Bulletin Club Green Tip #10: Ride your bike to school

Now that the weather's heating up, it's the perfect time to ride your bike or walk to school. Try to find at least one day each week to leave the car at home and reduce your carbon footprint. May 16-22 is Bike to Work Week, so we'll definitely be encouraging people to ride during that week, but for now, ride at least once a week. (Avoid rainy days like tomorrow, though, unless you're a super hard core environmentalist and in that case, we love you for being so brave!)

Yes this is a ridiculous picture, but it made you take a second look at the email, right? :)

Bulletin Green Tips #8 and #9

I've been a little neglectful of our Environmental Club blog lately and never got around to posting Green Tips eight and nine. So here they are for archival purposes--and to remind you of them :)

Environmental Club Green Tip #8: Water conservation
Turn the water off when you're brushing your teeth and shampooing your hair. Be water conscious! Some facts from Water.org:
- 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.
- 84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 – 14.
- 884 million people, lack access to safe water supplies, approximately one in eight people. (5)
- The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
- At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.

- Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
- An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
- About a third of people without access to an improved water source live on less than $1 a day.
- Poor people living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
- Without food a person can live for weeks, but without water you can expect to live only a few days.
- The daily requirement for sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, as well as for assuring survival, is about 13.2 gallons per person.

Want to learn more about water issues and ways to help? Visit Water.org!

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Environmental Club Green Tip #9: Celebrate Earth Day!
The 40th Annual Earth Day was last Thursday, April 22. Though officially Earth Week is over, celebrate our beautiful home planet everyday by simply going outside and enjoying what nature has to offer. There are so many opportunities to spend time outdoors either hiking or helping the land through conservation projects; just look online or go hike the ridge on sunny Saturday mornings! You can volunteer or hike with a number of organizations including:

- Sierra Club

- Save Mt. Diablo

- Alviso Adobe Community Park (sign up for programs in the Current Activities Guide for Pleasanton or contact Heather Haugen Rizzoli at Pleasanton’s Museum On Main to register to volunteer. (925) 462-2766; volunteers@museumonmain.org)

- East Bay Regional Parks

These are just a few of the many local organizations that you can work with to spend more time helping our Earth.

Environmental Club's FLOW Showing a Huge Success!

Mrs. Turner was right--extra credit really does bring large crowds! While we the officers were thinking that only a handful of students would show up, at least one-hundred students attended last Wednesday's free showing of the film FLOW. The purpose was to raise awareness, and with an audience that size, the message about the issues surrounding freshwater privitization most definitely reached at least some of them. For more information about the film, please visit the website http://www.flowthefilm.com/. Thank you to everyone who volunteered and to those of you who attended, even if just for extra credit :-)

2010 Goldman Environmental Prize

Patricia, Liana, Swethaa, Krista, and I (Melissa) attended the Goldman Environmental Prize Ceremony on Monday, April 19. Here are some pictures from the inspiring event that took place in San Francisco:


The ceremony took place in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center/Opera House. We sat in the top balcony with the other youth groups from the Bay Area.
The five of us in our seats at the event. My dad and step-mom came with us.
Peter Coyote was the Master of Ceremonies (he narrates The National Parks: America's Best Idea series...I knew I recognized his voice!). You can see him in the bottom left of the picture and on the screen. The man in the wheelchair is Richard N. Goldman, who established the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990 with his wife Rhoda. With him is his daughter, Susan R. Gelman.
Six awards are given out to represent the 6 inhabited areas of Earth. The first award went to Thuli Brilliance Makama of Swaziland, Africa. From the Goldman website: Thuli Brilliance Makama, Swaziland’s only public interest environmental attorney, won a landmark case to include environmental NGO representation in conservation decisions and continues to challenge the forced evictions and violence perpetrated against poverty-stricken communities living on the edges of conservation areas.
For Islands and Island Nations, Humberto Ríos Labrada of Cuba: "A scientist and biodiversity researcher, Humberto Ríos Labrada promoted sustainable agriculture by working with farmers to increase crop diversity and develop low-input agricultural systems that greatly reduce the need for pesticide and fertilizer, encouraging Cuba’s shift from agricultural chemical dependence."
From Europe, Małgorzata Górska of Poland: "Małgorzata Górska led the fight to protect Poland’s Rospuda Valley, one of Europe’s last true wilderness areas, from a controversial highway project that would have destroyed the region’s sensitive ecosystems."
Before the prizes were awarded and following the third prize, Baaba Maal performed. The man on the screen isn't Baaba Maal, but his drummer. Baaba is in the center, playing guitar.
From North America, Lynn Henning of USA: "A family farmer in rural Michigan, Lynn Henning exposed the egregious polluting practices of CAFOs –concentrated animal feeding operations- gaining the attention of the federal EPA and prompting state regulators to issue hundreds of citations for water quality violations."
From Asia, Tuy Sereivathana of Cambodia: "Tuy Sereivathana worked to mitigate human elephant conflict in Cambodia by introducing innovative low-cost solutions, empowering local communities to cooperatively participate in endangered Asian elephant conservation."
From Central and South America, Randall Arauz of Costa Rica: "Drawing international attention to the inhumane and environmentally-catastrophic shark finning industry, Randall Arauz led the campaign to halt the practice in Costa Rica, making his country the new international model for shark protection."
"The Goldman Prize amplifies the voices of these grassroots leaders and provides them with:

•International recognition that enhances their credibility
•Worldwide visibility for the issues they champion
•Financial support of $150,000 to pursue their vision of a renewed and protected environment"

The event was interesting, inspiring and informational! For more information, visit the website at http://www.goldmanprize.org/