Obama: Just say NO to Keystone XL

After 1,252 arrests this summer, a rally of more than 10,000 people at the White House earlier this month, and six months of grassroots protests, rallies, and petitions across the country, the State Department announced last week that it was delaying a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline until at least 2012.

Photo credit: www.heatingoil.com 

What is the Keystone XL pipeline? A 1,700 mile TransCanada pipeline that would carry 900,000 barrels of oil each day from the tar sands in Canada through the U.S. to refineries in Texas. The pipeline would cut through six states, over seventy rivers and streams, aquifers, farms, and backyards, and disrupt native communities.

Extraction of the oil poisons the air and water, requires hundreds of millions of gallons of water each day, and requires deforestation of the boreal forest in Canada. The oil is bitumen, an especially dirty oil whose refinement results in 20% more carbon emissions than does conventional fuel.

The jobs the pipeline would create would be mostly temporary. The environmental, social, and public health costs of the pipeline over decades and centuries would outweigh any short-term job creation. This pipeline would only increase our dependence on fossil fuels for energy, at a time when our money would be better invested in safe, renewable sources of energy.

Much more after the jump...

Congrats to the new board!

Congratulations to the new EcoAction board!

Co-Presidents: Megan Griffin & Fatima Tas

Treasurer: Patricia Cippolitti

VP of Initiatives: Tristana Giunta

Marketing & Multimedia Chair: Madeline Collins

Monk: Colin Segura

Goodbye, good luck, and THANK YOU to our graduating seniors, former Co-Presidents Claire Austin and Seungah Lee! And the best of luck to former Treasurer Coral Keegan on her semester in Thailand!

In the coming weeks, the new board will be discussing EcoAction's focus for the next two semesters. If you have an idea for an issue you'd like us to work on, just let us know!

Recycling WIN and FAIL!

Recycling FAIL! 

First of all, you can't recycle pizza, and second, cardboard pizza boxes should be stacked by paper recycling bins.

Recycling WIN! 

I think. This squirrel is graciously cleaning our recycling bins by taking food away!

Much thanks to Colin Segura for this great WINs and FAILs!

DC YEA!

Last week’s DC Green Student Organizations Forum was a great success! Students from green groups at Georgetown, American University, George Washington University, and Trinity Washington University met at American University to talk about how green groups can help each other and work together.

First, we did introductions, and learned about what different groups are doing on their campuses. Claire Austin (co-president of EcoAction) and I talked about the new community compost, the Greenpeace campaign against Asia Pulp & Paper, the Magis Row weatherization project, the recent victory with double-sided printing, and our upcoming trip to the Tar Sands rally, among other things. We heard about the Roots & Shoots chapter at George Washington University, about the development of a new environmental group at Trinity Washington University, and about the upcoming Food Justice Day at American. In addition, we got some great advice from GW students about how to expand our composting program.

Above all, though, the biggest achievement at the Forum was our decision to revive DC YEA – the D.C. Youth Environmental Alliance. The mission of DC YEA is “to serve as a dynamic alliance of DC Youth, creating positive environmental change in our schools, community, and government.” We gathered each other's contact information and set up the DC YEA Facebook page. Through DC YEA, we’ll keep in touch about environmental events on our campuses and in DC. We’ll be able to attend each other’s events and meet up at events in the city. Also, we’ll be able to keep giving advice to each other about our sustainability efforts on our respective campuses.

More about DC YEA after the jump, including our first event! 

Anthropocene and Environmentalism

Anthropocene: the debatable new geological age marked primarily by the influence of mankind over nature.

This article in The Economist, "A man-made world," focuses on the changing forces on the earth. The enormous amount of humans on the planet, as well as the surging technology, may mean that geoengineering may be the best way to reckon the relationship between humans and the environment.

"The Holocene never supported a civilization of 10 billion reasonably rich people, as the Anthropocene must seek to do, and there is no proof that such a population can fit into a planetary pot so circumscribed. So it may be that a “good Anthropocene”, stable and productive for humans and other species they rely on, is one in which some aspects of the Earth system’s behavior are lastingly changed."

But what exactly does that mean, in terms of how we look at environmentalism and energy production? According to the article, this isn't the first time we've tried and succeeded at changing a significant way in which the earth operates (19th century brought the first attempt at geoengineering the planet, this time to regulate nitrogen levels).

"Better to embrace the Anthropocene’s potential as a revolution in the way the Earth system works, they argue, than to try to retreat onto a low-impact path that runs the risk of global immiseration."

Let's be honest here. The science is over my head. But what this article brings to light is the idea that in looking at the earth and its ecosystems, you can't consider it as it was without the influence of humans and technology. One must consider and "change the paradigm" in order to really understand what the earth should be like with humans on the planet, using the land, and whether we are doing it justice. They argue for an influx of geoengineering in order to right our wrongs. But what does that mean for hot-button issues like the proposal of the Keystone XL pipeline and tar sand mines in Utah?

When asked what the place of nature is in the age of Anthropocene, Dr. Erle Ellis maintained the importance of environmentalism in our decision making. We just have to reconsider how we think of it. We as humans in the Anthropocene are permanently intertwined to nature from this point on. As he says, "Nature is something that we create; no longer is nature what creates us... There isn't anything left that hasn't been touched by us. Nature is something that is sustained and it's our job to sustain it."

(Click picture for the full article.)

Energy Security VS Environment- Obama's Dilemma

Yesterday's online issue of the Washington Post highlighted the issues Obama has to decide between in the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. Since this has been such a huge issue, written about almost every week in the papers, I won't go into the small details. But Eilperin and Mufson highlight the reasons behind the cause we're all fighting for in the protest of the pipeline.
The article starts off with, "In May, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben — pondering a simmering energy issue — asked a NASA scientist to calculate what it would mean for the Earth’s climate if Canada extracted all of the petroleum in its rich Alberta oil sands region.
The answer to McKibben’s query came a month later: It would push atmospheric carbon concentrations so high that humans would be unable to avert a climate disaster. 'It is essentially game over,' wrote James E. Hansen, who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is one of the nation’s leading voices against fossil fuel energy."
(Click photo for article.)

D.C. Green Student Organizations Meeting

Want to get off-campus for a night and meet some other college kids who care about the environment? Come to the DC Green Students Organizations Meeting this Thursday, October 20, at American University! EcoAction will be meeting at the Dupont GUTS bus stop at 6 PM, or you can meet us at American at 7 PM. You can RSVP on the Facebook event. 

This is the semesterly inter-collegeiate green groups meeting, where green groups from Georgetown, American University, George Washington University, Catholic University, Georgetown Law, the University of DC, and others get together to talk about what they’re doing and to share ideas! We’ll discuss what works on campus, what doesn’t work, how to work with administration, how to mobilize the student body, and more.

What's the deal with global warming?

Flip to the News Analysis section of this morning's issue of the Times for an update on green America. Elisabeth Rosenthal, a reporter on environmental issues for the New York Times, writes about the declining importance of global warming and environmental issues in both political and civilian America. Don't get me wrong, in light of the economy, job market, and the war, environmentalism can take a bit of a back seat. But the fading importance of green thinking on the political scene is taking a hit on the rest of the US. According to a poll she referenced, only 59% of Americans believe in global warming in comparison to 70% in 2006. One of Obama's campaign plugs was for a greener America and the creation of "green jobs." But will that agenda lose priority when it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline and the antithetical jobs it promises?
(Click on picture for link to article.)

The Future of Food

So the other day, I had an epiphany that instead of watching TV shows to distract myself from work, I should watch movies. That way it only takes up about 2 hours per two days, and the addicting factor isn't present. So on this fateful day, I pulled up Hulu and stumbled upon a documentary labeled, "The Future of Food."

An hour and a half long (perfect for my lunch break), the film was about the truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that are omnipresent in our consumer-driven lives. America's commercialism aside, it was an unsettling account of what you would think is unauthorized pesticide use. Since the extent and type of pesticide use is so new (and patented), the EPA doesn't have sufficient data or reason to set parameters to restrict the use of these pesticides. And even worse, we don't even have the right to know whether or not pesticides were being used in the making of our foods. Even in organic farming, their crops are vulnerable to infiltration of pesticides from farms that use them. The result of which is the disturbing reality that we've dug ourselves into a deep hole of food unnaturalism from which we may not recover, at least without a consistent and powerful concern displayed across the country.

(Click picture for quick-link to the full documentary... and mind-blowing, unsettling reality.)

Tree outside of Darnall on a sunny day!

Communal Composting has begun!

The Magis Row Meditation Houses, Georgetown Energy, GUSA, the Georgetown Garden, and EcoAction are excited to announce that a communal compost has been started at Georgetown! A large, sealable compost bin is now set up in the backyard of 3611 O Street, which is one of the two Magis Row Meditation townhouses, associated with Georgetown’s John Main Center for Meditation.

How will it work? In this first pilot phase, thirty residents on Magis Row and in other off-campus housing who have demonstrated interest are receiving individual composting buckets for their kitchens. They will empty these buckets into the communal bin whenever they are full. Many thanks goes to GUSA for the money for these buckets, and to the Georgetown Garden for the communal bin!

If this goes well, we hope to order more buckets for even more residents, both on- and off-campus, to use, so email us if you’d be interested in receiving a bucket in the future! When the communal bin is full, we’ll bring the compost up to the Georgetown Garden by Kehoe Field, where it will provide fertilizer for students’ plots.

Lots more information after the jump...

Tar Sands Rally - 10/7

What are you doing this Friday at 12 PM?

A. Nothing.

B. Something I don’t feel like doing anyway.

C. Something important that I can’t miss.

I’m going to guess that 95% of you answered A or B. In that case, I’ve got something exciting and worthwhile for you to do! Come to the Tar Sands rally at the Ronald Reagan Building, for the final State Department hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline. (Don’t worry, there’s no risk of getting arrested this time.) Here’s a link to the Facebook event, and here’s the invitation:

"Three months ago when Bill McKibben and others put out a call for a sustained nonviolent action at the White House against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, we didn’t know what the response would be. But the urgency of the issue drove 1,253 people to take a leap of faith, and risk arrest to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

We made history from August 20 – September 3. The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is now the biggest environmental decision facing the President before the next election. We have an opportunity to hold President Obama to his campaign promises and begin to put a dent in the flow of carbon into the atmosphere.

EcoAction News!

Here's the news for EcoAction this week! 

First of all: Like our Facebook page!

Thanks to all of you for coming out to our movie screening of Tapped last Wednesday. 

A big shout out goes to Patricia Cipolliti for helping with the awesome flyers!

Our next meeting will be next Wednesday, October 12 at 8:30pm (Location TBD). 

Upcoming Events in October

Afternoon Power Clean-Up with Office of Off-Campus Student Life (OCSL)

Friday, October 14th | Time: 1:00 PM | Location: meet at OCSL office

Join OCSL and EcoAction, as clean-up our Georgetown neighborhood. More details to come. 

Trip to the Farmers Market in Burleith 

Saturday, October 15th | Time TBD | Meet at front Gates

Join the board and go to the farmers market in Burleith to buy groceries

Nature Walk and Birdwatch / Picnic

Sunday, October 16th | Time: 8AM | Location: Dyke Marsh Wildlife Refuge

Venture off into the nature with an expert and observe the birds. We will walk through the picnic area, the marina, and down Haul Road. The dirt trail that goes through Dyke Marsh and ends in a boardwalk and observation platform. Contact Megan (mag293) for more information. 

Lots more after the jump!

Obama and Environmental Regulation

This post is by Claire Austin (SFS '12), co-president of EcoAction.

When I voted for Obama in 2008 (take that, underclassmen) I was sure he’d be the meanest, greenest President we’ve ever had. At first it seemed to be the case: the administration made strengthening environmental regulations a policy priority, and started programs like Cash for Clunkers. This was the administration when the Waxman-Markey bill passed in the house (gasp!) and the EPA, now under the guidance of Lisa Jackson, was well on the way to setting a maximum ground-level ozone limit recommended by the panel of scientists that advise the EPA on Clean Air Act Issues. We were sure that when the Affordable Care Act passed, the environment would be next on the agenda.

Ground-level ozone is the main component of smog, and is created when sunlight interacts with chemicals released from combusting fuels and other industrial processes. It has the same chemical composition as the layer of the stuff in the atmosphere famous for its hole, but the O3 molecule’s concentration in the lower levels of the atmosphere is dangerous for living things. Ozone, like other gases, is measured in parts per billion. If you have a billion marbles, the EPA says that 75 of these marbles can be ozone. This means manufacturers have to work to reduce their emissions of the gases that lead to ozone buildup at the local level. The limit was set in 2008, when former EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson lowered the limit from 84ppb. The EPA was recently told to stop its progress in drafting a regulation that would lower the limit further to between 60 and 70ppb.

Tapped: the Movie

This Wednesday at 8:30 PM in ICC 119, EcoAction is screening Tapped: the Movie, an award-winning documentary about the bottled water industry. There will be delicious food and awesome people, so make sure to come along, and bring your friends!

"Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig's debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water.

From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car and I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.

From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. A powerful portrait of the lives affected by the bottled water industry, this revelatory film features those caught at the intersection of big business and the public's right to water."

Sunday blogroll

In Minnesota, colleges are facing a backlash after banning the sale of bottled water. The reason for the backlash? College Republicans say that the ban restricts "what students can and cannot do in their own free will."

(Psst...interested in bottled water? Come to EcoAction's screening of "Tapped" on Wednesday, September 30 at 8:30 PM, location TBD!)


Rolling Stone lists ten things Obama must do to protect the environment. Number one: stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Obama did do something right, though - in a message to Congress on Thursday, he announced diplomatic sanctions on Iceland over their commercial whale hunting.

"To the surprise of almost no one," the New York Times writes on its Green blog, the EPA is delaying issuing new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. A commenter asks, "Can the EPA do anything about the smell emanating from the current Administration?"

More news after the jump!

Green $HOUTOUTs

This post is by Claire Austin (SFS '12), co-president of EcoAction. 


Hey everyone, this is my very first blog post (embarrassing, I know) and since I have stagefright I’m going to keep this short and sweet. This is the first of what I’m sure will be many $HOUTOUTs (yes, I wrote it like that) to University administrators working to green the hilltop.


First off is Audrey Stewart, our alpha and omega of sustainability. Audrey is the Program Coordinator for Sustainability at Georgetown and she has been instrumental in getting students’ projects off the ground and connecting them to campus or D.C. resources. Since she arrived on campus, she has worked tirelessly on projects large and small within university administration to reduce our carbon footprint.


Erika Cohen-Derr, Director of Student Programs, is also a great friend of EcoAction and a proponent of sustainability on campus. She takes special care to incorporate student suggestions on how to reduce waste at student events like SAC Fair and Georgetown Day, and is helping us develop materials to train student group leaders in sustainability and reward them with “Green Organization” status.


More $HOUTOUTs after the jump!

Sunday blogroll

It's a new semester, and Renewable Energy Turns Me On is going to be continuing the Sunday blogrolls that started last semester. If you find any interesting articles throughout the week that you think should be featured, email them to mec234@georgetown.edu!  


Top news this week was Obama's decision to pull back proposed air pollution standards for ground-level ozone, as The Washington Post reports. Obama considered the regulations too burdensome for the economy. 

Students rally at the University of Richmond
Photo credit: Green UR's Flickr photostream

The tar sands protests didn't stop at the White House. When Obama visited the University of Richmond last week, students there organized a rally of their own to greet him. 


Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that in the absence of strong federal oversight, pipeline operators are basically regulating themselves. 


Jimmy Fallon and Eddie Vedder harmonize about the tar balls from last year's oil spill, which are washing ashore in the south because of Tropical Storm Lee. 


An economist at the Environmental Defense Fund made a bold claim in the New York Times on Wednesday: without the right economic policies, individual action to protect the environment simply "does not work."


For all you vegetarians and vegans: Mother Jones looks into the growing science of in-vitro meat. It could be great for the environment, but would you eat it? 


Greenpeace has good news: Google has finally decided to be transparent about its energy usage. Their stats are in - now it's Facebook's turn to come clean about its carbon footprint. 

Tar Sands Action: Why I got arrested

N.B. : EcoAction does NOT endorse getting arrested. This article is written by a member of EcoAction but does not represent EcoAction as a group. The author did this action on her own, totally separate from EcoAction. 

Getting arrested wasn’t part of my back-to-school plans. But there I was, a week after moving in for my junior year, in handcuffs in front of the White House.

Photo credit: Josh Lopez (http://joshlopezphoto.com/) 

The reason? A 1,700 mile pipeline that would carry viscous, dirty oil from the tar sands in Albert, Canada, through the United States to refineries in Texas. The pipeline, called the Keystone XL, would carry 900,000 barrels of oil a day. It would cross six states and over seventy rivers and streams, including the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. It would cross aquifers like the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies water to two million Americans and supports $20 billion worth of agriculture. It would cut through farms and backyards, and disrupt indigenous communities like First Nations tribes in Canada and native tribes in the United States.

First Meeting & Upcoming Campaigns

Hello EcoAction! Thanks for stopping by our table yesterday at SAC Fair. It was awesome to see new and familiar faces.

In the spirit of Georgetown, this year EcoAction is going to "think globally, act locally." We'll focus on university-based issues in our initiatives and campaigns, and on global issues for our larger events. 

Our first meeting will be this Wednesday (9/7) at 6:30pm @Healy Lawn. We'll be eating delicious food from the Farmers Market, introducing EcoAction to new members, and talking about what's to come this year. 

Psst...like us on Facebook to stay updated on all EcoAction's events this semester! 

On-campus initiatives & campaigns after the jump!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back, EcoAction! We're excited for a new school year and we hope you are too. Here's some upcoming events and opportunities for you. 

First off, SAC Fair is this Sunday, September 4, from 11:00 to 3:00. Come visit us at SAC Fair to meet new and familiar faces, and to learn how you can be involved this year.


Second, do you want to contribute to Renewable Energy Turns Me On? Just send me an email at mec234@georgetown.edu! We're looking for anyone who's interested in blogging, whether it's photographs, short posts, longer articles, or blogrolls, on any environmental topic, from Georgetown issues to international news to personal reflections. Send me an email and I'll add you as a contributor! 

Internships, opportunities, and initiatives after the jump!

March on Blair Mountain

All photos by Madeline Collins.

This past Saturday was the final day of the March on Blair Mountain. The march, organized by Appalachia Rising with support from groups like the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council, spanned five days and over fifty miles. Activists began on June 6 in Marmet, West Virginia, and marched to Blair, West Virginia, on June 11, to commemorate the 90^th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain and to protest the destruction of Blair Mountain by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. I joined four other people from Greenpeace for the last day of the march and for the rally on the top of Blair Mountain.

Some background on the Battle of Blair Mountain: in the summer of 1921, 10,000 to 15,000 coal miners marched that same fifty-mile route from Marmet to Blair to fight for the right to unionize in southwestern West Virginia coal mines. The miners met with machine guns, bombs, and poison gas wielded by state police, the National Guard, and, eventually, the U.S. army. Hundreds were wounded and at least sixteen miners were killed. The battle was the biggest armed conflict in U.S. history since the Civil War and is considered to have been a major catalyst for the twentieth century labor movement in the United States.

If the coal companies have their way, though, this historic site will be obliterated by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. As I described in an earlier blog post about the Congressional hearings regarding EPA’s ability to regulate MTR, this unbelievably destructive form of surface mining involves the blasting away of a portion of a mountain to expose the coal seams underneath. Before the explosives are used, the land is deforested, and afterward, the extra soil, known as overburden, is often simply dumped into nearby valleys, creating valley fills.


Lots more after the jump...

Conference Asks: What Should the Future of Food Look Like?

Cross-posted from www.nourishingtheplanet.org. 


All photos courtesy of www.georgetown.edu.

By Mara Schechter

“What has brought us here today is the belief that our current food system is broken… and we believe this system must be changed,” said Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation” and co-producer of “Food, Inc,” at the Future of Food Conference last Wednesday at Georgetown University. Organized by Washington Post Live, this conference brought together policymakers, scientific experts, advocates and food company leaders to think about how to fix the food system.

While not everyone agreed on the best way to go about changes—for example, Susan Crockett, a head of General Mills, had different prescriptions than did Marion Nestle, an advocate for unprocessed foods—all of the conference participants agreed that the conversation was critical and timely.

Author and educator Wendell Berry blamed industrialization for a host of ills, including climate change, hunger, and poverty. “We have no time to spare,” said Gary Hirshberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm. Patrick Holden, Director of the Sustainable Food Trust, urged, “Not only is the current model…unsustainable, but it needs a radical transformation.”

Sunday Blogroll

It's Sunday again, so here is our second blogroll. Take a break from studying for finals and check out some of the green news circulating online this week! If you comment and let me know which kind of articles and topics you liked best, I’ll be sure to include more of them next Sunday.

First, a follow-up to Thursday’s post about the congressional hearing on EPA regulation of mountaintop removal mining (MTR). Come to Part II of the hearing and see EPA administrator Lisa Jackson tell the other side of the story. Read this post on the blog of Appalachian Voices for an overview of the isseus.

Now, Mother’s Day news. A HuffPost Green columnist’s children celebrate Mother’s Day the green way, and Treehugger reports on how you can have a sustainable, humanitarian Mother’s Day too.

You can also take action on Mother’s Day without spending any more money. One in six mothers in the United States have enough mercury in their bodies to harm their babies during pregnancy. Greenpeace asks for your signature on a petition to EPA to limit toxic mercury pollution from coal-powered power plants.

Mountaintop Removal Mining: Seeing Government inAction

On Thursday morning, six of us from progressive groups at Georgetown went to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment hearing entitled “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs – Part I.” (Note the title, about which more later.) Claire Austin (SFS ’12), co-president of EcoAction, works at Appalachian Voices, an environmental nonprofit focused on protecting the land, air and water of Appalachia. Appalachian Voices asked us to come pack the hearing room with me to show the committee that we oppose efforts to weaken the EPA’s authority to regulate mountaintop removal mining (about which more below). We were happy to help and to get the chance to see government in action.


Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a form of coal mining where the summit of a mountain is blown up with explosives in order to extract coal from the exposed coal seams beneath. The leftover earth, known as “overburden,” is dumped in an adjacent valley to create a “valley fill.” MTR is used extensively in Appalachia. Check out this helpful FAQ from iLoveMountains.org for more data on where and how coal companies are using MTR.

Sunday Blogroll

This week, I thought we'd try a blogroll. It's hard to keep track of all the environmental news online, so I compiled some Georgetown, local, and national news, both from news sites and from blogs. Comment if you like this type of post! If so, we can make it a regular feature.



In Georgetown news, The Hoya covers the DC Green Student Organization Forum! A great overview, and insightful quotes from Bettina and Maddie.

The Georgetown website (who writes these articles?) celebrates GU's improvement in Recyclemania this year. We were in the top 10% of the Grand Champion category.

In DC news, the District has ranked as the top state for LEED certified buildings, GreenerBuildings reports.

In national news, the New York Times's Green blog compiled a list of the top twenty solar states. Unfortunately, DC didn't make the cut, but maybe your home state did!

In case you haven't had enough of the royal wedding already, an Ecouterre columnist is making the case that Kate Middleton's ring was eco-friendly because it was locally mined and repurposed.

Did you miss our screening of The Vanishing of the Bees in March? You can learn all about Colony Collapse Disorder in the Beekeeper's column on the Daily Green this week.

A blogger on HuffPost Green asks a question that plagues many environmentalists who have troubling giving up meat products: Is Half a Vegan Better Than None?

We were all jealous of GWU's and American's progress at the forum last night, and now we can be jealous of Germany and Brazil too. Visit Grist to learn about how climate change legislation is advancing in other countries.

Finally, if you need to be cheered up, check out this Treehugger article about lessons the writer learned about eating from her ridiculously adorable puppy. And yes, there is a picture.

D.C. Green Student Organization Forum

Tuesday night’s D.C. Green Student Organization Forum was a success! Organized by Scott Breen (COL ’11), Claire Austin (SFS ’12), and Betina Bergoo (SFS ’11), the forum brought students from environmental groups at George Washington Unversity, American University, Catholic University, Georgetown Law School, and the University of the District of Columbia together for a night of discussion in the Leonard conference room in Reynolds Hall. We ate some free Chipotle burritos and had a great talk about the successes and struggles of environmental organizing on campus.



Sarah Murphy, who works with Weatherize DC and is a former employee of the Sierra Student Coalition, gave a great talk about how she got started as an organizer. She told a story we can all identify with: as an undergraduate, she exhausted herself trying to put together a great Earth Day event all by herself and practically failed a class in the process.

This experience inspired her to learn more about grassroots organizing, and taught her that you need a team of dedicated individuals to help make change happen. She quoted Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”; and Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince: ‘“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Murphy encouraged those looking for green opportunities in DC this summer to check out Weatherize DC’s fellowship programs. They’re currently seeking applicants, and some of the fellowships may even pay. Murphy also had great thing to say about the Sierra Student Coalition Summer Training Program (known as “Sprog,” but don’t use that word in Australia). These are week-long, intensive training programs in grassroots organizing, and there’s one just forty-five minutes south of DC this summer.

Read about the student groups after the jump...

Upcoming EcoAction Events

The semester is winding down, but EcoAction still has a variety of events to tell you about!

First of all, like us on Facebook!

Our last meeting for the semester will be next Monday, May 2 from 8:15-9:15 in ICC 102. Be there to learn about what we've done this semester and what we're hoping to work on for next year!


The DC Green Student Organization Forum is TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 26, at 7:00 PM. This is a forum where representatives from green organizations at the various DC universities will come together to learn from each other and learn how we can better engage the students on our campuses. The forum is in the Leonards Seminar Room in Reynolds Hall. There will be a guest speaker and free food! All are welcome, but please RSVP. Check out the Facebook event for more information.



Sign up to TABLE! From April 27 to 28, from 11 AM to 3 PM, we will be handing out free eco-friendly compact fluorescent light bulbs in exchange for not so friendly incandescent ones. This is a great chance to help out for however long you're free, and to spend some time outdoors. Sign up here, and read the blog post about CFLs from when we did similar tabling last semester.



On Thursday at 6:30, the Garden Club is holding a Vegan Dinner at the Magis Row Green House.



On Tuesday, May 3, EcoAction will be having a study break picnic at lunch time. Come eat delicious organic food with EcoAction and take a break from studying! Respond to the Facebook event here.

Off-campus events after the jump...

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and the Environment

This past Wednesday night, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut came to campus to speak to Georgetown students. As a Democrat and a Connecticut resident, I was eager to hear him speak. After a short delay, he arrived in the White Gravenor classroom where we were waiting. He gave some opening remarks about his recent campaign, the budget, and issues specific to Connecticut before opening the floor for questions.



I was eager to ask a question about energy and the environment, but before I knew it, Blumenthal’s aide signaled that he would take only one more question. Luckily, the final question—by a student named Richard—was a great environmental question. In fact, it was directly related to the question that I brought up in my earlier post about Obama’s speech on energy policy. Richard asked if Blumenthal could address the impact that environmentalism has on areas other than the economic and sociopolitical.

Calling all photographers!

EPA is launching a State of the Environment Photo Project!

"In the spirit of Earth Day, help us capture images of the state of the environment today. Submit your best photo of the environment you experience: where you live or where you travel. While there is much cause for celebration, there is still work to do and what better way to show it than through all of our lenses? What makes this year stand out for such a project?

Georgetown Energy: Rooftop Solar Panel Petition

The following post is by Michele Jaeger from Georgetown Energy.

“And you also happen to go to a school [in a town] that for a long time has suffered from a chronic unwillingness to come together and make tough choices.” President Obama’s recent slip-of-the-tongue in reference to energy policy, in our very own McDonough Gymnasium, has stimulated more conversation about its validity than error.



One of the more enlightening (literally) proposals circulating for the highly anticipated allocation of the Student Activities Fee Endowment (SAFE) is Georgetown Energy’s idea to install solar panels on 43 townhouses. If this passes, the university will throw its name into the vastly and exponentially growing pool of universities prioritizing sustainability on their campuses, yes, but the real light at the end of the tunnel for part of the $3.4 million is the student benefit.

Obama's Speech

This article was cross-posted on the Georgetown Progressive.
I’m not going to lie—I was thrilled to see President Obama speak here at Georgetown last week. I took a gleeful picture of my ticket; I sent excited voicemails and texts to my family and friends; I skipped class to wait outside McDonough for two hours. I was freezing and hungry, but I hardly noticed. I was going to see President Obama for the first time.

At the same time, I wasn’t naïve about the speech he would give. I didn’t expect him to declare an all-out ban on oil imports, to call for the shutting down of all the nuclear power plants in the United States, or even to announce a new comprehensive climate-change bill. Not only did I understand that such demands would be unprecedented for Obama, for whom environmental issues have never been first priority, but I also acknowledged to myself that those demands would be unrealistic given the current legislature. So while I was thrilled at the chance to see Obama, I wasn’t idealistic about what he would say.

Yet I found the speech disappointing. I jumped to my feet like everyone else, cheering and clapping, when Obama walked onstage, but as he spoke, my excitement ebbed and was slowly replaced by frustration and ennui.

Recycling WINs and FAILs, Round 1

WIN spotted in a Copley common room, and FAIL spotted on Lau 3.

Send in yours to gu.ecoaction@gmail.com!

Upcoming EcoAction Events

The next EcoAction meeting will be Monday (tomorrow), March 21, in ICC 102 @ 8:15 PM. Bring your friends!

Our annual Recycling Raid will be Sunday, March 27, all over campus. Join EcoAction as we raid the waste disposals to see how much has or has not been recycled!

Learn about Oxfam Extractive Industries and Human Rights on Wednesday, March 30, location TBD. During the week of March 28, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is hosting its 141st period of hearing sessions. Oxfam America staff and partners from Peru will be speaking on the topic of indigenous peoples and rural communities rights around oil, gas and mining operations. As the Peruvian presidential elections approach, Oxfam partners will discuss the issue of proper consultation with communities directly affected by mining. Join us to hear the case of the Rio Blanco indigenous community, in Central Peru, adjacent to the Majaz mining operation, which larger shareholder is the Chinese consortium Zijin.

More events after the jump...

Republicans and the Environment

This article was cross-posted on the Georgetown Progressive.

The Republican Party isn’t exactly known for its environmental activism. Reagan refused to take action on one of the biggest environmental issues of his era-acid rain-and systematically weakened the clout of the EPA. George H.W. Bush ended his term with a freeze on environmental regulations, and his son refused US support for the Kyoto Protocol.

Yet rarely have Republicans been so overtly hostile to existing environmental protections as the current legislators in the 112th Congress. Since the most recent election, Republicans in the House of Representatives have led a series of unprovoked assaults on the EPA. The attack has been two-pronged, with one focus on the EPA’s budget and the other on its powers of regulation.

Aramark Unionization

EcoAction is proud to announce its support for the unionization efforts of Aramark employees at Georgetown!

Last week, the Voice reported that Aramark employees at Georgetown—who work at Leo’s, as well as in Wolfington Hall, at Cosi and Starbucks, and at Dr. Mug—have announced to Aramark management that they plan to unionize. They plan to join Unite Here, a labor union of approximately 265,000 members in the U.S. and Canada that officially backed the efforts at Georgetown in July.

Power Shift 2011

The following post is by Ty Eldridge from Georgetown Energy Coalition.

When Energy Action Coalition first conceived of Power Shift 2007, it was one year out from the historic 2008 election. When we set out again in 2009 to draw young leaders from across the country to DC, it was in the immediate aftermath of President Obama’s election, and our mission was clear – to hold the President we had just elected accountable to the promises of a clean energy future.

As we embark on Power Shift 2011, the stakes are even higher, the
political backdrop more divisive than ever, and the urgency for bold leadership and vision more critical than ever before. Gone are the illusions that any particular political party or leader can solve the crisis before us. We now know that it will take unparalleled will from the people of this country to push our broken political system, which is ruled by dirty energy interests, to move past the short-sightedness of our leaders--a short-sightedness that leaves our generation in peril.

Recyclemania 2011

In case you didn’t catch the campus-wide email and the article on Georgetown’s website, Sunday marked the beginning of Recyclemania! Recyclemania is a national, ten-week competition to increase recycling among over colleges and universities. Schools like Georgetown report data about recycling rates and amounts of trash, and are ranked weekly according to four factors: the amount of recyclables per student, the total amount of recyclables, the amount of trash per student, and the school’s overall recycling rate.

The competition involves 630 schools, 6 million students, and over 1.5 million staff and faculty, in forty-nine states, Canada, and—of course—here in the District. Last year’s competition involved 607 schools, which collected over 84.5 million pounds of recyclables.

At Georgetown, Recyclemania is led by the Office of Sustainability, University Facilities, and the Office of Student Housing. Nationally, it is run by the College and University Recycling Council, with support from Keep America Beautiful and the EPA’s WasteWise Program, as well as The Coca-Cola Company, Alcoa, Waste Management, SCA and the American Forest & Paper Association.

Value [the] Meal Campaign

This Thursday, EcoAction will be teaming up with the Georgetown Garden Club to table for a Day of Action with Corporate Accountability International’s Value [the] Meal campaign. We’ll be asking people to sign postcards and call the McDonald’s CEO as part of the CAI’s Value [the] Meal campaign.










Corporate Accountability International is a non-profit, grass-roots organization based in Boston that has been conducting campaigns since the 1970s to challenge corporate abuse across the world. The Value [the] Meal Campaign was launched in 2009 in response to the gross misconduct of a fast food industry that collects massive profits by selling products that lead to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and many other health problems.