On October 28, 2009, your campus chapter of MASSPIRG gathered with a large group of students to kick off the Global 350 Initiative, showing solidarity and a genuine concern for the environmental crisis facing the planet.
We are living in a new age, a world ruled by numbers. Passkeys, security pins and access codes of all kinds. They all are individual and are meant to keep us secure and give us peace of mind. Soon these numbers that are so important in our lives will be overshadowed as a new number is pushed into the forefront of our collective consciousness. 350 is a number which we, as a global community will have to become aware. This number means the difference between healing the planet and losing our world as we know it.
The scientific community and the policy makers in power rarely agree on many issues, but recently, all the voices have reached a consensus. Climate change is the most critical battle facing humankind and the planet. This amazing planet we live on is a truly wondrous place in its natural state all its systems work together there is a balance. The balance is now leaning towards the demise of our world.
Carbon dioxide is a building block of life and necessary for the process of photosynthesis to be successful. The downside of this life-giving gas is that when it’s concentrated in the environment it becomes one of the major factors that contribute to the greenhouse effect that is plaguing the earth. The burning of coal and the combustion of fossil fuels, coupled with loss of 38.1 million acres of forest every year have us stuck in a negative feedback loop; this assault of our environment has already caused many disastrous repercussions. Many mammals, birds, insects and other organisms are on the brink of extinction. The polar ice caps are melting, the seas are rising and the weather is getting more extreme; these are just a few of the symptoms of this global crisis.
There is a reachable attainable goal, a decrease in the carbon dioxide in the environment. This gas measured in parts per million (ppm), we are currently at 387ppm. With that number rising at 2 ppm per year if we don’t do anything we will be at 660ppm by 2050. By then it will be too late and the real goal of 350 ppm will be gone forever.
MASSPIRG and a great majority of the student body and the world are using the number 350 as a call for action. This is a call to join the fight; the fight to reduce your carbon footprint. This current class of college students will be the driving force in the upcoming years of the climate change initiative. We can no longer sit by and take small steps towards going green. Simple conservation and recycling is not enough, we need to increase awareness and fight for the survival of our planet.
So, let’s stand together to heal the earth and reduce the level of this necessary but dangerous greenhouse gas. Keep your eyes on the goal. You hold the power! If we all work together that will be the deciding factor on if we save this planet. Remember 350 and remember the future of our planet depends on you.
Ben Perez
Maldive's Underwater Cabinet Meeting
Three days ago, a country known as Maldives (a low lying atoll nation off the coast of India) held a cabinet meeting in an effort to draw global attention to climate change and the crisis that it'll bring if left uncontrolled.
According to predictions, Maldives will be completely submerged and uninhabitable if global warming continues to cause slight rises in sea level. In lieu to that projection, they donned skuba gear and held a meeting underwater to sign a resolution printed on a whiteboard and signed in water-proof marker to urge controlling global emissions.
They said that "Maldives is a front-line nation, what happens to us today may happen to others tomorrow". But we shouldn't have to wait to see a whole country submerged and then take action to save our sorry keisters.
These guys in my opinion have the right idea. People need to pay attention to everyone else and stop being so considerate of only their own endeavors. I passed by this article while surfing the internet and felt the need to share. It's witty and has impact, I couldn't pass up blogging it.
Click here for the original article!
Climate Change, What's That?
So guess what!? There's a new bill in town -- you guessed it, it's a climate bill, and it's now introduced into Congress! It might take a bit of time for it to go through, what with all this healthcare business flying around (did you hear they pretty much killed public option? SHAME ON YOU SEN. BAUCUS!), but we at MASSPIRG are pushing for the Clean Energy Jobs And American Power Act.
You may say to yourself, "oh boy, that's flippin sweet... but what's in the bill?" Well we're here to direct your attention to some of the important compenents of the bill!
Coal
The bill will invest $10 Billion over a period of 10 years into not-so-clean coal. It will provide incentives to those first switching over to not-so-clean coal and improves standards for current coal powerplants, up to date with modern technology. The bill relies heavily on coal, which is hilarious, because coal is part of the problem! The power elite in Washington is pretty firm on their support for coal technology, and this bill appears like a great transition for Big Coal, so that their profits won't be harmed at all! I cannot stress enough how terrible of an idea this is! Clean coal has been proven not to work... it's an absurd idea, and we have better technology that has no ill environmental effects (solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc).
Natural Gas
Provide incentives for moving to this more-efficient fossil fuel. Not much else is said about it in the bill. As you may have read in an earlier blog, natural gas isn't winning! This isn't terrible, I'm not crying over it, but the sad part is that not-so-clean coal is being embraced!! Oh no!
Nuclear
Our politicians love this stuff. It's clean and efficient. It creates almost no waste... except for a small amount of poisionous waste that will kill you with minimal exposure. Oh, and that green glowing stuff doesn't go away for like, 10,000 years at least? Actually they don't know the exact date, but estimates are in the 100,000's of years! If we could figure out what to do with this stuff, nuclear would be a great option. But it has me worried, that's for sure. Also consider things like 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl. Wind turbines don't do that.
Renewables
Probably the biggest part of the bill, on par with coal, is this! That is excellent! Funding into new technologies, funding into using existing technologies. If you're reading this, you probably get the gist of it!
This bill will create millions of Green Jobs. It has a section for helping workers achieve more training for these high demand, high pay jobs! It includes ways to protect consumers from predatory energy companies seeking to exlpoit us as we move to a new, clean energy economy, as well.
Pollution reduction is part of the bill, also. It targets a reduction
of 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels, the minimum scientists judge
necessary to avert a climate disaster. This is good, and I am hoping that as this goes into commitee, the Republicans do not completely destroy this section. It is probably the most vital of all to avoid disaster.
I encourage you all to be involved in this, write to your Senators and Reps, tell them you want this and the nation needs. And if you're a BCC, you ought to make sure to do our photo petition that we are sending to the bills champion, Sen. John Kerry!
Find out more about this here: http://kerry.senate.gov/cleanenergyjobsandamericanpower/intro.cfm
- Cam Mancini
You may say to yourself, "oh boy, that's flippin sweet... but what's in the bill?" Well we're here to direct your attention to some of the important compenents of the bill!
Coal
The bill will invest $10 Billion over a period of 10 years into not-so-clean coal. It will provide incentives to those first switching over to not-so-clean coal and improves standards for current coal powerplants, up to date with modern technology. The bill relies heavily on coal, which is hilarious, because coal is part of the problem! The power elite in Washington is pretty firm on their support for coal technology, and this bill appears like a great transition for Big Coal, so that their profits won't be harmed at all! I cannot stress enough how terrible of an idea this is! Clean coal has been proven not to work... it's an absurd idea, and we have better technology that has no ill environmental effects (solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc).
Natural Gas
Provide incentives for moving to this more-efficient fossil fuel. Not much else is said about it in the bill. As you may have read in an earlier blog, natural gas isn't winning! This isn't terrible, I'm not crying over it, but the sad part is that not-so-clean coal is being embraced!! Oh no!
Nuclear
Our politicians love this stuff. It's clean and efficient. It creates almost no waste... except for a small amount of poisionous waste that will kill you with minimal exposure. Oh, and that green glowing stuff doesn't go away for like, 10,000 years at least? Actually they don't know the exact date, but estimates are in the 100,000's of years! If we could figure out what to do with this stuff, nuclear would be a great option. But it has me worried, that's for sure. Also consider things like 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl. Wind turbines don't do that.
Renewables
Probably the biggest part of the bill, on par with coal, is this! That is excellent! Funding into new technologies, funding into using existing technologies. If you're reading this, you probably get the gist of it!
This bill will create millions of Green Jobs. It has a section for helping workers achieve more training for these high demand, high pay jobs! It includes ways to protect consumers from predatory energy companies seeking to exlpoit us as we move to a new, clean energy economy, as well.
Pollution reduction is part of the bill, also. It targets a reduction
of 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels, the minimum scientists judge
necessary to avert a climate disaster. This is good, and I am hoping that as this goes into commitee, the Republicans do not completely destroy this section. It is probably the most vital of all to avoid disaster.
I encourage you all to be involved in this, write to your Senators and Reps, tell them you want this and the nation needs. And if you're a BCC, you ought to make sure to do our photo petition that we are sending to the bills champion, Sen. John Kerry!
Find out more about this here: http://kerry.senate.gov/cleanenergyjobsandamericanpower/intro.cfm
- Cam Mancini
Expanding the Bottle Bill
Odds are if you're visiting this blog, you know about recycling (and should be active in the act, and if not, shame on you) and how you can redeem your little tin soda/drink-filled cans for five cents at various locations. Well, the bottle bill in good ol' Massachusetts allows redemption on a limited amount of glass, tin and plastic containers.
If you were to put in a nestea container in one of the machines that crush the cans, the machine would spit it back out at you. Or if you were to put a Powerade container in one of the plastic redemption machines, it'd do the same thing. Water bottles, sports drinks, tea, all are not redeemable in the state of Massachusetts. As such, there's about $37 million dollars in recyclable goods are going unrenewed because there isn't an incentive to recycle them.
That's a ridiculous amount of recyclables going uncollected on. There needs to be an updating of the bottle bill, as with all that money extra the state could garner from the recyclables, the state could help encourage even more environmentally friendly options for recycling instead of tossing everything into an incinerator. Plus, it'd reduce roadside and litter in general. Why throw away that can on the beach when you can turn it in for money, after all?
Original Article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/09/28/expand_the_bottle_bill/
- Kevin Almeida
If you were to put in a nestea container in one of the machines that crush the cans, the machine would spit it back out at you. Or if you were to put a Powerade container in one of the plastic redemption machines, it'd do the same thing. Water bottles, sports drinks, tea, all are not redeemable in the state of Massachusetts. As such, there's about $37 million dollars in recyclable goods are going unrenewed because there isn't an incentive to recycle them.
That's a ridiculous amount of recyclables going uncollected on. There needs to be an updating of the bottle bill, as with all that money extra the state could garner from the recyclables, the state could help encourage even more environmentally friendly options for recycling instead of tossing everything into an incinerator. Plus, it'd reduce roadside and litter in general. Why throw away that can on the beach when you can turn it in for money, after all?
Original Article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/09/28/expand_the_bottle_bill/
- Kevin Almeida
Natural Gas: It Isn't Winning.
So I was perusing my Facebook and I happened to see a news article about natural gas. You see, when I'm not playing Farmville (which is genius, by the way) or updating my status with lyrics from Black Flag, I check out the news articles that NPR posts. NPR is awesome, and if you don't agree, you are a fool. But I digress...
This article was the last in a three part series about natural gas and why it isn't catching on. What with this whole debate over Global Warming and environmentalism that has been raging, especially in the past few years, the lobbyist for natural gas have been working their asses off, but to no avail! But why not? After all, if we compare it to other fossil fuels, it's a lot better. Half the emissions of coal, more abundant (especially in this country) than oil, blah blah blah. What the lobbyist for natural gas are, or were, trying to do was convince Congress that natural gas would be ideal for the transition between other fossil fuels and zero waste technology (and ideal for their profit margins, no doubt).
They've tried, tried, tried to get this to pass, but to no avail. The biggest reason is politics. They targetted the Republicans. Republicans like them. But Republicans are not in power in this country right now (although, judging from what they're doing to the Healthcare bill, it can sure seem like it!). The Democrats have favoured more "radical" (read: smart) steps to dealing the emissions. Namely through wind and solar power (oh, and I forgot not-so-clean coal... not very smart). Another problem is that the natural gas industry lead by a number of vocal Global Warming deniers! Now, how silly is that? And last, but not least, these companies aren't very large and cannot compete, lobby-wise, with the sheer size of Big Oil, nor with the political favouritism that the clean energy lobby.
I'm not too saddened that nautral gas isn't catching on. To be fair, I like it better than not-so-clean coal, which is being pushed heavily. But the real solution is a nice blend of hyrdoelectric, wind, and solar power. As our technology gets better -- and it is every day -- the costs of these is reduced more and more. The payback will eventually be cheap, clean, environmentally fiendly, and efficient energy. Hooray! Well, that's where MASSPIRG comes in, and it's up to student involvement that we push our government towards these simple solutions for very real problems.
To Read The Full Article, Go Here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113138252&sc=fb&cc=fp
- Cam Mancini
Ramblings
You go down the street watching the cars dive by occasionally wondering why people are so obsessed with their cars, why we have such a bad addiction to driving, and possibly why we hate public transportation. It could possibly be that there is always that creepy guy or the screaming kid that cant sit still and his mother yelling on the phone because she didnt get the child support. You eventually come up with reasons for all this, but never think about changing them or at least having enough motivation to go and do it.
All our lives we've been told that one person can't change the world. But all it takes is that one person to start. Eventually other people will see you changing small things and then you will have a group of people doing slightly larger changes. Other groups will see this and for whatever reason of personal delight will help you attain your goals.
In reality the people that told us that one cant make changes were wrong. We can accomplish many great and terrible outcomes for what we do. There are always people that will tell you that you're wrong or that it will never work. With enough motivation, you can accomplish anything. Whether its changing parts of your community for the better, or bringing down a major corporation polluting the world and ruining peoples lives.
Anyone can do anything. Also there are sacrifices you have to take or bridges you have to burn. but always remember that your friends will stand behind you 100%. And I'm talking about real friends. Not the kind that will bail you out of jail but the friends that will be sitting there in the cell with you. They will always, no matter the cost, help you when you fall. Never forget that even a pebble in a pond can make very large ripples that stretch for miles.
~Kevin Jerome
All our lives we've been told that one person can't change the world. But all it takes is that one person to start. Eventually other people will see you changing small things and then you will have a group of people doing slightly larger changes. Other groups will see this and for whatever reason of personal delight will help you attain your goals.
In reality the people that told us that one cant make changes were wrong. We can accomplish many great and terrible outcomes for what we do. There are always people that will tell you that you're wrong or that it will never work. With enough motivation, you can accomplish anything. Whether its changing parts of your community for the better, or bringing down a major corporation polluting the world and ruining peoples lives.
Anyone can do anything. Also there are sacrifices you have to take or bridges you have to burn. but always remember that your friends will stand behind you 100%. And I'm talking about real friends. Not the kind that will bail you out of jail but the friends that will be sitting there in the cell with you. They will always, no matter the cost, help you when you fall. Never forget that even a pebble in a pond can make very large ripples that stretch for miles.
~Kevin Jerome
The Climate Change Summit
Yesterday, over a hundred world leaders met at the UN to discuss the rising issue of global warming. The two most notable figures in the meeting were our very own Mr Obama, and China's president Hu Jintao, who collectively comprise 40% of the world's greenhouse gas accumulation.
It's astounding that we contribute 20% of the world's greenhouse gasses to the environment, that is warming the climate and destroying the ice caps along with many arctic ecosystems as well as endangering our own futures with rising water levels and a destroyed ozone layer.
But, the two leading contributors to the world's largest problem has agreed to begin contributing to the solution, instead of the cause. It was announced that in less than three months, in Copenhagen, new talks will be opened to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, that was originally enacted to help reduce emissions, that George Bush refused to sign in 2005 as it would "hurt the economy"(and his wars didn't?).
America and Mr. Obama's main obstacle in reducing emissions and passing laws to help that cause is convincing legislature to pass the deals that may arise in the near future. Hopefully, with the coming meeting in Copenhagen, the two emissions giants will take more responsibility for the state of the environment.
I myself hope that there will be some definite shows of progress once the meeting in Copenhagen takes place and that this isn't just a show of smoke and mirrors and will be taken seriously by the world leaders who are most responsible.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/cCvZq
It's astounding that we contribute 20% of the world's greenhouse gasses to the environment, that is warming the climate and destroying the ice caps along with many arctic ecosystems as well as endangering our own futures with rising water levels and a destroyed ozone layer.
But, the two leading contributors to the world's largest problem has agreed to begin contributing to the solution, instead of the cause. It was announced that in less than three months, in Copenhagen, new talks will be opened to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, that was originally enacted to help reduce emissions, that George Bush refused to sign in 2005 as it would "hurt the economy"(and his wars didn't?).
America and Mr. Obama's main obstacle in reducing emissions and passing laws to help that cause is convincing legislature to pass the deals that may arise in the near future. Hopefully, with the coming meeting in Copenhagen, the two emissions giants will take more responsibility for the state of the environment.
I myself hope that there will be some definite shows of progress once the meeting in Copenhagen takes place and that this isn't just a show of smoke and mirrors and will be taken seriously by the world leaders who are most responsible.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/cCvZq
How I Became Involved with MassPIRG.
Well. Let me do a bit of introduction, so you all know a little bit about who's the one who's going to be bringing you your MassPIRG-BCC/Environmental relevant news.
My name's Kevin Almeida, a student at BCC. I got involved with MassPIRG in a very... well, plain way. It was not by some interesting circumstance or convoluted twist of fate. I simply ended up seeing a high-school friend at a desk with a handful of others and a clipboard. My friend is roughly double my size, and when I approached him and said hello, his immediate response was; "KEVIN. SIGN THIS." as he thrusted the clipboard towards me. At first, I was confused.
"What's 'this'?" I asked, and he told me it was a sign up sheet for MassPIRG. What was MassPIRG? I was told it was a student run, student funded organization who are environmentally and socially minded and fight to make a difference for students, the environment, and the less able alike. The paper had a range of interests that I could participate in, from internship to global warming, to helping the hungry and homeless and better waste management. They even had student debt plans to help lower book costs.
I was told of a few of their projects, including their most recent one, a Zombie Walk for Hunger. Amusingly, they're going to dress up as Zombies and collect donations around the campus, which piqued my interest.
I checked off a few, and ended up getting a call from some people at the office here at BCC. Despite my inability to participate due to a horribly busy schedule, Tiffany gave me this job; to blog important news about the group's activities and interesting news on the environment.
Nice to meet you all who will hopefully continue to visit this site to keep up on MassPIRG's activities and other important news.
My name's Kevin Almeida, a student at BCC. I got involved with MassPIRG in a very... well, plain way. It was not by some interesting circumstance or convoluted twist of fate. I simply ended up seeing a high-school friend at a desk with a handful of others and a clipboard. My friend is roughly double my size, and when I approached him and said hello, his immediate response was; "KEVIN. SIGN THIS." as he thrusted the clipboard towards me. At first, I was confused.
"What's 'this'?" I asked, and he told me it was a sign up sheet for MassPIRG. What was MassPIRG? I was told it was a student run, student funded organization who are environmentally and socially minded and fight to make a difference for students, the environment, and the less able alike. The paper had a range of interests that I could participate in, from internship to global warming, to helping the hungry and homeless and better waste management. They even had student debt plans to help lower book costs.
I was told of a few of their projects, including their most recent one, a Zombie Walk for Hunger. Amusingly, they're going to dress up as Zombies and collect donations around the campus, which piqued my interest.
I checked off a few, and ended up getting a call from some people at the office here at BCC. Despite my inability to participate due to a horribly busy schedule, Tiffany gave me this job; to blog important news about the group's activities and interesting news on the environment.
Nice to meet you all who will hopefully continue to visit this site to keep up on MassPIRG's activities and other important news.
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