe this one. Nope.

That one doesn’t look too steady,” I thought.

After searching, I found it,

A safe place to get in touch with nature.

At that moment, I felt only tranquility.

The scenery and natural features of the area calmed me,

The loud atmosphere of the classes left behind.

Our lone task – to breathe and let sounds and sights of this place

Inspire us.

Tension of a stressful day

Melted away.

This was the perfect moment.

No boring lectures, no side chats.

Send an E-mail to the World Bank and Water Corporations to Stop Water Privatization in Ghana! (adopted by the EarthTeam Youth Coalition at its January Meeting)

In 2001, civil society organizations in Ghana organized to oppose a World Bank-backed project to contract the urban water system to large multinational water corporations. The Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatization of Water (National CAP of Water) representing a broad cross section of Ghanaian civil society, opposed the project. Despite this opposition, the Ghanaian government, and the IMF and World Bank are preparing the water system for privatization. Preparation for privatization has included "increased cost recovery" which has more than doubled the cost of water for consumers in the last three years.

Currently about 35 percent of the Ghanaian population lacks access to safe water and 68 percent lack sanitation services. The National CAP of Water remains concerned that the privatization of water will have further negative impacts on public health, women's work, access to safe, affordable water, and local control and accountability.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

-Tell the bidding corporations and the WB to stop promoting the new service management contract proposal in Ghana.

-Tell the corporations to stop all bidding on the controversial Ghana water project.

-Tell the World Bank to stop all loans with conditions that raise the price of water for those who make less than $2 a day.

-Tell the WB to stop unconditional prescription of water privatization and foreign corporate involvement in the water sector as conditionality for loans.

For sample letters and more information go to http://www.wateractivist.org/, and Take Action Today!!

Answer to December's Question of the Month

Are you going to do or give anything during the Holiday season that is connected to the environment?  If yes, what is it, and if no, well why not?

I'll be eating a vegetarian Christmas dinner, which saves significant food and fuel resources. Hannah Cherkassky, Venture Independent Study, San Ramon

I'm planning on attending a park clean-up with my school. Albert Chan, Oakland HS

Asked and answered at the January 9 Youth Coalition Meeting Send YOUR response to editor@earthteam.net

Do you ever think about where the water you use in your house to drink, shower, wash dishes etc. comes from?  What might the implications be that most of us do not think about where the water we use comes from?

1. Nico Hunter, College Park HS, Pleasant Hill -- I never think about where the water comes from.  We never see where it comes from so we don't think about it.

2. Natasha Hein, College Park HS -- Very little and never a direct association.

3. Sangeeta Hegde, College Park HS -- Sometimes but not very deeply. The thought occasionally passes my mind and I think it would affect poorer people then it would U.S.

4. Hannah Cherkassky, Venture Independent Study, San Ramon - I think that I think about it more often than most.  Not enough people think about where it comes from.  We should stop buying bottled water...tap water is absolutely free.

5. Shana Rappaport, Miramonte HS, Orinda 2005 -- That fact that most people never bother to think about where our water comes from simply exemplifies how much we take our resources for granted.  People need to appreciate what we have before we can try saving it.

6. Diamond Hunter, Pittsburg HS -- I think about where the water comes from, and I know where the water comes from.  A lot of people don't think about it too much because probably it doesn't matter that much to them.

7. Ben Lerch, Washington HS, Fremont  -- Obviously how it affects your local watershed in terms of biodiversity and perhaps its health implications because some people have tap water of very poor quality.

Please send your responses to anything in the Green or anything environmental. We'll print it in the next issue. Also, send us your answers to the Question of the Month by the 25th of the month. It would be great to hear from you. Contact TheGreen@earthteam.net

"The Green" is 100% student written and edited. We're looking for anything about the environment - what your class or club is doing, opinion pieces, facts, actions and more. The students who commit to monthly or every other month articles receive a small monetary compensation. To find out more, contact TheGreen@earthteam.net