Summer Opportunities and our final meeting of the year

There are many opportunities in the summertime to spend your days outdoors with nature, including camping, hiking, swimming at lakes, etc. But you can also find workshops, classes and activities in the area related to the environment and nature by following the newspaper calendars and looking online.

I found a few opportunities that might be interesting to club members. The first is one that I've recommended before: taking advantage of the classes Eric Nicholas, Pleasanton City Naturalist, teaches at the Alviso Adobe Community Park off Foothill Road (see Volunteering at the Alviso Adobe for more information about the park where Eric Nicholas works). You can browse through the classes he's offering here and register for them online here, send in a registration form (located within the activities guide), or visit the Parks and Community Services Department downtown to sign up in person. My sister at one of Eric Nicholas's classes about Native American tools. She is carving her own design into sandstone. The bowl has crushed berries with olive oil, to be used as paint.

Another opportunity I came across is through Las Positas College Community Education. You may have received their summer course brochure in the mail, but if not you can view it online here. The class that I found particularly interesting is one entitled Eco-Living For Teens. Here is the course description:

Overview of current environmental challenges and sustainability principles as related to modern day living. Learn how to calculate and reduce your personal carbon footprint and examine how regular, day-to-day actions and choices affect the larger community and planet. Tips and resources that will help you make an impact in your own life and community and de-mystify the "great green hype." Students will be asked to calculate their current ecological footprint and bring the results to class. Survey takes less than 10 minutes. Please contact the office for survey address when you have registered for the class.

Thursday, 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
1 session on August 5, 2010
Tuition: $39.00
Instructor: Turner (not our Mrs. Turner)
Location: Las Positas College

It is a little expensive, but it looks like a neat opportunity to learn more about environmental living.

Hopefully you find these and other opportunities worth-while this summer. If you come across any other interesting opportunites, please email our club so we can forward them along to everyone (avhsenvironmental@yahoo.com).

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We had our last Environmental Club meeting of the 2009-2010 school year on Wednesday, June 2. It was my last Environmental Club meeting at Amador ever (see my mention of it in this recent blog post), and I'm sad that I will no longer be an officer of this wonderful, inspirational club. However, I'm excited for someone else to fill my role as secretary/publicist and for Liana and Patricia to continue to do excellent work for the environment and for Amador's environmental consciousness. I've enjoyed every minute working with the club, and I wish you all the best of luck in your lives as students, environmental activists, friends, and awesome people. I will try to visit you guys before I go to UC Santa Cruz in September, and I will definitely come to any events you have next year. I'll stay on your email list and Facebook page, so my presence will not completely disappear, and I'll update Liana and Patricia on any cool environmental things I'm doing next year, as well as pass along new green tips I learn. Thank you all for helping make my senior year an awesome, fulfilling experience!

Here are some pictures from our last meeting. Patricia had us play a fun game where we drew nature scenes on paper that was on top of our heads. Very funny!

Everyone drawing pictures on their heads!

The best drawing

Club member Taylor with her drawing

Taylor with her organic Amy's lunch.

Happy Almost-Summer!

Melissa
Green Gal

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/

National Agriculture Day: March 20, 2010, the First Day of Spring

From the AgDay website about why we should celebrate Agriculture Day:

"Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few people truly understand this contribution. This is particularly the case in our schools, where students may only be exposed to agriculture if they enroll in related vocational training.

By building awareness, the Agriculture Council of America is encouraging young people to consider career opportunities in agriculture.

Each American farmer feeds more than 144 people ... a dramatic increase from 25 people in the 1960s. Quite simply, American agriculture is doing more - and doing it better. As the world population soars, there is an even greater demand for the food and fiber produced in the United States."

We owe the basis for our society's knowledge about agriculture to the first farmers of ancient civilizations who settled down and began experimenting with plant foods. See the below image of the major agricultural regions of the ancient world. Here is some more information.

For more information on the origins of agriculture, watch this video:

Happy First Day of Spring!

Agriculture Facts: An Apple A Day

This week is National Agriculture Week. Each day, we will post a new set of agriculture facts. We got these awesome facts from AgDay.org.

- "Apples are a member of the rose family.
- Washington state grows the most apples in the U.S.
- The apples from one tree can fill 20 boxes every year.
- Fresh apples float because 25 percent of their volume is air.
- In the winter, apple trees need to 'rest' for about 900-1,000 hours below 45 degrees Fahrenheit in order to flower and fruit properly.
- If you grew 100 apple trees from the seeds of one tree, they would all be different.
- Apples are high in fiber.
- There are more than 7,000 varieties of apples grown in the world."


You can buy locally grown apples at the Farmer's Market in Pleasanton. Martinelli's Apple Juice is made of apples grown near Monterey Bay. Here's some information about the apple orchards in California: AllAboutApples.com.