Contact Us

Warning!   Dangerous Pest Epidemic

Christopher Gioia,  Albany High School

So far, the moth has been contained in the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, Alameda, San Rafael, El Cerrito, and Albany.

If this moth spreads throughout the state of California, the California Department of Food and Agriculture believes it can deplete the agricultural economy by 100 million dollars.

Wasting no time, the CDFA have been setting traps set out all throughout the state to determine its location.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Food and Agriculture Department are asking people in the Berkeley – Richmond Area to not take any live plants out of their gardens.  Transporting live plants could spread the moth’s infestation.

Fading Earth

Sean Krimmel, Northgate HS, Walnut Creek

Each day I wake to a glimmering sun and pale blue sky.
The world around me doesn’t stay the same.
Metropolises are to be marveled by mankind.
These concrete jungles are becoming quite lame.

A retreat into nature is what I need,
But between the fight of humanity and nature, who will succeed?

The mountain tops are melting,
The ocean is heating up,
Forests are disappearing,
The overflow of trash is filling the world’s cup.

A retreat into nature is what I need,
But between the fight of humanity and nature, who will succeed?

The ice is getting thinner,
The ozone filled with gas,
Where will the polar bears go?
Our world is dying fast.

A retreat into nature is becoming harder to find
Will humanity realize they are out of their minds?

Letters to Dr. Green

EarthTeam’s own environmental
  “advice” columnist with a prescription for what ails her readers   –and the Earth.

Dear Dr. Green,

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Al Gore has done more for the environment than many Americans. However, I am not sure what he is doing lately.  Can you please fill me in on his latest accomplishments? I know he won the Oscars, but I hear he is doing even bigger things in the white house.

Thanks!!!

Al Gore Groupie

Dear Al Gore Groupie,

Reference:
1.http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F15FA3F540C718EDDAA0894DF404482
2. Jenny Clad, The Climate Project

Dear Dr. Green,

I am a really active high school junior. Between sports teams, AP classes, and being in plays, there is no time to save the world.  The more I learn about climate change and other problems in the world, the guiltier I am for not taking the time to help.  In all honestly, I am concentrating intensely on my journey to get into a prestigious university.  Is there a way that I can help a significant environmental cause without completely changing my daily life?

Helplessly,

Environmental Wannabe

Dear Environmental Wannabe,

I have a remedy!  You can help the environment with a simple click of your mouse.   New ad-supported websites immediately come to mind.  By merely clicking a button, you can contribute to saving the rainforest, AIDS funding, and even purchase books for underprivileged kids.  It’s free and a complete boredom killer.

Here are some different websites to get started at:                                                                                  

• Charity Click Donation – Here, you can indirectly donate to many sites at once!
• CharityUSA – This database of sites includes The Rainforest Site and The Breast Cancer Site.
• Click2Donate – On this website, you can login to track your clicks over time. You can do anything from conserving land to stopping violence against women.
•  Red Jellyfish – This one is fun! You can click to feed chimps and save the rainforest.
• Breast Cancer Mail – You can fund cancer research just by emailing. Breast cancer runs in my family, so I am definitely going to scope this out.
• Care2 – Eco-charity haven.
• PlanetSave – Here is a free email service whose members have saved nearly 1 million sq ft of rainforest so far!
• Charity Café - There couldn’t be anything better:  “100% of ad profits are donated each time you search using the Ask.com search engine. “
• GoodSearch – Wow, I had no idea: 50% of their revenue goes to charity, with Yahoo!-generated search results.
• GoodTree – You can even be creative and “personalize your homepage with weather, news and videos. They'll donate 50% of revenues each time you search using results compiled from Google, MSN Search and Yahoo!”

Now Start Clicking!
Dr. Green
References:
Ideal Bite—A Sassier Shade of Green, Feb 1, 2007

Morning Sun Rays
by Kai Luu, Oakland HS, Oakland
Click photo to view larger image

The Beauty Beneath My Feet

By Max Torres, St Ignatius Loyola School

As I walked along the soft yet stury sand, the feeling of cool air rushing against my face
Felt like a strong, gentle touch rubbing against my cheeks.
The Wind, the smooth and icy breeze that burrowed through my skin
Created a quiet sensation that coursed from one part of my body to the next.
Noticing the colorful gravel beneath my shoes gave the beach a sense of identity
and uniqueness.

Looking ahead towards the tall, sturdy rocks that formed mountains and mountains of
Radio Lario from years of life, now deceased, living behind not their souls
But proof of their existence.

Gazing past the basalt and greywacke stones, the ocean appeared before my eyes.
I have always dreamt of a vast blue and clear water that leaped outwards
From the sunset to the shore when land and water meet for the first time.
I imagined the great blue water heading out towards the sunset where neither land nor a stop sign can be seen.
But as I stared into the rushing waves crashing into the rocks that lay between
The shore and the vast water,
I noticed the color of the liquid.
Different from my dreams had shown me.
I believed and imagined the clouds above my head had somehow rained colors of
Turquoise, lime green and blue into the water that ran across the gravel for miles
And all missed into one distinctive color.

Just by looking at the vast, aquatic fluid that covered my view from right to left,
I could almost feel the rush of air, coming off the shore.
I could feel its cold, icy touch running up and down my whole entire flesh.
I could smell the salty air that extended from the minerals of the water to the gravel below my feet.

I could feel and see the life that coursed through this land of beauty.
I was rare to see this kind of beauty in such a day
where light do not shine above our heads,
but lonely clulsters of clouds, surrounding the entire sky that stretched out what seemed to
be for an eternity, were to be seen

One Night
by Stacey Jung, Campolindo High School, Moraga
Click photo to view larger image

Learning about the Inconvenient Truth

by Kevin Shen, Irvington HS, Fremont

The Global Warming Campaign meeting on February 18 may have seemed smaller than the previous meetings – only about 15 students showed up. Yet there was plenty of action to go around.

New faces like Justin brought energy to the campaign, and Justin graciously offered his laughs and scientific knowledge to the meeting. Meanwhile, veterans like Adam shared stories of their ongoing efforts to promote awareness about global warming in their communities. Adam in particular talked of difficulties he had in trying to pass a screening of Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth at Acalanes HS. Towards the end of the meeting we discussed fundraising, jumped around to get the distress of climate change out of our systems, and talked about how best to spread our message.

But the main attraction of the meeting was not the block of ice perched atop the spotlight (I forgot to ask what that block of ice was for). It was none other than the guest speaker, Carter Brooks. Brooks is an experienced lecturer on the inconvenient truth of climate change. In fact, he was one of the first fifty people trained by Al Gore to give the presentation. Of course, Brooks does not follow the conventional mold, and likes to add his own flair to his presentations.

Brooks claimed that climate change will be the next big thing to change civilization. After all, it is truly a global problem that knows no political boundaries. Brooks then ensued with a quick overview of the science behind climate change. Students present at the meeting learned about the carbon and energy cycles, and the dangerous transactions we humans are making in the carbon “bank account.” Apparently humans are disrupting the natural dynamic equilibrium of carbon dioxide flows by taking carbon stored in fuels, the “vault”, and releasing over six gigatons (that’s over six billion tons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. From the atmosphere, the excess carbon dioxide changes the chemistry of the land and ocean (and of course the atmosphere too). As Svante Arrhenius said a century ago, “We are evaporating our coal mines into the air.” The coal that took 5million years to store will be burned in 500 years

To make the presentation more interactive, the audience was given actual, physical coal to hold as well as a bundle of $400. Dynamic graphs that Brooks presented showed us just how much levels of carbon dioxide had risen in the air in just the past century. Students were captivated as they saw the nearly vertical growth line, which Brooks humorously labeled with his own life events: dancing disco, marriage, his daughter’s 5th birthday and so on.

The science we learned was truly startling and often depressing. Take this on for size: CO2 levels haven’t been this high in 20,000,000 years. One remark Brooks had was: sure, the earth has been warmer before, but that was a earth radically different from the one we live in today, and we may not have time to adapt.

There were several common responses that Brooks related to us: depression, denial, panic, doomsday scenarios, and uninformed optimism to name a few. Indeed, I myself was feeling a bit despondent and gloomy after the scale of the problem seeped into my mind. Luckily Brooks embarked on telling us how to confront the issue of global warming.

Global warming is no longer a scientific issue: it is a social problem as well governed by emotions and political conversations. We must realize this and be part of the story. Brooks showed pictures of large, inspirational “crowd art” where a large number of dedicated people assembled to form formations that when photographed aerially sent powerful messages to the world.

In the meantime, we can cap emissions and advance technology, yet that will only buy time. A soundtrack from Titanic Brooks played for us drove this point home: “The pumps buy you time, but minutes only.”

But in the end, Brooks asks us to look within ourselves to kindle the spiritual awakening. He showed us a picture from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer:

Tom Sawyer managed to make painting fences fun, and Huckleberry Finn joined in the work! Taking this humorous anecdote, Carter Brooks ended his presentation asking us to use our imagination. We can make this crisis fun and exciting as well, and hold on tight for the adventure society is about to take!

Students in Alaska Speak Out About Global Climate Change and Their Village

A Better Greenhouse?

By Veronica Topp, Diablo View Middle School, Clayton

A greenhouse is a glass structure where plants are grown.  For years, it has been common knowledge that plants thrive in greenhouses at the right temperature. Greenhouses solve one of the problems of agriculture, which is that farming is seasonal.  In greenhouses, growing plants and crops in not seasonal or periodical because the greenhouse has a controlled environment.  Certain factors have to be controlled accurately for maximum crop growth.  These factors include temperature, carbon dioxide intensity and comparative humidity.

The problem with greenhouses though, is that they release carbon-dioxide and other bad chemicals into the air. They also use up a lot of energy. Dutch researcher, Rachel van Ootenghem, designed a new control-system for a solar powered greenhouse. This new greenhouse has a high-quality control system with sustainable energy which increases crop produce and it lowers the gas use.  This new, solar greenhouse has an improved roof cover, heat adjustment system and humidity adjustment system.  Heat in the present greenhouse is controlled by using fossil fuels and the greenhouse can be ventilated in order to reduce humidity and temperature. Van Ooteghem’s new greenhouse control system reduces the loss of energy and the heat is recycled. This means that the right amount of energy will be used to control the greenhouse climate easily.           

Walk to School Day

Audrey Knox and Adrienne King, Walnut Creek Intermediate

We all know that walking to school is a good for your health and the health of the environment, but still, many students at Walnut Creek Intermediate don’t walk. Some say they live too far away.  Others merely claim that it’s too cold or they’re too lazy. Code Green, a new club at WCI, hosts walk to school days to promote knowledge of the benefits of walking to school.  We are having monthly walk to school days to encourage students to help the environment, and to realize how fun and rewarding walking to school can be.

Slashing and Burning Potential

Erik LaDue, Clayton Valley High, Clayton

At a first glance, deforestation can be said to have many economic benefits. Deforestation is used to clear land for agriculture and cattle ranching. In countries filled with trees, logging industries can flourish and become great monetary assets.

            However, the short term effects of plundering ecological resources are greatly outweighed by their consequences.

            For instance: after removing the forest to plant crops in the rich soil, there is no natural ecosystem to replenish the soil. After two years, soil that was once nutrient rich becomes infertile and useless to farmers, who must cut down more forest area to continue getting the same crop results as before. The old land is barren and usually abandoned. For countries whose economies are heavily reliant on agriculture, the continuing loss of useful soil is a disastrous trend.

remove the forests would be forgotten as a surge of poverty and famine strikes the country. The Dust Bowl, which was the product of removing native trees and other plants, is an excellent example of these disasters.

            Fortunately for these endangered countries and other third world nations, ecology specialists have developed agro-forestry methods that keep soil rich and decrease the need for widespread deforestation.             One method is multistory cropping, which involves mimicking a natural ecosystem. This creates a crop system that replenishes the soil’s nutrients and prevents erosion and runoff, which are factors that stunt reforestation when the area is no longer used for crops.

            Another way to make the most out of less land is alley cropping, which involves making “alleyways” of different crops. Each crop will perform different functions to maintain soil quality. Together, the crops will replenish the soil’s nutrients constantly.

            We must do away with the antique methods that were employed by people who saw a world lush with virgin forests and embrace ecologically supportive economic practices that will be the products of our society’s self-individuation.