tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58283044326161985992024-03-19T03:39:12.919-07:00Sustainable InitiativesSFSU's Cesar Chavez Student Center's Sustainable Initiatives was created to promote campus sustainability! We are committed to practicing sustainable actions while promoting zero waste and social justice. Sustainable Initiatives holds monthly events ranging from film screenings to lectures and workshops. Follow us on our blog to learn more about campus sustainability efforts and how you can participate!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-63806948573054574002014-04-17T13:31:00.000-07:002014-04-17T13:32:28.257-07:00And the winners are...Results are in for the ASI student government positions. See the Golden Gate Xpress article here: http://www.goldengatexpress.org/2014/04/12/student-government-election-results-announced/<br />
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President: Kenneth Collins<br />
Vice President of Internal Affairs: Sara Padash<br />
Vice President of External Affairs: Naeemah Charles<br />
Vice President of Finance: Ramon Gonzalez<br />
Vice President of University Affairs: Virginia McBride<br />
First Representative at Large: Phoebe Dye<br />
Second Representative at Large: Kai Santiago<br />
Third Representative at Large: Sharlana Turner<br />
Graduate Representative: Omar Romero<br />
Senior Representative: Horst Carreno-Bauer<br />
Junior Representative: Sarah Pishny<br />
Sophomore Representative: Ismail Muhammad<br />
Business Representative: Itzel Centeno<br />
College of Education Representative: Linda Duncan<br />
College of Ethnic Studies Representative: Luis De Paz<br />
College of Health and Social Sciences: Kayla Tolentin<br />
Liberal and Creative Arts Representative: Celia Gonzalez<br />
College of Science and Engineering Representative: Samuel Boikaner.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-36992938753188733602014-04-17T13:17:00.005-07:002014-04-17T13:25:12.051-07:00Sweet RideTonight is our opening reception for our bike-themed art exhibit, Sweet Ride. Come by for refreshments and a chance to win 2 amazing bikes we're raffling off at 7:30pm. See you there!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-76266669086229117222014-04-07T11:56:00.000-07:002014-04-07T11:56:08.108-07:00Earth Month!Why stop at Earth Day when you can have an Earth Month?? Sustainable Initiatives, along with other campus organizations, has put together an array of events in April. Check them out! We are doing exciting things like a denim giveaway, Fair-Trade coffee tasting, bike themed art show, and more! Go green or go home!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-63497144496153706022014-03-17T11:57:00.001-07:002014-03-17T12:04:02.843-07:00Cooking With Sharon: Part DeuxOur sustainable leading lady is back again! This week, Sharon will be cooking up an amazing vegan dish with the most under-loved vegetable of them all: Brussels Sprouts. For some reason, common thought is that Brussel<span style="font-family: inherit;">s Sprouts t</span>aste horrible, and that children especially won't eat them. We're here to break those stereotypes with a delicious recipe no one can resist!<br />
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Sweet Chili Brussels Sprouts<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
1/2-1 lb Brussels Sprouts<br />
1/2 onion, diced<br />
3-6 garlic cloves<br />
1/2 inch piece of ginger<br />
2-3 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce<br />
2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce<br />
1 tablespoon olive oil<br />
Sesame seeds for garnish<br />
Pepper, to taste<br />
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Directions:<br />
1. Remove stems and wash Brussels Sprouts. Slice into halves. Mince the garlic and ginger. Dice onion.<br />
2. Turn on stove. Heat olive oil in pan on medium heat<br />
3. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 30-45 seconds. Add onions and sautee for 7-9 minutes or until translucent.<br />
4. Toss in Brussels Sprouts and cook for 10-15 minutes or until they are nice and brown and slightly charred.<br />
5. Add the sweet chili sauce and soy sauce and sautee for 1-2 minutes<br />
6. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and black pepper<br />
7. Serve with pasta, rice or lentils.<br />
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<span style="color: #232323; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><b><u>Watch the video here</u>:</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MldAyU7MBvY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MldAyU7MBvY</a></span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-69519537276658115912014-03-12T14:53:00.000-07:002014-03-16T15:25:19.874-07:00Food Waste in AmericaThe United States is the 3rd most populous country in the world, behind China and India. With over 2.2 million farms covering an area of 922 million acres, No one in this country should ever go hungry. However, the data around food waste in America is astonishing. Getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50% of U.S. land, and uses 80% of all fresh water consumed in the United States. Yet, 40% of food in the United States today goes uneaten. This not only means that Americans are literally throwing out $165 billion each year, but also that the uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills as the single largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste, producing the majority of our methane gas pollution.<br />
Reducing food losses by just 15% would be enough food to feed more than 25 million Americans. Current figures estimate that 1 in 6 Americans lack a secure supply of food for their tables. Increasing the efficiency of our food system is a sustainable solution that requires collaborative efforts by businesses, governments and most importantly, <b>YOU </b>the consumer. Consumers can waste less food by shopping wisely, knowing when food goes bad, buying produce that is perfectly edible even if it’s less cosmetically attractive, cooking only the amount of food they need, and eating their leftovers. Pay it forward by donating goods and/or volunteer time to local food banks, charitable organizations and homeless shelters. Waste not!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-17188819540481604112014-02-25T10:33:00.001-08:002014-03-17T12:04:23.680-07:00Cooking with Sharon, Part 1<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Our amazing Sustainability Strategist, Sharon Daraphonhdeth, shows us how it's done in the kitchen! An advocate of sustainable, healthy eating, she is putting together a cooking video series which features in-season, sustainable, vegan dishes. Enjoy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Cooking with Kale</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 bunch of kale </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1-2 tablespoons of olive oil </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3-4 bunches of garlic </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">¼ onion diced </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 lemon </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">salt & pepper to taste </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mmmmm kale! Kale is one of new favorite vegetables trends. What’s great about kale is that it grows easily in the bay area and is very easy to take care of. Here’s my recipe for a simple way to cook some kale in less than 15 minutes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Heat up olive oil in a medium sized pan. Sauté garlic for 15-30 seconds or until the garlic aroma releases. Throw in the onions until translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Toss in the kale and mix together. Cook until kale is soft. Turn off heat and squeeze about half a lemon or a whole lemon depending on taste and mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grains, salad, or bread. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Watch the video here:</b></span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLEcpBs9Fqc"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLEcpBs9Fqc</span></a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-87386384044787288052014-02-23T23:35:00.000-08:002014-02-23T23:36:43.924-08:00You Are What You EatWhen it comes to sustainability, one of the greatest impacts we have is what we choose to eat. Here are some easy (and yummy!) ways to eat healthy and sustainably:<br />
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<b>Eat Low on the Food Chain!</b><br />
Eating low on the food chain means that less energy goes into producing your food, increasing your sustainability. Think about it, the water and energy that goes into producing grains is exponentially increased to produce meat. The EPA estimates that it takes ~2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef, whereas it only takes about ~26 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat. And it's not just about input, but also output. The production of any food has a waste output associated with it, and just like energy input, that figure decreases the lower you are on the food chain.<br />
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<b>Eat Local!</b><br />
One of the best things you can do to reduce your environmental footprint is to eat local. The further your food has to travel to get to you, the more energy it consumes and pollution it produces. Here in California, we are fortunate enough to have amazing climates and nutritious soils which can produce just about anything. Farmers' markets happen in almost every city in the Golden State, and not only are you more sustainable by choosing farmers' markets, but also contributing money to the local economy, which benefits everyone. Plus, food prices at farmers' markets are considerably lower than at corporate stores, making your dollar go further for better quality. It's a win-win situation! With the consumer demand for sustainable produce, more and more big chain stores like Safeway are even offering locally sourced food. Make sure to use your consumer power to "vote" for the products you want, and companies will supply them!<br />
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<b>Eat What's in Season!</b></div>
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Ever buy strawberries in the wintertime? They look red and ripe but once you take a bite, they are sour and flavorless. Foods grown in-season consume a lot less production energy than when they are grown out of season, and they taste much better, too! CUESA (the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) has a great website which provides a list of in-season foods, where you can buy them, and delicious recipes! Go to <a href="http://www.cuesa.org/eat-seasonally">http://www.cuesa.org/eat-seasonally</a> to check it out. </div>
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Eat smarter, eat healthier and eat sustainably!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-3234274835588621472014-02-04T14:01:00.001-08:002014-02-04T14:01:33.741-08:00The Dark Side of Valentine's Day<div>
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St. Valentine's Day is a holiday that has been celebrated all over the world for centuries, with roots in Ancient Rome and christian folklore. It is a day to commemorate love, romance, and folk traditions. It is one of the most common days for people to give and receive gifts, and unfortunately, there are ethical issues directly associated with the traditional Valentine. The good news is that there are plenty of companies that produce sustainable and ethical products for you to give to that special someone. <div>
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Chocolate</div>
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Chocolate is made from the cacao bean (aka cocoa), which grows primarily in the tropical climates of West Africa and Latin America. Cocoa is one of the largest agricultural exports, and the West African countries of Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce about 75% of the world’s cocoa supply. With a huge worldwide demand for chocolate, companies have resorted to using child labor and slavery to produce cocoa at competitive prices for the export market. The children of West Africa live in abject poverty and many are forced to begin working at a young age to help support their family. Some end up on the cocoa farms because they need work and are told the pay is good, while other children are sold by their own relatives to traffickers or directly to the plantation owners. It has also been documented that traffickers often abduct young boys from small villages in neighboring African countries and bring them to cocoa plantations as slaves. Most of the children are 12-16 years old, but children as young as 7 have been filmed working on the plantations. The sad truth is that most of these children have never even tasted chocolate.</div>
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In recent years, organizations and journalists have exposed the widespread use of child labor and slavery in West African cocoa production. In the aftermath of these reports, the cocoa industry has become increasingly secretive, restricting access to farms and workers to ensure that their violations against social justice aren't made public. It's like some sort of chocolate mafia. There are journalists who have attempted to document these conditions on cocoa plantations in West Africa, and have never being seen or heard from again, presumed captive or dead. There have even been incidents where journalists have been detained by the governments in these countries and then jailed and deported. </div>
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Industry leaders such as Nestle and Mars use these unethical methods to secure their cocoa supply, and their massive amounts of money and political power means that child labor and slavery will continue to be "business as usual" for cocoa production. The best thing you can do to help these children is to only buy chocolate and cocoa products from <a href="http://www.fairtrade.net/what-is-fairtrade.html" target="_blank">Fair Trade</a> certified companies. The <a href="http://www.foodispower.org/" target="_blank">Food Empowerment Project</a> has compiled a huge list of chocolate companies to help you make informed and equitable purchases: http://www.foodispower.org/chocolate-list/ </div>
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<b>Flowers</b></div>
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More than one-third of American adults will buy flowers on Valentine's Day, which equates to about $1.7 billion. The majority of those flowers come from Colombia and Ecuador, countries with alarming rates of substandard working conditions and child labor, especially in their flower industries.</div>
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At least 8.3% of flowers in the U.S. were cut by child laborers in Ecuador, according to the most recent data. During the school year, 80% of the workers in Ecuador's enormous flower industry are children, according to a report by the International Labour Organization. </div>
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Two-thirds of flower workers in both countries suffer from work-related health problems like nausea, impaired vision and asthma, and sometimes even more serious issues like birth defects and miscarriages. Labor rights organizations cite the industry's use of dangerous pesticides as the reason for this. The U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project says that 20% of the pesticides are so toxic that they're either restricted or outright banned in the U.S. and Europe.</div>
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Women make up half of the flower work force, and they are often subjected to abusive conditions at plantations. Of the women interviewed by the International Labor Rights Forum, 55% said they had been subject to sexual harassment at work and 19% that they had been forced to have sex with a supervisor or coworker. This means that 5.7% of flowers you see for sale today were cut by women who have been sexually harassed, and 2.0% cut by women who were raped by a supervisor or coworker. </div>
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When you want to get flowers for someone, the safest bet is to buy local! Most small, independent florists will know exactly where their product comes from, you just have to ask. When shopping at larger businesses, read the labels to find out where the flowers were grown and harvested. </div>
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Have a happy, sustainable and ethical Valentine's Day and join Sustainable Initiatives for our Valentine's Day event at the Richard Oaks Multicultural Center on February 12th: https://www.facebook.com/events/370511756424895/ </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-72766563147210883872014-01-28T10:56:00.000-08:002014-01-28T11:37:28.352-08:00Governor of California Declares a Drought State of Emergency <br />
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Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink! This week, Governor Brown released an official State of Emergency for California's water supply. As January comes to a close without even an inch of rainfall in the state, we are officially in a drought, folks! In fact, this drought is the worst since we started measuring our water supply, over 100 years ago. This means that water allotments must be diverted from agricultural uses to urban uses, which has a domino effect on our whole system. Rising food prices, water rationing, decreased water quality, wildfires, economic losses and food shortages are on the horizon for California, but luckily, there are things that YOU can do to help. Think about all the ways that you use water in your day to day life. Think about it much deeper than just turning the water off while brushing your teeth. What are you eating? The amount of water used to produce different foods varies greatly from product to product. How many gallons of water do you use in your daily routine? Showering, watering your plants, doing the dishes; every simple task of your day involves some amount of water. Here are some easy tips to help you conserve water:<br />
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1. Limit the length of your showers and use warm water instead of hot (heating up water actually consumes more water).<br />
2. When using water-hungry appliances like dishwashers and washing machines, make sure that they are running at full capacity. No partial loads!<br />
3. Eat low on the food chain. The EPA estimates that it takes about 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef whereas it only takes about 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. Have some whole grain pasta with veggies for dinner and skip the steak. Doing this a few times a week can dramatically lower your water usage.<br />
4. Got plants? Instead of letting your shower water run down the drain while it's warming up, collect it and use it to quench your green friends. With some humidity-loving houseplants, you can even put them right in the shower with you!<br />
5. Know the peak water usage hours for your area. In San Francisco, the best water usage times are before 12:00pm and after 6:00pm.<br />
6. Take advantage of your geographic situation. Open windows to create a cross breeze and cool your apartment without the a/c. On cold days, resist the urge to crank up the heat and bundle up in your favorite sweater instead.<br />
7. Buy clothes secondhand! The amount of water used in the textile manufacturing process is astronomical. Buying used clothes is more sustainable and uses much less water.<br />
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These are just a few of the many simple changes you can make in your day to day water usage. For more information on conserving water in California, visit <a href="http://saveourh2o.org/">http://saveourh2o.org/</a> a website created by the California Department of Water Resources and the Association of California Water Agencies with the goal of permanently reducing water usage in our state, whether or not we are in a drought.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09101379124753850729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-41277530843254355152013-10-22T10:31:00.000-07:002013-10-22T10:31:16.001-07:00Sustainability Fest is this week!<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>This year's Sustainability Fest is in memory of Justin Valdez, environmental studies student at SF State, who was killed on September 23, 2013. </i></div>
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Sustainability Fest 2013 is Wednesday October 23rd and Thursday the 24th. The event is in partnership with groups on campus and includes environmental student organizations. Wednesday is focused on campus sustainability and Thursday is Food Day! We have several events happening each day, so check out the flyer for some fun ways to learn more about sustainability and meet our campus's environmental advocates.
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Sustainable Initiatives is hosting a Food Justice Panel Discussion on Food Day. Come listen to Bryan Jersky of Healthy Planet USA, Professor of Geography Jennifer Blecha, and Lisa Roach of Real Food Challenge at SF State. Free cupcakes will be provided by <a href="http://www.kingdomcake.com/">Kingdom Cake</a>! Note: the location is now in Rosa Parks D.<br />
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We hope to see you at some of our events this week!
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-38928439724311924712013-07-02T14:38:00.000-07:002013-07-04T21:08:45.011-07:00Being a Superperson<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"> </span></span></b></span><b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This week I went and saw the latest, greatest, action packed, CGI, multimillion dollar superman movie: Man of Steel. I have to say I was pretty impressed. I could practically feel my nerdy self shiver with excitement as superman flew through the sky at what seemed to be mach ten speeds (terribly forgetting the laws of physics). One of the scenes in the movie that most stuck to me, was when Russell Crowe’s character (Superman’s Father) explains to Superman where he came from and the fate of his home planet Krypton. As Russell Crowe explains Kryptonians were once a glorious race that created and accomplished much. But abandoned their age of exploration and slowly stripped their planet bare, ultimately resulting in the planet</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s destruction and the destruction of their race. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a bluntly overt sense, the film draws striking parallels with the real world. We have abandoned our space program; stripping NASA of its funding and absorbing it into the US air force. We are consuming our planet’s resources and polluting the planet at alarming rates as CO2 levels are at their highest in the last 10,000 years. We are increasingly becoming more and more obsessed with “stuff “ and consumerism. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We allow</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">targeted commercials and ads convince us we cannot be happy unless we have more “stuff “ and money. We concern ourselves not with the direction our world is veering toward, but analyze whether or not Kim Kardashian really has butt implants. We spend all day behind screens socializing with people we’ve never met in person, but don’t find it strange that when we sit next to people on buses we do so in perfect silence.</span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biodiversity has dropped 50% in the last 100 years, the biggest drop since the last great extinction and we have cut down over 75% of the world</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s forests. Nevermind the slew of social problems ranging world hunger to holocausts. In the midst of these problems we find our representatives in government (the people whose jobs are to solve these problems) in deadlock, unable to compromise or understand the other, as their positions and opinions are bought out by corporate lobbyists and greed. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">The truth is no law or policy will change us, only we can change us.</span></span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-57622c35-a149-7ab9-a401-5547de858b6d"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> But what do we do?</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> What can one person actually do about this?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><img height="339px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Ic3jLxzKkjnQXnnhU3bomOLsWpm5eVKKNw60sZDYFTQHEIcZwCb5boDQ2QbIndAUYaHi_T0kbvxhqMVEBGMAhI4NaPnw8aMNaCDDxEcmuz6TLSCh4vyC2gWv" width="300px;" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See that pale blue dot, that’s us from over 3.7 billion miles away. All of those things I listed above that seemed so insurmountable, in fact everything that has ever happened in all of human history has happened on that small speck, in an ocean of darkness. Looking at it it’s hard to imagine the universe and all that inhabit it are made for that one speck of blue. Or further yet for a certain shade of one of the millions of creatures that inhabit that small speck of blue. Our world and our problems can seem so big when only perceived through our own eyes, but in the perspective of the universe they are as insignificant as a speck of sand.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From here you have two options. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">1.You can feel tiny and </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">insignificant</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You can forget everything you’ve just read and continue on with your life. With luck you’ll find a job most likely in some corporate office, pushing papers and using your talents to make the person at the top richer and be paid yourself a small fraction of what you make for the company. You can carry on turning your head away from the truths of our society, by constantly telling yourself "there's nothing I alone can do, I should just focus on what I need to get by" and "eventually someone will do something about." Just don't be surprised when nothing does.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>You can set your self a worthy goal. Imagine if you worked not to make the rich richer but to help others and make the world a better place. I know it sounds idyllic and nonsensical but imagine if everyone who only cared about themselves suddenly changed their outlook. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">If everyone helps each other everyone wins.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You deserve more of an existence than an office job, happiness isn't found in a new car or status symbol, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">true happiness is found in helping others, in giving back and feeling worth.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all have hard lives, so instead of just focusing on just getting by, help others get by and then you wont’ have to worry so much about yourself. Everyone has the potential to do great things just as much as everyone has the potential to do horrible things. If we align with our potential we can continue doing marvelous things (like curing </span><a href="http://www.upworthy.com/long-shot-doctors-inject-fatal-virus-into-dying-girl-this-100-true-story-will-amaze-you?g=2&c=fea&fb_source=timeline&ref=profile#_=_" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cancer</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like Gandhi once said: "Be the change you want to see in world"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So how can you make a difference? here's a start:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Volunteer</span></u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are few better ways to find happiness and appreciate life than volunteering. When you really see those who truly have nothing, it puts your life into perspective.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SF Environment</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/SFEnvironment?fref=ts" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.facebook.com/SFEnvironment?fref=ts</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sfenvironment.org/events/2013-06-25" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.sfenvironment.org/events/2013-06-25</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">FarmGram</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/398878806/farmgram-locally-crafted-mealbox-delivery" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/398878806/farmgram-locally-crafted-mealbox-delivery</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earth911</span></div>
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<a href="http://earth911.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://earth911.com/</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Project Open Hand</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.openhand.org/join-us/volunteer/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.openhand.org/join-us/volunteer/</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">St. Anthony's Foundation</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.stanthonysf.org/?q=volunteer/volunteer-program" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #094ee5; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.stanthonysf.org/?q=volunteer/volunteer-program</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><u>Read the news</u></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Knowing what's going on in the world couldn't be more important. In America our news station</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s stay away from things going on elsewhere in the world. There is more going on in the world then just us, and reading the news is a way to stay better connected to others.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Personal Favorite is </span><a href="https://www.google.com/news?vanilla=1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.google.com/news?vanilla=1</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reading the news I know can sometimes be boring, if you are the type of person who bores easy or just likes to laugh you might like the</span><a href="http://www.hulu.com/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Daily Show</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or</span><a href="http://www.hulu.com/the-colbert-report" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Colbert Report</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Advocate sustainability</span></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the world of Capitalism, talks about sustaining our planet fall wayside to talks of profit and high yields. If we continue down this path we will undoubtedly face bigger problems in the future. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making a sustainable world for future generations isn</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t just a choice, it</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s a necessity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SF State has a ton of sustainably and environmentally conscious programs:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To read about each one click the links below:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/TGIF.SFSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF)</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sfsustudentcenter.com/programs/sustainability.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sustainable Initiatives</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RealFoodChallengeSfsu?fref=ts" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Real Food Challenge</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/sfsuecostudents/home" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eco Students</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/FossilFreeSFSU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fossil Free SFSU</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.calpirg.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CALPRIG</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><u>Enjoy life </u></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the average work week increasing along with the average retirement age we are working more than ever before. With that we don’t spend as much time doing what we want to do whether that be spending time with family, playing or singing to music, or just enjoying the gift of life. Find time in your day to day just to have fun. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel like this quote applies well: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most dangerous risk of all </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">–</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><u>Fun reads and Views</u></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.myrkothum.com/the-dalai-lama-guide-to-happiness/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7 Steps to Happiness Dalai Lama</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/sentences-that-can-change-your-life.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10 Sentence That will Change Your Life</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxlPVSAnWOo" style="text-decoration: none;">A Universe Not Made For Us Carl Sagan</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-79402491477856636012013-06-11T13:03:00.001-07:002013-06-11T13:03:39.677-07:00From Nightmares to Day Dreams<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAQBMMGb3gb37WyQlxKvxWQnxA5efWN-cU8Bikno5VB6JfiJMXnv6YouF2gu6tPPj_YyzbXajHmhz5ZKrMrpW1JAgh6-wzhp_25ljmlv4JBX_z_q0QVwCQZkQe6WvhaPl06x-2I5EZII/s1600/0118-AMLK-OBAMA-martin-luther-king-400.jpg_full_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAQBMMGb3gb37WyQlxKvxWQnxA5efWN-cU8Bikno5VB6JfiJMXnv6YouF2gu6tPPj_YyzbXajHmhz5ZKrMrpW1JAgh6-wzhp_25ljmlv4JBX_z_q0QVwCQZkQe6WvhaPl06x-2I5EZII/s320/0118-AMLK-OBAMA-martin-luther-king-400.jpg_full_600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." - Martin Luther King</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">This speech delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters on August 28th 1963 became a calling card for a massive civil rights movement. What may seem shocking is that King's prepared speech never included the words "I have a dream" and was largely a negative outlook of the segregated America of the time. The dream part of King's speech is largely considered improvised on the spot and is </span></span> possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream."<br />
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So what if King never spoke about his dream and only spoke of the nightmares of the time? Without the vision and hope King instilled with those 4 famous words it can be questionable whether the civil rights movement would have succeeded in changing public policy or at the very least prolonged it's success. <br />
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If you're an avid reader of this blog you may be asking, what in the world does this have to do with the environment? One of the largest critiques of the environmentalist movement is the doomsday esk rhetoric spoken by a majority of it's contributors. There are major systematic problems in our society including (but not limited to) corporate influence on policy and the electoral process, dangers of unregulated capitalism, western culture's obsession with stuff and it's relation to the exploitation of developing countries, the dangers that nationalism imposes on equality and universal cultural acceptance, and the continued development of nuclear and biological weapons that not only pose a threat to our continued existence but to the future of the planet. As famous physicist and environmentalist Carl Sagan once said "The trap door beneath our feet swings open and we find ourselves in bottomless free fall." <br />
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Our world is in need of great people like Martin Luther King Jr to make the unpopular stands, to stand up for liberty and inspire millions to follow in their footsteps. But preaching about nightmares is not the way to do it. How can we possibly expect people to start caring about the world around them when most of them have enough troubles in just getting by?<br />
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Instead of talking about all the things that plague are world and how we aren't doing enough, lets talk about our dreams of a better world. Let's craft actual solutions to real world problems. Imagine a world in which we didn't define ourselves by our different colors, cultures or opinions but instead focused on the sometimes forgotten fact that we are all human beings and inhabitants of Earth. Think of what we could achieve, what we could become! <br />
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So I ask you, what's your dream?<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-26185821149396914572013-04-23T14:25:00.001-07:002013-04-23T14:25:19.662-07:00The Case for Safer Phones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sayiamgreen.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/cellphone-radiation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://sayiamgreen.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/cellphone-radiation.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We all know someone who has a cracked screen, and some of us have broken phones ourselves.<div>
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People will spend hundreds of dollars fixing their broken phones or buying cases that protect our phones-- but what about a case for us?</div>
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Last Wednesday, the Environmental Health Trust came to our campus to discuss the impacts of cell phone radiation on our bodies and brains. President of EHT, Devra Davis, pleaded that the audience come to City Hall the following day to talk to our District Representatives and explain the importance of having warning labels on the front of our cell phone packaging.</div>
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Currently the manufacturers have a page deep within the phone's "Settings" that explains how people should handle their phones. </div>
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<a href="http://wavedefender.com/files/2012/07/wave-defender-apple-warning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://wavedefender.com/files/2012/07/wave-defender-apple-warning.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Quote from iPhone 4 Legal RF Exposure page</i></b></div>
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To get to this page on your iPhone, you have to go to Settings --> General --> About --> Legal --> RF Exposure. It takes five different pages before a person can actually access the information that tells you that your phone exposes you to radiation. Additionally, it is impossible to actually copy and paste the information from this page. </div>
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Many of us feel uncomfortable without our phones-- we release dopamine whenever we receive notifications, and get grumpy or upset when we don't have our phones on us.</div>
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But before you stick your phone in your pocket for the next twenty four hours, think about this:</div>
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A cellphone is essentially a microwave that you're putting up to your body every time you use it. Cellphones are constantly seeking a signal-- half of the waves that are emitted from the towers to your phone will travel through your body to get to your phone. </div>
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The radiation that comes from cell phones was never actually tested before; people are now finding that it damages and unravels DNA with the free radical byproducts. Damaging our DNA also means that the cells that build the DNA will be mutated-- leading to cancer or other problems. </div>
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Guys that leave their phones directly against them in their pockets can harm their potential for fertility, and ladies that stick their phones in their bra can cause breast cancer. ALL of us that constantly put phones to our ears multiply our chances of brain cancer by six times.</div>
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<b>Don't freak out though! We still can help fight against this by:</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSlEmPgA4kxqvttHbcvJ37Rg46bQCu4LW4CXXcz6at-BfPDZRWjCeccbLzxMrU1lNdrj0K_Z5QDCo-UAjhE1qEGsTJVxwk5wqxNrfiOujaBcGXv1bXsBuYBZ8cmiTiWvnzLfT0dT0mbvM/s1600/photo+(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSlEmPgA4kxqvttHbcvJ37Rg46bQCu4LW4CXXcz6at-BfPDZRWjCeccbLzxMrU1lNdrj0K_Z5QDCo-UAjhE1qEGsTJVxwk5wqxNrfiOujaBcGXv1bXsBuYBZ8cmiTiWvnzLfT0dT0mbvM/s640/photo+(6).JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i> Devra Davis presents ways to help reduce radiation intake</i></b></div>
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<b>BE SMART WHEN YOU USE YOUR SMART PHONE!</b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-70175126715335439732013-04-09T08:56:00.001-07:002013-04-09T08:59:42.986-07:00Environmental Student Activism: Panel DiscussionHave you heard of the Divestment campaign? The Green Initaitive Fund? The Real Food Challenge? Did you know SF State has a campus garden?<br />
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If you have of if you haven't, find out more at our Environmental Student Activism panel discussion, next <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Monday, April 15th</b></span>! The event will be held in <span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Rosa Parks A&B </b></span>(in Cesar Chavez Student Center) from 2-4pm.<br />
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Find out what great initiatives fellow students at SF State are working on and what it means to be an activist on campus! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqtTuPoglGUvFzZkbvycWsLxvJYGRGW9SLsIkUFe69CvGdiqZSysz-GJ6EA6c7peN_cXbUENtAq013DPx4E4Oy2_2koL7g25zbBR5MZIGzZXqimToIHC5W0w9mo1kuBG5OjTfsMxIpj7g/s1600/envstudentact1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqtTuPoglGUvFzZkbvycWsLxvJYGRGW9SLsIkUFe69CvGdiqZSysz-GJ6EA6c7peN_cXbUENtAq013DPx4E4Oy2_2koL7g25zbBR5MZIGzZXqimToIHC5W0w9mo1kuBG5OjTfsMxIpj7g/s320/envstudentact1.PNG" width="243" /></a></div>
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Our Panelists:<br />
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<li>Sharon Daraphonhdeth with "Why Student Activism is Important to the Success of Campus Campaigns"</li>
<li>Lisa Roach and Tyler Wescott with and update on the Real Food Challenge and our campus community garden</li>
<li>Nick Cicchetti with "Divestment/Fossil Free SFSU" </li>
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and guest speaker, Environmental Studies professor, Glenn Fieldman.<br />
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We hope to see you there! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11797297223015802214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-74659770554618794592013-02-09T20:32:00.000-08:002013-02-09T21:05:04.500-08:00Vital Vocab: BiodiversityThis is such a beautiful word, and one everyone should make themselves familiar with. Ozone depletion, climate change, rising sea levels... these are old buzz words. "Biodiversity" is the next big thing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/27/biodiversity2_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/27/biodiversity2_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Basically this word refers to the variety of species in an area. You can have areas with low biodiversity, such as your apartment (a moth, two spiders, your roommate's cat, and the mold on that really old orange) or high biodiversity areas, such as the rainforests of Ecuador, where a mere <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080722-bats-ecuador.html" target="_blank">five acres of jungle can hold over a hundred species of bats</a> (compare that to Northern California, where there are twenty-three bat species over fifty million acres). The planet as a whole has biodiversity encompassing many millions.<br />
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But, as you have probably heard, species all over the world are going extinct. And it's not just tigers and polar bears. Over 40% of all species on earth are currently at risk of extinction. It's also not just in distant areas of the world; in the state of California (one of the world's twenty-five biodiversity hotspots) about 29% of species are at risk. This is a problem that's devastating the environment right in our own back yards. The natural rate of extinction throughout most of the planet's history has been one per century; today, between one and one hundred species go extinct <i>each day</i>. That's between one hundred and one thousand times the natural rate, and it actually puts us right in the middle of the sixth mass extinction in the history of earth. We're going the way of the dinosaurs, man! But of course this all begs the question: why should we care? <br />
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<a href="http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/images/4/2012/01/e5f3ea78609064b51721bb915c4b76f3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/images/4/2012/01/e5f3ea78609064b51721bb915c4b76f3.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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Well, believe it or not, the earth is run by living things. You can't grow plants in soil devoid of bacteria. You can't pollinate crops without bees, bats, butterflies, and birds. You can't have fish in the seas without plankton for them to eat. And dead bodies don't just disappear, you know. They need bacteria, fungi, bugs, and carrion eaters to get rid of 'em. As all these creatures start to disappear, the natural functions of our world decline, and these are all functions that we as humans rely on to survive. We have to protect our biodiversity in order to keep our lands and waters alive. <br />
<br />
Besides, who knows what amazing uses all these creatures could have for us in future? Ever heard of biopharmaceuticals?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-2695197080898333922013-02-06T13:26:00.002-08:002013-02-06T13:28:54.553-08:00And the Winner Is...The $300 award for Sustainable Community Member of the Semester Fall 2012 has been given to:<br />
<br />
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<b>Yael Ofer</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0_-XdTC4G4Gok9cxgwHVSl8zLIfkkkilhTqMGWxbFBXyE8texzm9rVGIqlzH2vUsOreI0CEeDcbYS0W-9TxbBf_WnYzDfELjWzRvFWQ3pJqCKsKwE3J0S1uEsYBTStJPrO4sK3TOLt6HZ/s1600/IMG_0576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0_-XdTC4G4Gok9cxgwHVSl8zLIfkkkilhTqMGWxbFBXyE8texzm9rVGIqlzH2vUsOreI0CEeDcbYS0W-9TxbBf_WnYzDfELjWzRvFWQ3pJqCKsKwE3J0S1uEsYBTStJPrO4sK3TOLt6HZ/s1600/IMG_0576.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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When reading Yael's application, it was obvious to us that we found someone who really stands out. Her commitment to sustainability is, well, prize-worthy! Here's a quick rundown of the details that blew us away:<br />
<ul>
<li>Organized voter registration drives in high school, where she was also president of the civil rights club;</li>
<li>Cleaned beaches and reconstructed homes after Hurricane Ike;</li>
<li>Was involved in inspiring student-led campaigns as an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz;</li>
<li>Conducted primate ecology research in the Costa Rican rainforest;</li>
<li>Has campaigned since Fall '11 for the implementation of <a href="http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/projects/the-green-initiative-fund" target="_blank">The Green Initiative Fund</a> here at SFSU;</li>
<li>Works daily on a personal scale to reduce her own impact, and the impacts of the people around her.</li>
</ul>
Yael is truly an engine of change, at our school and in the world. She advocates reforming our school's health programs in the direction of sustainability, and alternative transportation, particularly for her fellow students. She moves forward with her education with a passionate commitment to catalyzing the spread of a globally sustainable medical paradigm. It's plain that she's going to continue making changes in the world. Congratulations, Yael!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-4034943152234443652012-12-11T14:05:00.003-08:002012-12-11T14:40:43.611-08:00What type of Christmas tree should I buy? It may have occured to you that growing a tree specifically to cut it down might be just a little bit wasteful. They're like any other crop, only they take many years to "ripen." On the other hand, plastic Christmas trees are, well, plastic. We're meant to be producing as little of that as possible, right? Petroleum is bad and so on? Can you even recycle a fake Christmas tree?<br />
These are kind of an odd questions to tackle, but with all the extra consumption going on around the holidays it's important to at least try to work them out. Fake trees are made from a plastic that cannot be recycled; their only pro is that you could potentially keep using them for the next few hundred Christmases, but in actuality people only keep them for an average of six. Real trees that are cut down have the pro of being compostable, but since they are grown in monocultures, that is large tracts of land devoted to, only one crop, they tend to guzzle a lot of pesticides and other resources and degrade the land as they grow. They do sell organic cut trees, which are an excellent option, though in my experience they're about twice as expensive.<br />
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<a href="http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/12/images/640_tree-waste.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/12/images/640_tree-waste.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
There is a fourth option, the one I went with this year. Just buy a living tree! When the holidays are up you can either plant it or keep it in the pot for next year. If you use it for more than two Christmases, it will be saving you money. And as a bonus, you'll never again have to deal with messy needles falling all over the place as your tree withers away before you. It's a win-win!<br />
<br />
Anyway, here are a couple more quick tips for lowering your impact this holiday season:<br />
<ul>
<li> Buy reusable decorations. Apparently, roughly two thirds of American household buy new decorations each year! That's over $7.5 billion spent and tons of waste produced. </li>
<li>Buy greeting cards that are made from recycled material. This could make a bigger difference than you make think as statistically Americans send two billion holiday cards a year. </li>
<li>Try to get presents with little or no packaging, and rather than wrapping them in paper present them in a reusable bag or basket. <i>Americans produce an extra two billion pounds of garbage per week over the holidays, and most of it is wrapping paper.</i> With a little care we can easily get that number down.</li>
</ul>
That's all folks. Happy holidays!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-76602788805942547142012-11-27T15:09:00.001-08:002012-11-27T15:11:10.757-08:00Campus Sustainability Member of the Semester<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Do you love the environment? Do you care about sustainability and social justice? Are you an active community member on and of campus?The Cesar Chavez Student Center invites you to
participate in our sustainable community member of the semester award! We want
to hear what you are doing on and off campus to help achieve more
sustainability. </span><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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Top applicants will be entered in a drawing to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><b>win a $300 </b></span>gift certificate to the SFSU bookstore! To apply fill out our questionnaire <a href="http://www.sfsustudentcenter.com/programs/sustainability/sustainabilityquestionnaire.pdf" target="_blank">here </a>and email it to sustainability@sfsustudentcenter.com. The deadline to submit is <b>Wednesday, December 12th at 12:00pm. </b></div>
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Questions? Email us at sustainability@sfsustudentcenter.com</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-28482138664310613332012-11-02T12:41:00.001-07:002012-11-02T12:44:57.516-07:00Bottled Water<br />
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In the 1970s, ironically the same decade which marks the environmental
movement, bottled water made its debut. Since this time, bottled water sales
have exponentially grown, and are continuing to do so. In a matter of three
decades, Americans have managed to inflate their consumption from zero to 50
billion plastic water bottles (as of 2006). With any product consumed at such a
large rate, it is important to ask yourself whether the product is doing more
harm or more good. I found an article by Charles Fishman that does a great job
of weighing out the costs and benefits of bottled water. All of my facts were
derived from this article (see link at the bottom). <o:p></o:p><br />
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First off, let’s consider the cost of bottled water. Before
the bottled water boom, water was always considered a free resource, and in
some countries, a luxury. So why do so many people pay a dollar for this free
resource? As Americans have become increasingly busier with work, school and
extracurricular activities, bottled water has gained popularity due to the
convenience factor. But what are we really paying for? Half of the price of a
water bottle goes to the retailer, a third to distribute and transport, and
only 12-15 cents for the actual water. In the article, Fishman put the price we
pay into perspective, referring to a $1.35 bottle of Evian.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside
Yosemite<o:p></o:p></div>
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National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San
Francisco to<o:p></o:p></div>
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filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you
could refill that<o:p></o:p></div>
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bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days
with San Francisco<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another
way, if the<o:p></o:p></div>
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water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water
costs, our<o:p></o:p></div>
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monthly water bills would run $9,000.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is clear that we are significantly overpaying for
water, but how is the quality of this water? I think this is one of the biggest
myths of bottled water which has made many people almost scared to use water
from tap. The two largest companies selling bottled water, Pepsi and Coke,
together account for 24% of the bottled water sold. These two companies both
implement similar practices; with bottling stations throughout the United
States, Pepsi and Coke fill their bottles with tap water, purified by reverse
osmosis. Coke and Pepsi are putting perfectly drinkable tap water through a
process which consumes great amounts of energy just to be able to put on their
label that the water has been purified. Even though our tap water is of
exceptional quality, other companies import water from outside of the country.
Fiji, for example, uses its out-of-country origin to market as luxurious
bottled water to its consumers. Ironically, more than half of the citizens in
Fiji do not have access to safe drinking water. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The example of Fiji brings up another problem with
bottled water. Not only is bottled water pricey and not necessarily any better
for you than tap, it also travels great distances to reach you. First, the
plastic for the water must first be sent to where it is bottled, in this case
Fiji. The bottles are then filled and sent back to their destination in the
United States. As the Fiji factory
produces over one million bottles a day, transporting the heavy bottles imposes
a significant impact. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Not only transportation affects the environment. The material
that the water is delivered in also poses a major threat to the environment.
Though the plastic used is made of a material that can be recycled, this is not
always the case. As of 2006, only 23% of the plastic used was recycled, leaving
38 billion bottles in landfills for the year. Fishman states that in 2006 the
amount of plastic bottles used in the United States came out to 167/person. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Considering all the information in this article, it is
extremely important to start cutting our dependence on plastic water bottles.
The Cesar Chavez Student Center has water bottle refill stations on the top
floor and on the main level adjacent to the seating area. Start bringing your
own reusable water bottles to school! It is a great way to reduce your environmental
footprint and help our campus reach zero waste. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=environmental+impact+of+plastic+water+bottles&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5">http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=environmental+impact+of+plastic+water+bottles&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-9763834701184914022012-10-29T22:46:00.002-07:002012-10-31T10:36:56.773-07:00Bioneers!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8giFNtPkOEkoSkFKlkiN89nPLWxykK-mC4QSeF7wFAQDxI-jzlcUbeORTd7msVi0JGc0_v095frap7PJh9ltYr9s4RwPyuiV0HgFpT0OiuLP7PJ_9hgnG_v_I1v39fSLuWJIJYAJT38/s1600/Bionners_earthpainting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8giFNtPkOEkoSkFKlkiN89nPLWxykK-mC4QSeF7wFAQDxI-jzlcUbeORTd7msVi0JGc0_v095frap7PJh9ltYr9s4RwPyuiV0HgFpT0OiuLP7PJ_9hgnG_v_I1v39fSLuWJIJYAJT38/s320/Bionners_earthpainting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Last weekend a few of us Environmental Studies got free tickets to the renowned Bioneers Conference, courtesy of our lovely school! The conference was comprised of influential speakers from environmental and social justice movements all over the world. The mood was distinctly directed toward rejuvenation. It wasn't just about hearing news and learning technical information. It was about convening with like-minded, like-valued people who you could connect with professionally and emotionally. It was so inspirational for me to hear such a diversity of people with such immense experience share their deepest concerns and hopes with us. There was much that I took away from the conference, but I think these principles pretty much sum it all up:<br />
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1. Turn to nature for inspiration and guidance (for example, nature allows no waste).<br />
2. Exposure to diversity will lend you perspective and adaptability; be willing to collaborate with anyone.<br />
3. Empathize with and preserve the rights and dignity of all that lives.<br />
4. Health of body, health of mind, and health of environment are all interrelated.<br />
5. Life, including your own, is reproductive and regenerative of itself.<br />
6. Realize that the current status quo is in its infancy, and that it is in drastic opposition to most what preceded it.<br />
7. Study and have respect for the values, wisdom, and ecological knowledge, our ancestors developed in ages past.<br />
8. Bring global ideals to local arenas; generally speaking, no good is universal.<br />
9. Understand that each problem has ten thousand causes and ten thousand victims - it takes cooperation and integration across disciplines and movements to aid them all.<br />
10. Don't blame yourself for what this world has done to you, and be compassionate for what the world has done to others.<br />
11. Nature is within us, and if we are unjust to nature (or even to each other) it is because we have been alienated from it; alienation causes suffering within the self.<br />
12. Know that change is coming; all the innovation and determination we could possibly need is already out there.<br />
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During the course of it all, I wrote down many quotes from my favorite speakers (they're well worth looking up: Bill McKibben, Fletcher Harper, Gabor Mate whose books I bought...) but the most eloquent and on point was probably Marina Silva, an associate of the late Chico Mendes (you may have seen her carrying the Olympic flag in London this past summer). I think this motley pile of her poignant words describes the direction of twenty-first century activism very aptly:
"If the current model cannot be universalized, it cannot be defended ethically... This is a type of activism that is at the altar of the self... It is a leadership that is multicentric... People no longer want to be spectators of politics; they want to be the protagonists."
I for one certainly feel this way, especially after the conference. How about you?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-69776768995223953842012-10-29T13:48:00.002-07:002012-10-29T14:53:26.522-07:00Campus Sustainability DayThanks to everyone who participated in Campus Sustainability Day! It was a great success and we are so happy that we were able to work with such great people and to meet new people while promoting sustainability efforts here on campus!<br />
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We hope you had a great day. Please keep updated on upcoming events by following us on our blog and<a href="https://www.facebook.com/studentcentersustainabilitysfsu"> Facebook</a>.<br />
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Check out <a href="https://www.facebook.com/greensfsu">GREEN SFSU's</a> Facebook for more AWESOME pictures from the day!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-20148605040433719922012-10-17T00:05:00.000-07:002012-10-24T12:02:02.163-07:00More oil rigs doesn't mean cheaper gas.Gas prices are of concern to everyone, especially with an election coming up, and there are lot of people who would have you think Obama isn't doing enough to help the U.S. oil industry and get those prices down. Those same people want more pipelines, including the much discussed Keystone XL. But actually foreign oil imports have fallen since Obama came into office, and, more importantly, studies show that more wells don't mean cheaper gas at all!<br />
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<a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/img/drilling_gas_prices_chart1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="466" width="475" src="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/img/drilling_gas_prices_chart1.jpg" /></a></div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-45201544502188875182012-09-30T17:58:00.000-07:002012-09-30T21:27:33.766-07:00Unsure about climate change?<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: inherit;">Recently, the Bay Area's own Berkeley Lab completed the most comprehensive study of climate change to date. Using 1.6 billion reports, they have pieced together a global temperature record dating back 250 years, which is a hundred years more than any other study. What they have found is that "<span style="line-height: 20px;">rise in average world land temperature globe is approximately 1.5 degrees C in the past 250 years, and about 0.9 degrees in the past 50 years." Here's what that looks like:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzGIhSz8cwSNhxftZZVd63-vkdul7s2HfeSGXnMZfwNB4ZkiXlHGkXhnpGQzbZhu1IqjYl-KahIXcsTSTB_5g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The cause? Their study proves that humans and volcanoes are the definite causes of all this temperature variation. After taking into consideration everything from urban heat islands to solar variation, poor station quality to the effects of the Gulf Stream, the impact of our greenhouse gases has been shown to be undeniable. If you need more proof, c</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">heck out data, summaries, graphs, and results by location </span><a href="http://berkeleyearth.org/" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"> on their fascinating website. </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-56287931533818908982012-08-14T14:28:00.002-07:002012-08-16T11:50:20.439-07:00Pens vs PencilsPens vs Pencils? What's more eco-friendly?<br />
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The most difficult thing about this question, is there still really isn't a clear answer. I have been reading on this subject and most arguments are left, well, as arguments. Immediately I wanted to say mechanical pencils, because once you run out of lead you just simply refill it. However, it takes plastic and chemicals to make the mechanical pencil, which means much more energy is used. For instance, many low cost mechanical pencils (generally the ones that come in a 20-something pack) are made out of polystyrene. Polystyrene uses up a lot of petroleum which means it uses up a lot of energy and releases some pretty harmful things into our planet. Unless your purchasing mechanical pencils that are made from recycled materials, than it might be worth it. This is the same case for pens. Pens are made of plastic and chemical inks and I am sure most people throw out their pens after the ink runs out as oppose to recycling it or re-filling. But pencils on the other hand, aren't that great either. Though it takes less energy to produce pencils since they are made out of raw materials, there are some cons. Pencils are made of wood, usually from Cedar trees, and graphite. So, trees must be deforested to supply some pencils. Though pencils are able to break down and decompose, one must be weary where the wood used to make the pencil came from.<br />
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The good news is that I am not the only one who has asked this question and there are a lot of options for fans of all writing circles. Many bookstores, including ours here at SFSU, sells pens and pencils made from recycled materials. For now, I think the best option we have is to purchase pens and pencils that are made from recycled plastics or wood. Let me know what you think! Pens or Pencils?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5828304432616198599.post-64586020454558093842012-06-14T10:15:00.002-07:002012-06-14T10:28:28.315-07:00CCSC Waste SurveyIn a recent survey conducted by Sustainable Initiatives, we found that many students on campus believe a switch to compostable packaging would make throwing away their waste a lot easier. Students also stressed a strong interest in wanting more information and help on how to properly use each bin.<br />
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When students were asked what they normally throw away into the landfill trash bins, we found that many are throwing items in the landfill that can be easily recyclable and compostable.<br />
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This is a huge issue on campus and Sustainable Initiatives is working on addressing it accordingly. It is important for us to hear what the students have to say and what they would like to see differently. We currently are looking towards all compostable packaging from all vendors and new improved signs. Thank you to all who participated in the survey and a special thanks to the Shu, Alyssa, and Kelsey who helped conduct the survey!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0