CONTENTS

• Quote of the Month
• ACTION of the Month
• Elementary School Presentations: Teaching Kids About the Environment! by Janet Liang, Amador Valley HS
• John Kerry's Environmental Agenda and the 2004 Campaign by Susan Loshin, Sir Francis Drake HS, San Anselmo
• How to be Environmentally Aware - by Hannah Cherkassky, Venture Independent Study, San Ramon
• The Cost of Being Connected: The Cell Phone Dilemma By Meika Hollander, Vermont Commons School, Charlotte, VT
• Poetry by Noelle Bidegainberry, St. Ignatius HS, San Francisco, By Catherine Abalos, St. Ignatius HS, San Francisco
• Answers to Question of the Month-April
• May's Question of the Month
• Request for Letters to the Editor
• Join Now
• The Green Team
• Previous Issues

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.

April 2004
Issue 15

Quote of the Month

“The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one: to fight for survival.”
- Morris K. Udall

Action of the Month - Mercury, Swordfish and Sea Turtle Campaign

Jeff Gustafson at San Ramon Valley HS suggested this month’s action, aided by April guest speaker Andy Peril, a campaigner at  the Sea Turtle Restoration Project.  Questions?
Email him at: andy@seaturtles.org 

Source:  Sea Turtle Restoration Project www.seaturtles.org  Email:info@seaturtles.org

What can you do?  STRP’s recommendations:

Grocery stores throughout the state are required to post warning signs that warn of mercury in seafood.  Many, however are not posting these signs (or are not posting them properly).  We are trying to educate the public about the adverse health effects of mercury in part by ensuring these signs are posted.  Go to www.seaturtles.org and click on the Mercury, Swordfish and Sea Turtle Campaign to get copies of the mercury warning sign survey.  The Youth Coalition can help STRP get broad coverage by conducting a local survey!

Get a one of more pages of our petition to the UN completed asking the UN to ban long line fishing in the Pacific Ocean.  Long line fishing kills millions of whales, dolphins, seabirds, marlin and sea turtles each year.  This fishing method is decimating the world's oceans.

Collect signatures on one or more pages of our petition to Steven Burd, CEO of Safeway Inc., asking him to require the posting of warning signs nationwide and not just in California.  Posting signs will protect human health and reduce consumption of seafood species that are caught in ways that kill sea turtles. By changing our eating habits we can help protect sea turtles and the health of the oceans.

Our new activist kit is now online at www.seaturtes.org click on the Mercury, Swordfish and Sea Turtle Campaign link.  This resource contains petitions and many other activities you can do to protect the oceans and sea turtles.  Download a poster to put up in your community that encourages others to visit our mercury calculator to help them learn about mercury in their seafood.

By Janet Liang, Amador Valley HS

Besides planting and restoring trees, attending beach cleanups, and implementing recycling programs, what else can high school environmental clubs do? While these are all meritorious voluntary efforts, taking action can be more than just these activities. You can make a difference by motivating and encouraging younger students to be environmentally conscious.

1) Decide an area or areas of focus. Would you like to teach the younger students about? Recycling? Endangered species? Vanishing Wilderness? Planting? Energy resources?

2) Enlist members of your environmental club to participate in the project. Everyone involved can be assigned to research a specific area, allowing members to learn a little more about what they're about to teach. Everyone can pool their research together and make a study packet of information.

3) Understand that you do not need to go in-depth with the presentations or research because the purpose of the presentations is not really to teach new information, but rather to encourage the younger students to be more aware about our environment.

4) Make PowerPoint presentations, do overhead visuals, drawings, etc. The more colorful the presentations, the better. Kids want to see the beauty of the Earth. Expose them to the lush, grand rainforests of the Amazon and the magnificence of the endangered tigers! At the same time, you can also expose the ill effects of pollution such as oil spills. As long as the visuals are not too gruesome, they are fine and will reinforce your presentations nicely.

5) Keep in mind that they are younger kids. 3rd and 4th graders may not have the same mindset as you. For some wacky terms like carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases, define what they are. Don't be afraid of over-explaining things until they understand, but do it in a simple, even creative manner.

6) Kids love to demonstrate their knowledge. You would be surprised at how much they already know (even more than some of us!) You can ask them questions - for example, "Why is it important to turn off the lights when you're not in the room?" You can also bring some candy to encourage kids to ask questions or answer your questions! The key to the presentations is as much interaction as possible.

7) Avoid lecturing too much and instead incorporate games within your presentations to reinforce any concepts. There are many ideas on the Internet, or you can invent some of your own! For example, our environmental club played a game similar to Doctor/Tag, in which we assigned the children to act as different endangered species. Then we selected several students as rangers and poachers. The objective of the game was for the endangered species to stay alive. As the kids ran around the baseball fields acting as their respective endangered animal, the poachers would also run around to "tag" them. At the same time, rangers would run around to "tag" and save the endangered animal that fell victim to the poachers. The game was interactive, fun, and allowed the kids to truly experience the impact of vanishing wildlife.

8) You can also have students decorate paper grocery bags with environmental messages. You can obtain these bags from cooperating grocery stores such as Raley's or Safeway, have students decorate them, and return them to the stores. They can distribute the paper bags to the public on Earth Day. Visit www.earthdaybags.com for more information!   

9) Be sure to contact the elementary school teachers well in advance and set dates and times for your visits. Many teachers will be enthusiastic about high school students visiting their classrooms.      Our environmental club received many wonderful letters from the teachers and students - you will be surprised at how much they learned from our simple presentations. It's great community service and what better way to celebrate Earth Day? Have fun and remember that you are a role model to the younger children. When “big kids”, like us, expose them to the problems of our environment, no matter how scary the statistics and devastating the outcomes, it will encourage them to take action in their own everyday lives, because everyone, not only adults, can truly make a difference!

Driftwood by Caitlin Baron of Berkeley HS Click Photo to view larger Image

John Kerry’s Environmental Agenda and the 2004 Campaign

by Susan Loshin, Sir Francis Drake HS, San Anselmo

A key topic in the 2004 campaign is the environment. I looked into Democratic candidate John Kerry’s aspirations for environmental protection. Kerry’s focuses rest upon eight major goals. Throughout his life, Kerry has been known for his environmental awareness and activism. Kerry’s fought to clean up toxic waste sites, keep our air and water clean, and to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other pristine wilderness areas. It’s essential that the American public take great care and interest, because we only have one earth.

Kerry’s goals would be difficult to achieve, but the presidential candidate claims his heart is committed. The first and most important environmental goal is reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Next is a commitment to cleaner and “greener” communities and environmental justice. He has a vision of entering the American people into a “conservation convention”. Then there is protecting our health by reducing dangerous emissions, and restoring America’s water, which Kerry claims to have great interest in. Lastly, environmental leadership and education are a vital aspect of Kerry’s focus. The candidate has made a point to place the Bush Administration in the spotlight concerning issues on the environment. Kerry feels the Bush administration maintains outdated, old-economy notions that our environment must be sacrificed in the name of short-term profit. Kerry claims to feel adamant about polluters and says if he were president a major priority would be clean air and water laws.

Road to Hana by Caitlin Baron of Berkeley HS Click Photo to view larger Image

Kerry’s vision is to create a new Manhattan Project. This project would make America independent of Middle East oil in 10 years. New alternatives would be created with fuels such as ethanol. Kerry also plans to make enforce rules regarding more efficient cars. Using these tactics to break our heavy dependence on the Middle East, half a million new jobs here at home could be created. No more oil dependence from the Middle East would be phenomenal for our country, economically and ethically.

            I hope you’ll take the time to spread the word or formulate your own opinions and research. Protection of the environment should be a national effort. Make the 2004 campaign a new beginning so we don’t end up sending our children or grandchildren to foreign countries to fight for oil.

How to be Environmentally Aware

by Hannah Cherkassky, Venture Independent Study, San Ramon

A rising problem in our world today is the actuality that our natural environment is quickly diminishing, and the fact that our country plays a large role in that problem. Americans over-consume more than any other people in the world. The United States uses up about 30% of the world’s energy resources. We produce ozone-harmful emissions from our cars, factories, and machinery, knowing that these toxins will someday lead to a complete depletion of the ozone layer. It may seem difficult for American citizens to obtain information on how to be more environmentally friendly, but it is a necessity that all people gain this knowledge before it is too late.

What do these three have in common: politicians, activists, environmentalists? All are caught in the vast web of environmental issues, wondering what to do and how to go about doing it. Politicians try to represent the people, but the people, without adequate information cannot do their part. By simply reading reports on how to take action, either in the newspaper, in magazines, on television, etc., citizens could learn a lot of valuable information. Publicizing how to recycle shampoo bottles, certain types of plastics, and other materials that do not belong in our regular, household recycling bins could be an easy way to get the public involved. Thus, awareness is a first step to further action being taken.

Activists, being the progressive individuals they are, play a large role in the environmental movement. These are the people who physically attempt to represent our problem of environmental destruction by staging protests, holding rallies, writing letters to companies, and the like. They are probably the most likely group of people to get the word out to the public about how to help save our environment. Activists take action by getting information out into the open. They are very important throughout the entire process of action being taken, and are a valuable resource for initiatives and information for the everyday citizen.

Environmental scientists, those who research the problems at hand, such as biologists, climatologists, or naturalists, are perhaps the most important bringers of change in this issue. They are usually the first to realize the problem. For example, a scientist studies the earth’s atmosphere and finds the ozone layer has huge gaps in it. Scientists are essentially the roots of the “problem-solving tree”. They need to report to us in layman’s language. With the information that environmental scientists supply us, politicians and citizens could then be taking action to help solve the problem. It is the role of the activists to keep the pressure on when politicians and citizens get bored with the issue.

Small things make a big difference. Just the mention of a certain product or company that is not participating, or is worsening, the campaign to help save the environment may go a long way. The person may decide to stop using that product or to stop buying from the company, which may then set off another person doing the same, and this may lead to a change in company policies. Actions such as writing a short note, or even going on the computer and downloading an already-written draft letter to send to our political representatives can make a huge difference. Our representatives are exactly that, and they will listen to what we have to say. As long as we keep putting off these small actions until tomorrow, we shouldn’t expect to see a change. You see, it really is easy to make a difference in the environmental revolution if you actually take a step. Electing officials and supporting companies that are environmentally friendly IS essential to the upkeep of our surroundings, and the Bush Administration, is not environmentally friendly. It all starts with the people. When the people speak out and act, things will change. But when they sit back and hope someone will do it for them, they are asking for things to only get worse!

Colorado by Jeff Martin of Acalanes HS, Lafayette Click Photo to view larger Image

The Cost of Being Connected: The Cell Phone Dilemma

by Meika Hollander, Vermont Commons School, Charlotte, VT

The cell phone: one of the most socially advancing inventions of the 20th century. This portable companion goes everywhere with us. Cell phones have become a must have that many can’t even imagine living without. Ten years ago when this digital device entered the world, our excitement for this new gadget overrode the thought of negative effects it might have on our health, and over the past few years cell phones have fabricated a new way of life, one that is connected and available. Recently some commentators have begun questioning whether we may be actually chatting ourselves to death. Could these four-inch gadgets that we glue to our ears be harming our bodies? Cell phones are such a large part of today’s world that many are easily persuaded to accept their possible hazards as unavoidable. At this point banning cell phones has become an impossibility, so when trying to deal with the possibility of harm, the answer has to beto modifyour cell phone use rather than eliminating it.

So what exactly is the problem? As we talk on our cell phones, they are constantly sending out information through microwave pulses of electromagnetic radiation. Some have insisted that these microwaves are a direct cause of brain tumors, but a lack of evidence has moved us away from that claim. Rather, the primary and proven health hazard of by cell phones is the damage they do to our Blood Brain Barriers. The Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) is tiny blood vessels that work in an “exchange network” in our bodies, ultimately protecting our body’s “sensitive command center from harmful invaders.” Tests have recently proven that the microwave radiation emission of cell phones affectively weakens our BBB. By consistently holding the cell phone next to your head, damage to these blood vessels can result in reduced brain capacity and promotion of premature senility. Due to the fact that the brain cells of teenagers are in a prime time of development, researchers are beginning to examine whether teenagers are actually more vulnerable to brain damage.

Colorado at Yuma by Jeff Martin of Acalanes HS, Lafayette Click Photo to view larger Image

Many argue that even though there is not yet any conclusive evidence of cell phones’ negative effects, still it is better to be safe than sorry. Yet we all know that there are times when using your cell phone is simply unavoidable. What ways can we protect ourselves while still remaining connected?

The main thing you should do if you do own a cell phone is look into the “hands free” options that are available for your phone. This could include purchasing a head set. Indeed, many phones now contain a speakerphone option. Limit the contact between your head and the phone and you drastically reduce your exposure to the microwave radiation. You could of course use your cell phone less, or, dare I say it, trade it in for some silence!

Source: www.seventhgeneration.com/page.asp?id=1425#3

Poetry

Answers to Question of the Month for April

“If you could ecologically study any place on Earth, where would it be, what would you study, and why?”
Submitted by Yvea Eaton, I-YEL and Lick-Wilmerding HS, San Francisco

I would probably study the ocean, because there's so much stuff down there that we probably don't know about, yet. I would also want to study the Earth's atmosphere.
Hannah Cherkassky, ’05, Venture Independent Study, San Ramon
 
I would study some desert place, because Star Trek gets a lot of plants for foreign planets from there.
Vanessa Giovich ’04, Venture Independent Study, San Ramon
 
I would study some part of the jungle, because there are so many unknown animals and plants that could help or be used for cures.
Erin Hafey, ’04, Moreau Catholic HS, Hayward
 
I don't think we should explore anything, because the environment should remain a mystery. Animals don't explore human habitats, so we shouldn't explore theirs.
Laura Blittman, ’06, Deer Valley HS Antioch
 
I would study the "underwater world." I find sea life and the incredible number of unknown creatures so fascinating. I also think that the increasing depletion of the coral reefs is horrible... and I would love to do as much as I can to help save them!
Shana Rappaport, ’05, Miramonte HS, Orinda
 
I would like to study Africa. I am very interested in understanding the flora and fauna of this continent, and determining the abundance (or lack thereof) of the natural resources, which have kept Africa in a third-world state, stunting the prosperity of the African people.
Natalie Nava, ’05, Monte Vista High School
 
I would study Antarctica because it probably wouldn't take very long.
Ben Lerch, ’06, Washington HS, Fremont

Question of the Month for May - Let’s hear your answers!


"What action do you think massive amounts of people should take and how would you propose it to them?" -
Submitted by Yvea Eaton, I-YEL and Lick-Wilmerding HS, San Francisco

Send your answer by April 25 to 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

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