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The Cool Schools Global Warming Campaign meeting at Berkeley High School on October 7, 2007 was a collaboration of students from various Bay Area schools coming together and learning about global warming. Through a tour of Berkeley, Chicory Bechtel, the Cool Schools program director, led a group of students to certain areas near Berkeley High School. First, the students were led to Washington Elementary, where they discovered that this would be the site of the first public school in Berkeley to be solely dependent on solar power. Next, the ambitious group of teenagers was led to a Milvia St. a.k.a. "Bicycle Boulevard," which is a street where the bikers have priority. Through this designated strip, the city of Berkeley encourages bike riders thus lowering air pollution because of the mitigated use of the automobile. Just across Milvia St. stood newly built Berkeley City College, which was awarded a silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification because the majority of the building was created by using recycled materials and is energy efficient. Finally, the students were treated to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, which is one of the few ice cream franchises that has taken action on fighting global warming by changing their packaging to accommodate a greener lifestyle.
After a long day, the students returned to Berkeley High and met with a representative from PG&E and discovered some of the goals and actions PG&E has taken to ensure a safe future for California. An emphasis on renewable resources, rebates on energy efficient appliances, and goals for the future were all emphasized.
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