Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Save the Clouded Leopards!

how cute are they?!
While you may have been trying to watch the fire-ball explosion near the Key Bridge off of the LXR rooftops (you know who you are), these adorable clouded leopards were born to the National Zoo.

Clouded leopards are vulnerable to extinction due to hunting and DEFORESTATION. For more information about clouded leopards, click here.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Weekly Recyclemania Stats

Where does Georgetown stand?

Here's what Jon has to say about this...

1) I find the standings in the Grand Champion to be the most impressive, for it shows that our recycling rate is in the top 25%.
2) The population of the campus listed on the website is 17,870, which includes all postgraduate students and all staff (including those at the Law Center and the Wisconsin Offices, respectively); consequently, I do not place as much personal attention on most of the per capita statistics.
3) However, despite the population concern, there is no point complaining about the benefit we receive in getting a top spot for waste minimization.


Grand Champion
50 Georgetown University34.63 %
out of 204 (TOP 25%)

Per Capita Classic
191 Georgetown University5.87
out of 292

Waste Minimization
20 Georgetown University16.96
out of 151 (TOP 15%)

Gorilla Prize
93 Georgetown University104952.00
out of 292 (TOP THIRD)

Paper
149 Georgetown University1.86
out of 204

Cardboard
75 Georgetown University3.33
out of 203 (TOP 40%)

Bottles and Cans
133 Georgetown University0.69
out of 210

Thursday, March 19, 2009

$10 Dollars to see Lebron James?

Like basketball? Or maybe you're just looking for some good, low-priced fun on a Thursday night...

Either way, Eco-Action has access to an unlimited amount of $10 tickets for the Washington Wizards "Go Green" game on April 2, which happens to be against Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is an awesome offer, and we'd like you all to be a part of it. As mentioned, the game is on a Thursday night - it's at 8, at the Verizon Center.

$10, Lebron James. With more people signing up each day, this should be a good time. AND if Eco-Action can sell 100 tickets, we'll be able to promote solutions to environmental issues that night at a booth in the Verizon Center concourse. So by buying discounted tickets to see the one of the best players in basketball, you'll also be supporting a great cause!

If you're interested, please contact Matt Buccelli (mrb73@georgetown.edu, mattbuccelli@gmail.com), as soon as possible, with your name and the number of tickets you'd like. Money will be collected and tickets distributed once a head count is established.

Thanks, and we'll hope to see you on April 2!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Now Accepting Flex, Debit, and Cash - Grab and Go Bags!

Leo's is now accepting Flex, Debit, and cash for those awesome green mesh bags! This is super exciting - mostly because it means I don't have to table anymore...

According to Ripai, he already sold one today (this was circa noon) and he said he had sold three yesterday.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Power Shift Makes CNN front page..thanks, Brooke!

Washington protesters push 'clean energy,' protest coal use

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Global warming concerns took center stage Monday as two organizations held rallies to draw attention to an issue that President Barack Obama has promised to place near the top of his agenda.
Demonstrators stand outside the Capitol Power Plant in Washington on Monday to protest the plant's use of coal.

Demonstrators stand outside the Capitol Power Plant in Washington on Monday to protest the plant's use of coal.

A group of young protesters gathered in front of the Capitol to rally on behalf of legislation to reduce carbon emissions, decrease dependence on coal and oil, and speed a national drive toward "clean" energy.

Later Monday, hundreds of representatives of a coalition of environmental, public health, social justice and other advocacy organizations marched around Capitol Hill and encircled a Washington coal-fired power plant to highlight the issue of climate change.

The group, protesting the Capitol Power Plant's use of coal, stood in front of the plant's gated entrances. The plant powers the heating and cooling systems in the Capitol, as well as roughly a dozen other federal office buildings on Capitol Hill.

"The Capitol Power Plant, sitting just blocks from Capitol Hill, symbolizes the stranglehold coal has over our government and future," the group said on its Web site.

"It's not the largest or the dirtiest power plant in the country, but as the plant that is actually run by and for Congress it serves as an incredibly iconic symbol of what is wrong with our country's energy and climate policy."

No arrests were made as a result of the protest, which "didn't affect the operations of the power plant," Capitol police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released a letter Thursday calling for the plant to convert to 100 percent natural gas by the end of 2009.

"Taking this major step toward cleaning up the Capitol Power Plant's emissions would be an important demonstration of Congress' willingness to deal with the enormous challenges of global warming, energy independence and our inefficient use of finite fossil fuels," they wrote.

Several members of Congress and environmental leaders addressed the earlier rally, which was held at the conclusion to Power Shift '09, a four-day environmental summit organized by the Energy Action Coalition.

The coalition describes itself as an umbrella organization of 700 groups fighting for "clean energy solutions and the creation of a new green economy."

It's time to "turn up the political heat in Washington so we can turn down the heat on Mother Earth," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, told the crowd. "The science tells us that the time for talking about this problem is over. The time for action is now."

The concept of "clean coal" is a "dirty lie," added environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy. "The most important thing you can do is not to change your light bulb but to change [members of Congress who have been] corrupted by ... dirty, filthy industry."

America needs to be freed from the "carbon cronies," who are part of the "biggest threat to civilization," Kennedy said.

Monday, March 2, 2009

PowerShift 09: Take a Bite Out of Climate Change and Inequality: Your Plate, Fair Food and the Climate Crisis

This weekend I went to Power Shift at the Convention Center. When I told my friends why I wasn't really celebrating my birthday this weekend because I was going to Power Shift, they all invariably asked "What is Power Shift?"

Power Shift, to put it shortly, was a youth-led conference calling on Congress for immediate and effective action on climate change.

It was a really really awesome experience. But what I really want to talk about was this AMAZING workshop I went to about the interrelatedness of food, climate change, the economy, social justice, and workers rights (including some discussion about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers)...

To start off, I'm a huge fan of Micahel Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT NOW because he can explain these relationships infinitely better than I can. This book seriously changed the way I look at food.



As far as social justice goes... I met a student who works for the Student Farmworker Alliance as part of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. It kind of goes without saying that these migrant workers are constantly in danger, with all the pesticides and chemicals around them. I know that Georgetown sends some students to Immokalee as part of its Alternative Spring Break program, so if anyone going/who went could comment on this that would be great! Pollan also goes into more detail about social justice in his book.

Today, Americans are always in a rush and tend to eat fast food. We all know that fast food is unhealthy, but what about the implications of fast food? Basically, fast food is corn. A McDonald's chicken McNugget is mostly corn and pieces of chicken, which were fed on corn. There's a huge political implication concerning corn because most of America's farms are... you guessed it, corn farms. These farms are hugely subsidized by the government and inherently unsustainable.

Soil NEEDS to have differentiation or will be stripped of nutrients... which is why pesticides are needed on these huge farms. Then there's the problem of runoff from the pesticides, which ends up flowing down river or becoming acid rain, and ends up affecting America's impoverished more than anyone else.

Cows, a major component of fast food, are also corn fed. However, in nature cows are inherently grass-eaters. In order to allow cows to eat corn, farmers need to give their cows a bunch of antibiotics. Though previous government administrations refused to address this topic, it's common sense. You are what you eat and since American's eat a lot of beef, they're ingesting a ton of antibiotics as well. I don't even know if I need to say this... but there is NO possible way that these antibiotics are good for you.

Food is one universal necessity and it's one of my particular passions as far as the environment goes. What are your thoughts about this?