First Annual Earth Day: Solar Smoothies!

April 20th marked UCSD's First Annual Earth Day, and the Clean Energy and Forest campaigns were out on Sun God Lawn representing CALPIRG and all its earthly goodness!

The Clean Energy team gave out smoothies -- Solar Smoothies, powered by a solar panel of course. It was a successful event and the weather was perfect for handing out free Solar Smoothies to passerbyers and telling them a few words about CALPIRG and the Campus Climate Challenge.

Here are some pictures. Someone didn't want to be in the picture, so I ended up posing for the camera.

Campus As A Canvas Project: Day One

We successfully rigged a cart: The CALPIRG Clean Energy mobile!

Wednesday's Meeting

We have two projects that we need volunteers for. The projector project is on Tuesday (4/18) and Thursday (4/20). The Solar Smoothies is on Thursday as well.
If you can volunteer in the open slots, or would like to change your hours, let me know (deiri [at] ucsd.edu) or leave a comment.

Projector Project (Campus as a Canvas)

Tuesday 4/18
5pm-6pm (Set up)
1. Michelle
2. Daren

6pm-7pm
1.
2.
3.

7-pm-8pm
1. Jenny
2.
3.

8pm-9pm
1.
2.
3.


Thursday
5pm-6pm (Set up)
1. Daren
2. Jenny

6pm-7pm
1. Daren
2.
3.

7-pm-8pm
1.
2.
3.

8pm-9pm
1.
2.
3.

Here's the schedule for where the project will be taken place at :

6pm Price Center, Bookstore

6:30pm Student Health Center

7pm Muir Biology

7:30pm Student Health Center

7:45pm Price Center, Bookstore

8pm Powell Structural Research Lab

8:30pm Center Hall

Here's another project that will be on Thursday for Earth Day!!
Solar Smoothies

Set up (9:30am - 10am):
1) Daren
2) Jenny

(10:00am - 10:30am):
1) Daren
2) Jenny

(10:30am - 11am):
1) OPEN
2) Jenny

(11am - 11:30am):
1) Chelsea
2) Jenny

(11:30am - 12pm):
1) Chelsea
2) OPEN

(12pm - 12:30pm):
1) OPEN
2) OPEN

(12:30pm - 1:00pm):
1) Michelle
2) OPEN

(1pm - 1:30pm):
1) Michelle
2) OPEN

(1:30pm - 2pm):
1) OPEN
2) OPEN

Clean up(2pm - ?):
1) Daren
2) Chelsea

Lastly, (most likely) after our Monday (4/17) core meeting, we'll be postering for the projector project. Let me know if you're intereseted in helping out!!
Here's the list for current volunteers:
1) Daren
2) Hayley
3) Michelle
4) Jenny

Article: Global Warming Capable of Sparking Mass Species Extinctions

For those who are interested, I found an article relating global warming and the planet's biodiversity.

“Climate change is rapidly becoming the most serious threats to the planet’s biodiversity,” said lead author Dr. Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto. “This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet.”

You can read more here.

Guerilla Theatre

Post by Francess,

Hope everyone's spring break was great. Earth day is coming up, and so is the projector project! If anyone would like to volunteer and help out with the actual days that we're projecting, please let me know, here's the information / flier:
If anyone has a digital camera we can borrow, that would be great too


Who: CalPIRG
What: Campus as a Canvas: projecting short environmentalist films onto various campus buildings
Where: Price Center Bookstore, Student Health Center, Muir Biology, Powell Structural Research Laboratory and Center Hall
When: Earth Day, April 20, April 18. When the sun goes down (6pm-9pm)
Why: To educate students on the consequences of global warming


Don't worry about asking the building people... haha if anyone actually did it, because I got the approvals from all of the above buildings after a LOT of hunting down and emailing. Here they are, and we're going to go by this order:

1. Price Center/Bookstore
2. Student Health Center
3. Muir Biology
4. Price Center & Student Health Center (revisited)
5. Powell Structure Research lab (8pm target)
6. Center Hall

Meeting with Gary Mathews

ok, so i just met with Mr. Mathews two days ago. basically the main point that came across is that in order for us to have an effective policy, cost incentive is key. we can create a policy that works, but how will it be paid for? will it pay off? he basically said it needs to show promise within 2-3 years. the policy should also "have teeth" as he put it, which means it needs to create incentive to be implemented, otherwise, what happens if the policy is signed on to but is not implemented? nothing, since we have no power to enforce it. so we would want to create an incentive to carry it out, or at least make them want it to be done bad enough.

another point he also made is that ucsd is already one of the leading academic institutions in the nation in sustainability. getting the 2 percent reduction a year doesnt seem very realisitc as far as getting a proposal passed. one reason is because its hard to measure energy output from buildings. since there is no gauging to how much energy the buildings use, it would be hard to measure. there needs to be advanced metering for each building, which the advisory committee on sustainability that he heads unanimously was against. advanced metering would basically allow us to meausure energy usage, including all plug in appliances. without it, energy output of buidings is measured by its capacity.

the most promise and effective change that we can do that he suggests is to have certain and specific things done at a time. a 45 year policy is going to be that much harder to get signed whereas specific projects (like the kyocera one) are more feasible.

also, as assistant vice chancellor, he does not make policy, but can suggest them, so we can get into contact with him if we have any questions. his email is gcmatthews@ucsd.edu for future referrence.

thats all i have for now, ill come back later if i remember anything else.

60 Minutes on Global Warming & Bush Admin

Hello all,

Below is a powerful piece that ran on 60 minutes this Sunday about how the Bush Administration is suppressing scientific evidence of global warming. Please forward around!

Dave

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml

Clean Energy Tabling Event

On Tuesday and Wednesday, our Clean Energy campaign team held a tabling event on a major campus walkway known as Library Walk. With a little Johnny Cash playing in the background, we displayed our oven (made out of a used cardboard box!) and asked people to petition for clean energy.

This is just a sample of what's to come for Spring Quarter, so look out!

Thanks to those who helped out!