Check out the slideshow; lots of beautiful photos and lots of Hillsboro too!

Click to view slideshow.

Last week, from April 15^th to April 18^th, 10,000 students from across the nation (and a few from Canada) gathered in DC. The students and older citizens that came to Power Shift raised their voices and awareness about environmental injustices that are happening in arenas all over the nation. Speakers, artists, activits, students, and organizers gathered to hear words of wisdom, participate in workshops, and do some on the ground activism for clean energy and sustainable resources.

Friday and Saturday was dedicated to speakers and workshops. The keynote speaker of the opening ceremonies was  Al Gore, former presidential candidate and avid environmentalist. This is big in and of itself; recognition from a dominant and well-known figure that Power Shift is a stand for clean energy.   Speakers on Saturday included Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency, Bill McKibben of 350.org, and Josh Fox, writer and director of the documentary Gasland. These fine environmentalists among several smaller names spoke with empathy, passion, and urgency. The message ended all the same: things are going wrong with our climate, and it is up to us to get the government to realize this problem in order to stop it. As McKibben noted, “We are not the radicals. The radicals are those who are fundamentally altering the earth’s environment.”

Saturday and Sunday included work shopping and education opportunities. We broke out by region to learn team building and organizing tips, and broke out into State to discuss current issues. We were also presented the option to attend specific workshops and panels. Some sessions included how to lobby Senators, others discussed corporatism and capitalism in relation to the environment, and still more contemplated individual roles in environmentalism, such as women or those in impoverished countries. Sunday night ended with a few options: learning how to apply art to activism by participating in street theater, an elongated workshop to work on lobbying skills, a role play and information session on non-violent civil disobedience, and an opportunity to see “Reel Films” about the environment, including a full-length showing of Gasland. This included a talk back with Josh Fox and he talked to the crowd about the dangers of fracking.

Check out a trailer for Gasland: 

Monday was the day of applied action. At 10am, the student activists gathered in Lafayette Square and began to rally. The rally turned into a march on Washington, starting with a demonstration of street theater at the Chamber of Commerce. The march went on to the BP offices, the offices of Genon, and ended in front of the White House. At that juncture, the activists chose one of two forms of action: lobbying of the Senators and Representatives on the Capitol, or direct action. The direct action this year was a sit-in of the Department of the Interior, calling for an end to fossil fuels. The focus was on Wyoming, where the government is trying to claim public land for industry and exploit it for any oil or natural gas resources. This has the potential to damage the land due to drilling or hydro fracking. Around 200 came to the Dept. of Interior, and 100 sat in. At the end, the 22 that remained sitting through all the warnings were arrested for felony charges and are currently being processed. The action ended in those attending the support rally dancing in the streets and collecting money for those arrested. It was a stand both for clean energy, and the reclamation of America’s people’s voice. One of the chants that was reverberated during the Monday march and later direct action asked: “Tell me what democracy looks like?” Answered: “THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE.”

Read this article for more information on those activists who were arrested, or watch this video of the congressional meeting in which activists “interrupt” budget negotiations.

One after another, undergraduates in the public galley stood up to sing for climate protection. To the tune of the “Star Spangled Banner,” the protesters began with the familiar-sounding line, “Oh why can’t you see?” But the song, which admonishes politicians of all stripes for selling out to the fossil fuel industry, closes with a warning: “If you refuse to hear us now/Then we have to shut you down”.

“I stood up to sing because I will be silent no more forever,” Sam Rubin, one of the nine students charged with disrupting Congress, said in a post for Peaceful Uprising that features the full lyrics. The students were detained for nearly seven hours after their hastily planned protest and now face up to six months jail and $5,000 in fines. Their arraignment is scheduled for May 5 in D.C.

The gulf oil spill clean up continues in marshland (credit: Elizabeth Shogren/NPR)

Kim and David Chauvin, shrimpers from Louisiana, were enlisted a year ago by BP to help clean up from the nation’s worst oil spill in history.  Fisherfolk by trade, the Chauvins and many of their neighbors traded in their nets and chains for absorbent boom to collect oil spilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig.  And yet, BP still has not paid the Chauvins for their losses last year or for the damages to their fleet in the cleanup over the last year:

It’s a scary thing when you’re looking at your future and you don’t have a clue and you don’t have a grasp on it,” she says. “You’re walking in blind, and you’re about to spend money that you don’t have in a way of continuing on with the business, because this is what we’ve done all our lives.”

But the Chauvins and their neighbors still have hope for this new shrimping season; priests blessed a parade of boats just a few weeks ago, as they do at the start of every new shrimping season.  ”We need to stand up where our heritage is and really give something for our kids to look forward to,” Kim Chauvin says.

Oil oozes to the surface of a marshland in coastal Louisiana (credit: Elizabeth Shogren/NPR)

While there is some hope that the seafood and wildlife populations will rebound, some scientists are not so sure how ecosystems will recover.  Marshland along the coast, among other areas, has been monitored by biologists and scientists like Scott Zengel.  Though Zengel knows that marshes are often best left to recover and restore themselves, he calls his restoration a “mad science experiment:”

First, manual crews started using the technique. Now heavy machines are mimicking the method — a massive long-arm excavator pulls a makeshift rake across the marsh.

About a third of the 436 miles of Louisiana coastal wetlands hit with BP oil still show some visible signs. But less than 10 miles has enough oil to warrant such an aggressive cleanup, and in many once-oily stretches of marsh, green plants now are sprouting.

So many people, businesses and communities are still scraping by in the Gulf Coast and trying to recover, frustrated by the lack of financial support and promises of aid left unfulfilled.  How will YOU reduce your dependence on oil and vote for a cleaner, brighter future?

But please, we all know Earth Day is one of my favorite days of the year (besides Selena’s birthday) and while there is a lot going wrong with the way we treat our resources and ecosystems, there’s a lot of people and causes to celebrate.  So let’s get to it!

• Residents on Tidy Street in Brighton, U.K. are recording their daily electricity usage and recording it on a giant infographic painted on the street outside their homes. After just three weeks, residents usage has dropped by 15%; try taking a look at how you might cut back on energy usage in your own home!
  

  Photo credit: GOOD.is

• Pull out your cape and goggles! New York environmental groups are calling for average citizens to enlist as New York Water Rangers and stand up for the safety of their water.  Take the pledge! From the NYTimes:

The groups, including Riverkeeper, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Catskill Mountainkeeper, are trying to recruit New York State residents to call attention to what they view as the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling as state officials write new regulations to govern such drilling.

Photo credit: cleanwaternotdirtydrilling.org

• Powershift 2011 rocked Washington D.C. this weekend; 10,000 of my closest friends were there and engaged in the climate change movement.  I attended Powershift 2009 and was able to hear some fantastic speakers and really become inspired and armed with the right tools to enact change; this year is no different.  With speakers like Al Gore, EPA chief Lisa Jackson and 350.org founder Bill McKibben, people are fired up and ready for some action! Interestingly enough, there was no real major media coverage of the event; funny how that happens. From the Utopianist:

…perhaps most relevant to Powershift, we’re going to have to improve democracy — by mobilizing grassroots movements that ensure the people’s voice is heard and fighting to limit the influence that loaded corporations have over our political process, for starters. Right now, corporate interests have far more power than any citizen possibly could. And as income inequality trends have continued over the last couple decades, the rich have gotten much richer, and much more powerful.

Photo credit: powershift2011.org

• Why can’t we make laws like awesome Bolivia? The Latin American country is set to pass the Law of Mother Earth which will give equate humans and all living things; the law “establishes 11 new rights for nature, including the right to life, the right to pure water and clean air, and the right to not have cellular structure genetically modified.” (good.is)

Photo credit: good.is

• Forget Carrie and Samantha; there are SALAMANDERS in the city! Who knew? We often get hopped up on coyotes, red tailed hawks and other critters that roam our urban streets (cough because we’re overdeveloping cough) but what about the little guys?  When you’re walking/hiking/biking, don’t forget to stop and take a gander.. turn over a log or two. Alex + lungless salamanders= BFF. You should too.

Photo credit: grist.org

•  We be plantin’ trees all week with the kiddies at SOLV; I was out all day today with middle schoolers planting in the wetland and forest behind their school.. in the sun! We also had our annual Earth Day event, SOLV IT, this past weekend; an estimated 6,889 volunteers participated statewide for healthy watersheds.  With SOLV support, volunteers:
• Removed 69,338 pounds of mixed waste from neighborhoods and natural areas  
• Recycled 1,718 pounds of plastic, glass, paper and metal
• Removed invasive non-native vegetation from approximately 16 acres of land   
• Planted 1,840 native trees and shrubs in parks, on school grounds and in natural areas
• Collected and recycled 263 tires 

So, I guess the real question is, what are you going to do for Earth Day, every day?

There’s a tulip farm about three miles from our house here in Hillsboro; rows and rows of beautiful flowers are sure signs of the arrival of spring.  We’ve been lucky and have had some great days of sunshine, including today, for which I am very thankful because Meghan and I were outside placing plants for Green Team all day today.. 700 plants in four hours!  The last few weeks have been busy at SOLV as the school year is beginning to wind down and we prepare for site visits and student presentations.  Its been great to be able to have some fun on the weekends; I was home in New Jersey last weekend for a beautiful wedding and I had a wonderful time catching up with my family and friends.

This past weekend was JVC OLYMPICS in Tacoma, Wa; this is the 2nd annual Olympic event for JVC Northwest and it was a great time.  Thea Jamba, the JV house in Tacoma, hosted the Saturday event in Wright Park; we paraded with JV’s from Seattle and Portland to the park in our house uniforms, no doubt making Tacoma-ites (?) very envious of our style.  Our house went to Salvation Army late Friday night and whipped up some Boy Scout uniforms; no further explanation needed, see photos.  (We got the medal for best uniform, of course.)  Events at the park included a house-legged race in which all members of the house had to tie their legs together and race across the park; we all have bruised ankles.  We also participated in a very competitive scavenger hunt, relay race, Legends of the Hidden Temple-style trivia, a Jesus drawing in chalk and lively banter.  Tacoma did a great job of organizing the Olympics and its always great to see other JV’s.  Ziti was on the menu for dinner and of course, a dance party followed in true JV style.  (The events of the night also included a late night egg collecting trip from the chicken coop; one of the proudest moments of my life when I was able to carry the eggs inside. WIN.) We went to church the next morning at St. Leo’s, had a delicious breakfast, visited downtown Tacoma and Stadium High School; needless to say, I sang “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” the entire time.  THANKS TACOMA!

Another busy week this week at SOLV, with lots of events coming up for Earth Day.  I’m in the midst of a lot of planning for our new community stewardship groups and a SOLV benefit concert this summer, as well as lots of Green Team stuff.  I submitted an application for FoodCorps next year, I’ll keep you updated.  In the meantime, we’ll be planning for our Earth Day partyyyy this weekend in Hillsboro, hoping for sunny skies!

And now, time for an environmental (and not-so environmental) news round-up!

• Powershift 2011 is taking place this weekend in D.C. and they want to make big polluters pay.
• Oregon Senate passed the BPA-Free Baby Bill; no more harmful plastics in bottles and sippy cups!
• Speakers share their experiences with bullying at an anti-bullying rally at Fairfield University
• SchoolFoodTour: a 6,000 mile, one-woman bike tour to promote healthy eating in schools.. DREAM job!
• RealTimeFarmsBlog. Baby farm animals. DONE.

You never know what good your everyday actions can do!

Walk for Water PDX was a great and rainy success!  My friend Kim (FU alum living in Portland) and I joined PHLUSH on the 3.1 mile walk today in downtown Portland; my coworker Abby invited me to join them as she works with PHLUSH.  From their website:

Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human. PHLUSH believes that toilet availability is a human right and that well-designed sanitation facilities restore health to our cities, our waters and our soils.  Our grassroots, all-volunteer advocacy group is based in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown.  We collaborate with grass roots organizations, environmental activists, planners, architects, code officials and city managers.

I already posted about UN World Water Day this week so I won’t repeat details but wanted to share some photos from the event.  We walked 3.1 miles, the average distance that a person in the developing world travels daily to get clean water for cooking, bathing and drinking.  We carried buckets filled with water and while my arms feel like jelly right now, it truly was an eye opening experience to carry a half-filled water bucket.  Many of the women and children who carry water for their families daily walk in through dangerous areas, without proper footwear or protection from weather.  A humbling and exhausting experience; so glad I was able to meet some great new people and make myself more aware and involved in the global water crisis.

From its inception as a single-city initiative — Sydney, Australia – in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global symbol of hope and movement for change. Earth Hour 2010 created history as the world’s largest ever voluntary action with people, businesses and governments in 128 countries across every continent coming together to celebrate an unambiguous commitment to the one thing that unites us all — the planet.

Switch off your lights for Earth Hour 2011, and share the positive actions you will sustain for earth beyond the hour.

At 8:30 PM on Saturday 26th March 2011, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

Fairfield University's 2010 installation for 350.org

Here are some folks that you should know, doing great things for our world:

1. Jen Clinton: Blogger extraordinaire Jen lives in Massachusetts and is the newest blogger for her home state on Mother Nature Network; check out her first post!  Jen helped to move me along on my environmental path, keeps me informed and generally just kicks ass.  She’s going to grad school at UConn in the fall and I know her coworkers at SFS are going to miss her.. but I know she’ll keep us all updated with her Greener State of Mind.
2. Stiv Wilson: Another environmental badass, but this one is based in Portland, OR.  Wilson is a huge proponent and major player in banning those annoying plastic bags state-wide in Oregon, which is a big deal because it would make Oregon the first state to do so.  He has sailed over 14,000 nautical miles in the last year to document the plastic plaguing our oceans AND he’s best friends with Decemberists frontman, Colin Meloy.  Can we say triple threat?
3. Vandana Shiva: Philosopher, environmental activist and eco-feminist are just a few of the many hats that this wonderful lady wears.  Founder of Navdanya International, which aims to defend and protect the rights of people and their access to food, water, dignified jobs and livelihoods, Dr. Shiva is a pillar in the world of activism, food rights and human welfare.
4. Students at Pacific Grove Elementary School: Students at this Northern California school decided to take action to help their friends in Japan by launching a campaign called One Million Cranes.  Students hope to enlist 1,000 other schools across the nation in folding 1,000 cranes each. They’re hoping the public will donate $1 for each crane, thus raising $1 million for Japan.
5. Van Jones: Another fantastic environmental and civil rights activist, who I first became aware of at Powershift 2009. Jones has founded three great non-profits including Green For All, dedicated to building an inclusive green economy to lift people out of poverty.  They do this by working in partnership with public and private investors to create quality green jobs and supporting projects and people all over the U.S. like Albert and his career with Clean Energy Works Portland.
6. Tom Philpott: One of the snarkiest people I follow on Twitter, Philpott is Grist‘s senior food and agriculture writer.  His work on food politics shows up everywhere and he is a great advocate for sustainable food education and a co-founder of Maverick Farms. Check out his latest piece on the need for an alliance of all people against CAFOs, or confined animal feeding operations; I’m all for vegan/omnivore alliances!
7. Bill McKibben: One of the nation’s most prominent environmentalists and authors on all things related to climate change, activism and alternative energies.  McKibben is the founder of 350.org, one of the largest global movements for climate change awareness in the world with over 5,000 actions in over 180 countries.  (Fairfield has participated the past two years.. heck yeah!)
8. Chris Jordan: Visual artist and awareness raiser, Jordan runs the numbers of our consumerist American culture with large format artwork paired with amazing statistics.  Check out his photos of the plastics plaguing Midway albatross.

(Credit: Chris Jordan)

The 2011 logo for UN World Water Day

Happy (almost) World Water Day 2011!   The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.  From the World Water Day 2011 website:

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.

As a global community, we are facing a water crisis.  Approximately 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, and each year more than 2.2 million people in developing countries die from preventable water-born illnesses.  Some other fast water facts:

• This is the first time in human history that most of the world’s population live in cities: 3.3 billion people …and the urban landscape continues to grow.
• 38% of the growth is represented by expanding slums, while the city populations are increasing faster than city infrastructure can adapt.
• In Africa and Asia, the urban population will DOUBLE between 2000 and 2030
• 5 million residents are joining the urban population in developing nations each MONTH
• Every SECOND the urban population grows by two people
• 827.6 million people live in slums, lacking basic access to clean water and sanitation

So, what do we do about this?  I’m walking this Sunday in the Walk for Water PDX event in Portland OR:

For a $20 donation to Portland Global Initiatives, Walk for Water participants will simulate what it is like to gather water for much of the world by walking a 3-mile course (the average distance traveled in sub-Saharan Africa to obtain water) alongside the Willamette River.

Be more conscious of HOW you use water; A Greener State of Mind has some great tips to get you started:

1. The general consensus is that dishwashers are usually more efficient than washing dishes by hand. But if you don’t have a dishwasher (me), don’t let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.
2. Shorten your shower by a minute or two and you’ll save up to 150 gallons per month. Consider low-flow shower heads (your shower should not fill a 1-gallon bucket in less than 20 seconds), or a timer/water meter so you’re aware of how much you’re actually using. While you’re at it, bring your tooth brush and face wash in the shower too, get it all done at once!
3. Using a refillable water bottle, besides saving on plastic, also cuts down on the number of glasses you’ll have wash at the end of the day. And keep a pitcher of water in the fridge; you’re more likely to spill if you refill from the tap.
4. Use a commercial car wash instead of doing your own in your driveway. Car washes are regulated in the ways they dispose of or reuse waste chemicals and runoff, whereas our water heads straight for the storm drain and eventually into the ocean.
5. This was probably the first ‘save water’ tip I learned when I was little, but it still should be said: turning off the water while brushing your teeth will save 25 gallons a month on average.
6. If you have houseplants, use water that runs from the sink while waiting for hot water, from rinsing fruits and veggies, or even cleaning your fish tank.
7. Cooking tip: Re-use the water left over from cooked or steamed foods to start a delicious and nutritious soup. I actually save the water leftover from cooking pasta to create a delicious sauce, it’s one of my go-to meals.

Check out what events might be happening in your area on the World Water Day 2011 website.  Water sustains us, it gives us life.  Water makes the world go round!  Celebrate water, use it well!