CONTENTS

• Photography Gallery Photos by Aussie Hertz, Deer Valley HS, Antioch; Mara Constantine, Acalanes HS, Lafayette; and Jen Tran, Bishop O’Dowd HS, Oakland
• Quote of the month chosen by Maddie Schubert, Antioch HS
• Bishop O'Dowd Students Win Clean Energy Petition Competition by Genny Johnson and Adam Kotin, Bishop O’Dowd HS, Oakland
• WHOW! (We Honor Our World: College Park High School’s Environmental Club) by Jenny Leonard, College Park HS, Pleasant Hill
• Where They Went Wrong by Gleb Podkolzin, College Park HS Pleasant Hill
• Where Making Green Meets Saving Green: A Look at Socially Responsible Business, Part 2 by Meika Hollender, Vermont Commons School, Charlotte, VT
• Poetry "Crossing the Bridge", "Tiger Lily", "The Elephant"  by Rebecca McCarthy, Bay Ridge Prep. HS, Brooklyn, NY
• Two Tsunami Interviews by Natalie Nava, Monte Vista HS, Danville  … with Environmental Scientist Amy Luers … with student Tara Brown, who was there
• Action of the Month– Union of Concerned Scientists says "Tell Automakers to Drop Lawsuit Against the California Global Warming Law"
• Corrections to the January issue
• 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.

February 2005
Issue 25

Quote of the Month

Chosen by Maddie Schubert, Antioch HS

  Nature does nothing uselessly   –    Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)

Bishop O'Dowd Students Win Clean Energy Petition Competition

It all started at the David Brower Youth Awards 2004 ceremony, where award winner Billy Parish introduced a nationwide youth petition started by himself and the organization Energy Action. “The Declaration of Independence from Dirty Energy Petition,” as it is called, seeks to gain youth support for renewable energy sources as opposed to fossil fuels and other “dirty” producers of energy.

Key team leaders of Bishop O’Dowd High School’s Earthbound club, the high school’s environmental action club, were present at the Brower awards ceremony, and were intrigued by the idea of a nationwide youth petition. Earthbound decided to get in on the action, and began circulating the petition around the school, seeking signatures and support of students and faculty alike. The outcome was a great success, as Bishop O’Dowd students gathered enough signatures to place the school in the top ten institutions with the most expressed support along with large universities such as UCLA, Brandeis University, and Boston College.

In addition to the petition, Earthbound leaders have begun the process of negotiating with PG&E and the school administration to eventually install solar panels on the roofs of the campus’ buildings. The solar panels will not only save the school a tremendous amount of money each year, but they will also eventually provide excess energy that can be sold back to PG&E. This loss of dependence on fossil fuels for the school’s energy is giving headway to a greener campus that Earthbound members hope will set a precedent for other schools in the Bay Area. “I think that the advances Earthbound has made are a strong step towards a greener future not only for our school and community but also on a global level,” says teacher Annie Prutzman, moderator of Earthbound, “I’m very excited to see what’s to come.”

GennyJ@earthteam.net AdamK@earthteam.net

Photo by Mara Constantine (Click photo to view larger image)

WHOW! (We Honor Our World: College Park High School’s  Environmental Club)

by Jenny Leonard, College Park HS, Pleasant Hill

College Park High School has a brand new environmental club called WHOW! which just started this year. Its goal is to promote environmental awareness and sustainability. Since it is a new club, there are many different things to do, but with no clear way of doing them. Many ideas have been brought up as to what our club should do. Some ideas are eco-friendly turf to be installed as a school lawn, tsunami relief, school-wide heat conservation, fundraising, and environmental poster campaigns.  So far, we have gathered information about eco friendly turf and approached the administrator with the idea.  We conducted heat surveys, asking teachers how their room was heated and if they could control their heat.  We had a poster campaign promoting trash pickup (everyone at our school litters!).  The best thing about the campaign was that none of our posters got torn down! One point for the environment!

jennyl@earthteam.net

Photo by Mara Constantine (Click photo to view larger image)

Photo by Mara Constantine (Click photo to view larger image)

Where They Went Wrong

by Gleb Podkolzin, College Park HS,

Coming home after seeing hundreds of cars at the annual San Jose International Auto Show, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Where did the automotive industry go wrong?” Even with all the new technologies that are coming out in the 21st century, more than half the cars at the auto show quoted fuel consumption figures below the national average.

Why is the automotive industry moving in reverse since the 1970’s oil crisis? After the oil shortage became apparent, consumers began buying smaller, more efficient Japanese cars. Meanwhile the sales of American cars with large-displacement engines sagged; American cars received smaller engines and fewer buyers yet. Since then American (and non-imported made-for-America) cars resumed growing in size, weight, and thirst. For example, the brand-new sold-and-made-only-in-America Honda Accord weighs approximately 3500 lbs, while every single market other than the US gets the slimmer, sportier and sharper-looking 3000 lbs Japanese-spec Accord (brought over here, rebadged as Acura TSX, and sold for more money). It makes no sense. In the 21st century we have many new technologies available to us yet automakers still produce cars and trucks that take up half the street and consume more fuel than two or three average family sedans.

Though large SUVs are all the rage right now, manufacturers need to phase out the larger vehicles that are not meant to go off-road. Two-wheel drive SUVs can easily be replaced by smaller, lighter station wagons. Cars such as the popular shoebox-shaped Scion XB prove that small size, space efficiency, and style are not mutually exclusive. The car is light and small from all angles, yet is roomy on the inside. However, the loophole that makes larger trucks and SUVs more profitable because of exemption from various laws applying to regular automobiles will have to be closed. For example, the Hummer H2 is tax-exempt for the self-employed and small businesses because of a modified 1997 law that states that a vehicle costing $100,000 or less with gross weight exceeding 6,000 lbs, used for work purposes 50% or more of the time, qualifies for the exemption, as stated in the provision of the US tax code, Section 179. The provision originally stated the maximum price as $25,000, but the Bush administration raised the limit to the present level as a part of their $350 million tax cut.

The amount of emissions from many of the current models is also astounding. The fact that there are about 250 million cars on the road today improves nothing; greenhouse gas emissions are damaging the ozone layer. Global warming is accelerated; the planet gets warmer sooner. Evidence has been found that the ice and snow at the poles is melting slowly. The melting of the natural habitats of many species such as polar bears (which rely on their white coats for camouflage in large open white snowy plains) implies that some species may become extinct in the near future.

To change the industry, automakers would have to start with the existing automotive technologies. Improvements will have to be made in critical areas such as air conditioning, which consumes up to 5% of the engine’s power. The current transition to electrically driven air conditioning is a step in the right direction; however, offloading the power drain to the electrical subsystem means the engine still has to consume extra fuel to maintain the cozy temperature inside the car.

More efficient transmissions will have to be mandated; overall, the power loss through the vehicle’s drive train will have to be minimized. Right now the industry average for power loss is that approximately 85% of the engine’s power is put down at the rear wheels. The rotating parts of the system would have to become more efficient in order to achieve an extra few mpg. Lighter materials will have to be used to construct the rotating parts; lower rotating mass implies that the engine has to work less to turn the wheels.

Overall the cars will have to become lighter; that way smaller, more efficient, less powerful engines can be used to move the same cars. Hybrid propulsion systems should be used in more cars. Depending on the situation and the type, hybrid cars drive mostly like regular gasoline-engine ones but consume less gas and some (such as the Toyota Prius) are classified as PZEV – partial zero emissions vehicles. Partial zero emissions vehicles emissions levels range between 90% and 99% lower than those of an average model year 2004 automobile.

If the average fuel consumption rises to 45 mpg then the US will not have to depend on any foreign oil suppliers. Cars like the aforementioned Prius have shown the future and it is a brighter one if changes occur today in the automotive industry.

GlebP@earthteam.net

Photo by Mara Constantine (Click photo to view larger image)

Where Making Green Meets Saving Green: A Look at Socially Responsible Business, Part 2

by Meika Hollender, Vermont Commons School, Charlotte, VT

Last month in The Green the idea of socially responsible business was explained. It is time to take a closer look at how companies today are beginning to realize that social responsibility, which includes being honest with their investors, is actually not the arrow that will shoot them down, but rather the “yellow-brick-road” to economic success. Companies such as Nike and Hershey, have experienced the setbacks that come with being dishonest and acting irresponsibly and have puts major amounts of money to redirect the future of their companies.

Nike is a very concrete example that illustrates how bad press can actually lead to economic success and global respect. During the past 15 or so years Nike has been a global target for activists against child labor. It was a fact: Nike used child labor and even slaves in their factories, and didn’t actually deny it. Over the past few years Nike has been receiving heightened criticism about its practices involving child labor and this has forced the company to prove to America, and the world, that it could and would become a company that acted responsibly.

When a company issues a Corporate Social Responsibility report they are telling global corporations and the global economy and they are and will continue to make changes in the way in which their company functions. From environmental standards, to fair trade, the CSR report states the improvements the company makes each year, but it doesn’t actually report the ways in which these changes have affected the company’s finances. In 2004 Nike released its first CSR report. The report mostly discussed Nike’s efforts to improve environmental sustainability as well as its focus on improving the situations and conditions of  employees, most of whom reside outside of the Untied States. Nike, although still not universally recognized as being extremely socially responsible, is being acknowledged as really trying to create a new corporate image and gain respect as a “corporate citizen.” The CSR report talked about things like the new 100% organic cotton clothing line, and the no tolerance policy for child labor.

In 1998 it was reported that Hershey was using upwards of 15,000 child slaves in West Africa in reaction to the drop in cocoa value. it is hard to believe seven years later that the slavery has completely vanished. So even though these practices could still be taking place on a much smaller scale, the important thing to notice is that companies like Nike and Hershey are taking the time and money to improve their practices and become part of the socially responsible phenomenon. The reality is that there will always be loopholes such as when Nike’s tags on their clothing said, “made in the U.S.” when really the clothing was being manufactured in China; it was the tags that were made in the U.S. Still the fact that these companies are making a choice is what counts. Socially responsible business is the future of the global economy, and the fact that companies notorious for appalling business practices are beginning to implement change is a sign that our economy might finally be heading in the right direction.

For more information on Corporate Responsibility and CRS reports of your everyday vendors visit: http://www.csrwire.com/

MeikaH@earthteam.net

Photo by Aussie Hertz (Click photo to view larger image)

Photo by Mara Constantine (Click photo to view larger image)

Three Poems

by Rebecca McCarthy, Bay Ridge Prep. HS, Brooklyn, NY

RebeccaM@earthteam.net

Photo by Jen Tran (Click photo to view larger image)

Photo by Aussie Hertz (Click photo to view larger image)

Tsunami Interview with Amy Luers

By Natalie Nava, Monte Vista HS, Danville

(editors note: Amy Luers is a Climate Impacts Scientist with the Global Environmental Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.  www.ucsusa.org

Q. Does global warming or other environmental forces contribute to the magnitude of a tsunami?

A. No, however continued global warming pollution and the resulting changes in temperature and sea level rise could mean that the impact of a similar Tsunami could be more severe in the future.  Over the next century sea level could rise by more than two feet.  Such a rise in sea level will make coastal communities more vulnerable to tsunamis as well as hurricanes and other extreme events.

Q. Could wiser coastal development, and preservation of mangrove swamps and coral reefs, have lessened the magnitude of the tsunami on Southeast Asian shores?  Are there other ways in which human interference contributed to the destructiveness of the tsunami?

A. It is difficult at this point to assess the role that wiser coastal development could have played in reducing the impact of the tsunami on the Southeast Asian shores.  Destruction from a tsunami of this magnitude is unavoidable.  However, experience does suggest that wiser development that maintained a green buffer of natural mangroves and coastal lands might have reduced some of the losses.

Q. Bjorn Lombord, an associate professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, was quoted regarding the tsunami: "Climate change is a huge thing, but there is very little we can do about it,"  He believes that governments should concentrate more on solvable problems, such as AIDS, poverty, and inadequate sanitation.  Do you agree with his statement?

A. I do not agree with this statement.   While we cannot stop global warming over the near term, we can do a great deal to slow the rate of change and reduce the impacts.  Our actions today will determine the severity of global warming in the future. For example, a recent analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences indicates that if we continue our heavy dependence on fossil fuels and emit global warming pollution at high rates that the average summer temperature in California could rise between 9 -18 °F, twice as much as that projected for a future in which we reduce our emissions and begin to invest in cleaner technologies.  While there are many pressing problems facing the world that we must address – including disease, poverty and sanitation, unless we take action today to reduce our emissions, our efforts to address other development problems will remain an increasingly uphill battle.

Photo by Aussie Hertz (Click photo to view larger image)

Photo by Jen Tran (Click photo to view larger image)

Tsunami Interview with Tara Brown

By Natalie Nava, Monte Vista HS, Danville

(Editor’s note:Tara, a junior at Monte Vista High School, was scuba diving off the coast of Thailand while on a family vacation when the tsunami hit She is now back in the States).

Q. Could you actually feel the pressure change of the wave passing to the shore while you were scuba diving?  Did animals swimming around you seem to know that a huge wave was passing?

A. The currents were extremely strong and we were being pulled every which way. Kicking did not seem to help much. The fish were also struggling to swim. We could see them try swimming and not move an inch.

Q. What was the magnitude of the destruction?  How many people did you see hurt or killed?  How was Thailand affected with regards to other countries?

A. The beach was completely gone. Luckily for me, I did not see any people who had been killed. I did see many people who were scraped up from the reefs. My sister and I were scraped up from the coral ourselves. Thailand was not hit quite as badly as other countries, mainly because it was this one island, Phuket, which was hit as opposed to other countries that were hit.

Q. How is your family that remains in Thailand?  What have they shared with you about the types of help people need?

A. My dad that lives in Thailand is perfectly fine. He actually is a healthcare administrator who helps run a hospital in Bangkok, so some people were taken to this hospital and treated. Besides the obvious that many people need help being treated for injuries and need shelter because their homes have been destroyed, I understand that many of the schools have been shut down and they need help to reopen them. There has also been some damage to the coral reef in the area. Another sad aspect is that the sea turtles have laid their eggs on the beach, and they have been lost.

Q. What most sticks out in your mind that will cause you to never forget this incident?

A. Just the timing of the situation is what makes it memorable. I mean if it had been like the day before or the day after, who knows what could have happened. The fact that all of us went out on the boat and not just some of us. It is all about the "what ifs" that makes it so memorable. It really puts things into perspective.

NatalieN@earthteam.net

Photo by Aussie Hertz (Click photo to view larger image)

Photo by Mara Constantine (Click photo to view larger image)

Adopted by the EarthTeam Youth Coalition meeting on February 6, 2005: Tell Automakers to Drop Lawsuit Against the California Global Warming Law!

When the State of California adopted landmark new regulations requiring reduced global warming emissions from cars and trucks, instead of using their engineers to build the cleaner vehicles and create more jobs, the automakers chose to use their lawyers to sue. Eight other states and Canada are poised to adopt the California standards—meaning that over a quarter of the US auto market, at a minimum, would be cleaned up. But if the automakers' lawsuit succeeds it would outlaw all states from adopting these types of global warming rules for autos. Given the Bush Administration's refusal to participate in any climate change initiatives on the national or international level, the California regulations represent by far the most significant complimentary effort to the Kyoto global warming treaty we can expect out of our nation in the near future.

Please send a letter to the heads of the auto alliances that sued the people of California asking them to use their engineers, not their lawyers, to do their fair share to help stop global warming.

comaffrs@aiam.org : Timothy MacCarthy, Association of International Automobile Manufacturers

fwebber@autoalliance.org: Frederick Webber, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

Sample Letter

California's breakthrough regulations on global warming emissions will allow your talented engineers to use cost-effective, off-the-shelf technologies to provide cleaner vehicles in all size classes. But instead, you have chosen to unleash your lawyers to thwart consumer choice and ignore the potential profits and jobs from the growing clean car market.

It is time for you to live up to the promise of your environmental marketing campaigns. "Green" slogans and the limited introduction of hybrid vehicles cannot replace a fleet-wide commitment to cleaner vehicles. It is not too late to step away from this public relations disaster and invest these resources in your talented engineers to meet the burgeoning national and international demand for cleaner vehicles in all makes and sizes.

Carbon dioxide from passenger vehicles will increase 50 percent by 2020 if you and other automakers don't clean up our nation's vehicle fleets. It is environmentally and financially irresponsible to postpone action. I expect your immediate withdrawal from this anti-consumer lawsuit that damages both the environment and the public's health.

For more information, or to write a letter to the editor, see the Union of Concerned Scientists "Automakers v. The People" campaign at http://www.ucsusa.org/general/special_features/page.cfm?pageID:=:1534

The above information was provided by the Union of Concerned Scientists West Coast Office, 2397 Shattuck Ave. Suite 203, Berkeley, CA 94704 Phone:(510)843-1872   fax:(510)843-3785 www.ucsusa.org

Corrections to the January Issue

The January issue ran an article entitled “A Rave (with a Small Rant): The Iron Horse Corridor Restoration Day, December 1”. The actual day of that event was December 11.  – ed.

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